[TowerTalk] omega demolition video

[Jim Lux]

At 07:19 AM 9/28/2005, Tod - MN wrote:
>  This clip seems to demonstrate that when towers come down they don't fall
>into your neighbor's yard.


Towers that fail at home generally don't fail by having their bottom 
section dynamited out, either.  They fail under a lateral load.

Take a look at the photos of the failed KSON tower in San Diego and the 
failed KGO tower in L.A.  Both pretty much laid out in a wiggly line.

In a demolition situation, it's likely the guy wires are still attached (if 
not with extra tension) to insure that it crumples in to a heap in the middle.

In a lateral load failure, you either have a guy failure, or a buckle of 
the tower.  In the former, it lays out straight (with some kinks, 
typically, because of the acceleration profile.. it's a classic analysis 
problem.. chimneys, towers, and pencil points all break unevenly for the 
same reason).  If it buckles,then the debris will be limited to the radius 
from the guy, plus a little bit.