Likely, remember when they bombed the trade center from the basement their
intent was to bring it down. The information on structural limits for these
types of buildings is public information. I can accept the pentagon
strike...it is war; but not the twin towers. bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Joel Hammer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: 12 September, 2001 7:25 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED];
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Subject: Re: New York WTC
>From the WSJ today.
Just to focus our minds.
Note the 100% probablity of collapse if the fires are not extinguished
promptly. Do you think the terrorists were aware of this?
Joel
Structural engineers who watched television reports of Tuesday's catastrophe
noted that the World Trade Center towers remained standing
about an hour following the impact of the first plane. During that time,
though, a fire was raging out of control on multiple floors of the
buildings. Jet fuel is extremely combustible, and produces fires that can
easily exceed 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, more than 500 degrees hotter than
other kinds of more routine office fires.
Steel, though, begins to weaken at 800 degrees Fahrenheit, and comes
close to melting at around 1,500 degrees. While steel in modern high rises
is routinely coated with fire proofing materials, those materials can't
protect the steel from prolonged, intense heat.
"Once the physical damage to the building was done, if the fire wasn't
extinguished in a very short period of time, the likelihood of collapse was
100%," said Charles Warren, chairman of Engineering Systems Inc., of
Aurora, Ill.
Rather than tilting over and falling, the towers appeared to "implode"
on top of themselves, in much the same carefully controlled manner as
buildings that are demolished.
That is most likely because once the steel at the points of impact could
no longer support the floors above them, those floors rushed straight
downward, creating an unstoppable force that went all the way to the
ground, said Tom O'Donnell, of O'Donnell Consulting Engineers Inc. in
Bethel Park, Pa.
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