Slashdot Mirror
NIST Releases Report On WTC 7 Collapse
photonic writes "After three years of study, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) finally released its report on the collapse of World Trade Center building 7. The main conclusion is that the building came down due to fire, not due to debris damage or some conspiracy demolition team. The fire started pretty small after the collapse of WTC 1, but was left to burn several floors out completely. The important finding is that the collapse was triggered by thermal expansion of beams, which could detach asymmetrically loaded girders from the main columns. Some limited pancaking of floors then caused a lack of lateral support and buckling of a single column. This triggered the failure of the entire core of the building, which finally fell down as a single piece. Crackpot theories can be discussed elsewhere; please limit the discussion to the science here. All documents can be found at NIST's WTC page, which read like a porn magazine for finite element junkies. Simulation movies are also available. And yes, they used Beowulf clusters to do the simulations, some of which lasted for several months."
Quite a few actually, they look like this
Making a building not fall sideways is a complicated task that requires a lot of training and preparation. The thought that you can get three out of three perfect collapses by splashing them with a bit of aviation fuel must have demolition companies shaking in their boots
The real cover up is that the buildings weren't code to begin with, or rather David Rockefeller etc bent building codes to get them built.
Indeed. The person involved in 9/11 that I'd prefer most to see behind bars is the one who approved the choice of plaster for walls of the staircases. Whoever he is, he has at least hundreds of lives on his conscience.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
If a structure doesn't have to be cost-effective or inhabitable, you can build almost anything with concrete. The most prominent example of this phenomenon is the 105-story Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang.
Not inhabitable, certainly not cost-effective, but it is over a thousand feet of concrete structure and interesting in a creepy way.
Cue the "In Communist North Korea, concrete builds you!" jokes.
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
Imagine you're in NYC before 9/11, and someone takes you to the WTC complex and says "Point out WTC 7." Unless you were intimately familiar with the complex, could you do it? Which building is WTC 3? WTC 5? Is the South Tower WTC 1, and the North WTC 2, or vice versa? Now imagine you're a reporter for the BBC who may have spent a total of a few weeks in the United States. WTC 3 was destroyed in the collapse of WTC 1 and 2, and WTC 5 suffered a partial collapse. Are you absolutely positive that in that position while reporting either the partial collapse of WTC 5 or the total collapse of WTC 3 you might not refer to one as WTC 7?