Title: “Preliminary Results of WTC7 Study Show Fire Could Not Have Caused Collapse” Could’ve Brought Down World Trade Center Building 7 Source:
Activist Post URL Source:http://www.activistpost.com/2016/09 ... -not-have-caused-collapse.html Published:Sep 17, 2016 Author:Derrick Broze Post Date:2016-11-24 10:55:56 by Deckard Keywords:None Views:25431 Comments:54
Preliminary results of a two-year study looking into the destruction of World Trade Center 7 indicates that fire could not have caused the collapse.
To mark the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the collective 9/11 Truth movement gathered in New York City for two days of street actions, outreach, and the Justice In Focus 9/11 Symposium. At the symposium, organized by the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, the Lawyers Committee for 9/11 Inquiry, and other co-sponsors, there was a heavy emphasis on the possibility of a civil or criminal trial as a means of exposing the truth about the 9/11 attacks.
Many 9/11 researchers now focus on the mysterious collapse of building 7. A number of 9/11 family members point to the collapse of WTC7 as a possible crack in the official story that could spark a new national conversation on the events of that day. WTC7 was not hit by a plane that day; however, it collapsed at 5:20 p.m. according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the official cause for the collapse was office fires. A growing number of family members, activists, architects and engineers question the official theory for collapse and are seeking a new investigation into WTC7.
In May 2015, a team of researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks began a two-year investigation of the collapse of WTC7. Dr. J. Leroy Hulsey, of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and two Ph.D. research assistants are partnering with the non-profit Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth for a two-year engineering study known as World Trade Center Building 7 Evaluation. The researchers are using finite element modeling to evaluate the possible causes of World Trade Center Building 7s collapse.
We will investigate the collapse. We probably will not be able to tell them what caused it, but I could tell them what did not, Hulsey told MintPress.
I am approaching it like most forensic engineers would. Were looking at the structure itself, trying to put together all of the details of what was available, and in this case very little was available. Because most of it has been destroyed or its locked in vaults somewhere. So I have very little to work with.
Hulsey explained that he addresses issues raised by NIST, but will not be reading anything about NIST or other previous studies. I have to maintain an open scientific mind. I dont want to be led down a path that others have gone down, he said. I will read about it once we reach our final conclusions and then cross-check to make sure we dont have any issues with respect to the science.
During an interview at the Justice In Focus Symposium, Hulsey said that the team has already investigated the theory that fire caused the buildings collapse. It is our preliminary conclusions, based upon our work to date, that fire did not produce the failure at this particular building.
When their study concludes in April 2017, Hulsey and his team will allow a panel of experts to analyze the data and submit the study to peer-reviewed journals. The researchers are promising a completely open and transparent investigation into the cause of World Trade Center Building 7s collapse, and will post every step of their scientific process on WTC7Evaluation.org. The WTC7 Evaluation project will also include a review by a committee of technical experts who will vet the research being conducted by Dr. Hulsey and his students.
Ted Walter, Director of Strategy and Development for A&E 9/11 Truth, is in charge of working with the professor and raising money to fund the WTC7 Evaluation. Walter told Activist Post that the project began in May 2015 and should should wrap up in April of next year.
They are coming up with different scenarios of how hot the fires could have been in different parts of the building, and then for the next 6 months they will be running tests and scenarios, Walter told Activist Post. The last few months, early next year, will be all about putting the findings into a final report.
Stay tuned to Activist Post for updates on Dr. Hulseys study.
The NIST Final Report on World Trade Center Building Seven contains a simulation of the collapse.
The simulation differs significantly from the videos of the collapse taken on 9/11/2001. Neither the simulation nor the explanation proposed by the NIST is consistent with the observed facts. After first denying it, NIST now admits that WTC7 dropped at free fall acceleration for 2.3 seconds. Only an unsupported and unobstructed structure can drop at free fall acceleration. Another mystery of WTC7 is that a collapse supposedly caused by fire was simultaneous rather than progressive. NIST proposes that the interior of WTC7 underwent a progressive collapse, leaving only the facade standing. Then, the facade collapsed simultaneously and intact. This explanation is not credible because the collapse videos do not show any damage to the facade at a time when the interior was supposedly completely destroyed. Only a few windows were broken when beams and floors were supposedly ripping loose and plummeting to the ground level. In addition, the explanation begs the question of why the facade collapsed simultaneously instead of progressively, and why it survived the collapse of the interior, only to fall by itself. Nor does NIST explain free fall acceleration of the facade. If the facade was so flimsy and weak as to collapse at free fall acceleration, why was it strong enough to survive the collapse of the interior? If it was strong enough to survive the collapse of the interior, why did it collapse suddenly, intact, and at free fall acceleration for 2.3 seconds?
Questions and Answers about the NIST WTC 7 Investigation
Contact: Michael E. Newman, michael.newman@nist.gov (link sends e-mail), 301-975-3025
September 19, 2011 (updated 6/27/12)
11. In a video, it appears that WTC 7 is descending in free fall, something that would not occur in the structural collapse that you describe. How can NIST ignore basic laws of physics?
[...]
The analyses of the video (both the estimation of the instant the roofline began to descend and the calculated velocity and acceleration of a point on the roofline) revealed three distinct stages characterizing the 5.4 seconds of collapse:
Stage 1 (0 to 1.75 seconds): acceleration less than that of gravity (i.e., slower than free fall).
Stage 2 (1.75 to 4.0 seconds): gravitational acceleration (free fall)
Stage 3 (4.0 to 5.4 seconds): decreased acceleration, again less than that of gravity
This analysis showed that the 40 percent longer descent timecompared to the 3.9 second free fall timewas due primarily to Stage 1, which corresponded to the buckling of the exterior columns in the lower stories of the north face. During Stage 2, the north face descended essentially in free fall, indicating negligible support from the structure below. This is consistent with the structural analysis model, which showed the exterior columns buckling and losing their capacity to support the loads from the structure above. In Stage 3, the acceleration decreased as the upper portion of the north face encountered increased resistance from the collapsed structure and the debris pile below.
NIST admitted that 7WTC achieved gravitational acceleration, or free fall, for 2.25 seconds. That is 2.25 seconds with the lower part of the building offering ZERO resistance to the upper part. Any resistance whatever slows the rate of descent. It is the law of conservation of energy.
Also, picture the main towers. Huge steel pieces were ejected horizontally and caused to damaged or became impaled in a building across the street. Consider the resistance the lower portion must have exerted in order for the requisite horizontal force to have been achieved.
I have no clue what mechanism could have caused what was recorded for all time on 9/11. A building cannot achieve gravitational acceleration (free fall) in collapse unless there is some force, in addition to gravity, applied. The lower portion of the building will not offer ZERO resistance.
One can visibly observe, while the two towers fall, huge clouds of whatever (dust, powder, very fine particles) being formed. Assume one floor crushed the next floor to dust. Now calculate the force required to do that. The bottom floor must offer enough resistance to get crushed or pulverized rather than just move out of the way.
Any energy expended on anything but accelerating the upper part downward slows the rate of descent.
The initial theory of pancaking of floors was abandoned as physically impossible.
The NIST theory ends at collapse initiation. No theory explains how the buildings came down in the precisely measured times, or how any achieved free fall, without repealing the laws of physics.
6. How could the WTC towers collapse in only 11 seconds (WTC 1) and 9 seconds (WTC 2)speeds that approximate that of a ball dropped from similar height in a vacuum (with no air resistance)?
NIST estimated the elapsed times for the first exterior panels to strike the ground after the collapse initiated in each of the towers to be approximately 11 seconds for WTC 1 and approximately 9 seconds for WTC 2. These elapsed times were based on: (1) precise timing of the initiation of collapse from video evidence, and (2) ground motion (seismic) signals recorded at Palisades, N.Y., that also were precisely time-calibrated for wave transmission times from lower Manhattan (see NCSTAR 1-5A).
As documented in Section 6.14.4 of NIST NCSTAR 1, these collapse times show that:
"... the structure below the level of collapse initiation offered minimal resistance to the falling building mass at and above the impact zone. The potential energy released by the downward movement of the large building mass far exceeded the capacity of the intact structure below to absorb that energy through energy of deformation.
Since the stories below the level of collapse initiation provided little resistance to the tremendous energy released by the falling building mass, the building section above came down essentially in free fall, as seen in videos. As the stories below sequentially failed, the falling mass increased, further increasing the demand on the floors below, which were unable to arrest the moving mass."
In other words, the momentum (which equals mass times velocity) of the 12 to 28 stories (WTC 1 and WTC 2, respectively) falling on the supporting structure below (which was designed to support only the static weight of the floors above and not any dynamic effects due to the downward momentum) so greatly exceeded the strength capacity of the structure below that it (the structure below) was unable to stop or even to slow the falling mass. The downward momentum felt by each successive lower floor was even larger due to the increasing mass.
From video evidence, significant portions of the cores of both buildings (roughly 60 stories of WTC 1 and 40 stories of WTC 2) are known to have stood 15 to 25 seconds after collapse initiation before they, too, began to collapse. Neither the duration of the seismic records nor video evidence (due to obstruction of view caused by debris clouds) are reliable indicators of the total time it took for each building to collapse completely.
That 9-second time is the approximate time it would take to drop a ball from the same height as the tower and for the ball to fall through a vacuum offering no resistance and hit the ground. A billiard ball, falling 1368 feet [1WTC] in a vacuum, would take 9.22 seconds to hit the ground. Going through air would take longer. Going through 110 stories of a building would take considerably longer. With any resistance, it would take longer. To go faster would take an added propulsion force to be applied. 100 floors would take 8.79 seconds in a vacuum.
If the stories below the collapse offered little resistance, they could not be destroyed and pulverized on the way down. If it offered little to no resistance, it would just move out of the way.
Also, if there was little to no resistance, it would be impossible to create the horizontal force needed to throw huge steel pieces hundreds of feet into another building.
"NIST estimated the elapsed times for the first exterior panels to strike the ground after the collapse initiated in each of the towers to be approximately 11 seconds for WTC 1 and approximately 9 seconds for WTC 2."
Which exterior panels? Panels from the top of the building? If those panels peeled away, then yes, they'be be in freefall. You can see large chunks of rubble, which ARE in free fall, clearly falling faster than the rest of the building.
Which exterior panels? Panels from the top of the building? If those panels peeled away, then yes, they'be be in freefall. You can see large chunks of rubble, which ARE in free fall, clearly falling faster than the rest of the building.
You may also see great loads of crap going straight up to land all over the surrounding area. Is this a new form of gravity that forces things horizontally or upward while they purportedly offer no resistance whatever to a downward force?
The picture does nothing to explain how the building collapse achieved free fall acceleration. In any case, 7WTC achieved free fall acceleration for 2.25 seconds, and there is no similar picture.
What is observed is a solid matter building being transformed into a cloud of crap in midair. In order to pulverize something, it must offer enough resistance to be pulverized. Such resistance must slow the rate of descent.
If you drop a marble, a bowling ball, or a steel beam off the roof at 1,368 feet, in a vacuum they should all reach the ground in 9.22 seconds, unless some external force besides gravity is acting upon them. The top of the building does not fall through a vacuum or even thin air.
Huh? The picture demonstrates that the building was NOT in free fall. The debris (which IS in free fall) is 20 stories below the top.
As for WTC7, that was in free fall only for 2.25 seconds of its 16+ second collapse, due to the complete failure of floors 7-14.
Free fall is impossible in a gravitational collapse of a multi-story building.
To show that a story in wrong, it is not necessary to show what happened. It is only necessary to show that what is described in the story could not have happened. If the building was not in free fall, how did it get down in 9 seconds?
The laws of physics say a ball dropped in a vacuum would fall 1368 feet in 9.22 seconds. NIST and the scientific evidence document that 2WTC went from collapse initiation to seismic shock on impact in 9 seconds.
For the physics and calculations behind the 9.22 seconds, see:
6. How could the WTC towers collapse in only 11 seconds (WTC 1) and 9 seconds (WTC 2)speeds that approximate that of a ball dropped from similar height in a vacuum (with no air resistance)?
NIST estimated the elapsed times for the first exterior panels to strike the ground after the collapse initiated in each of the towers to be approximately 11 seconds for WTC 1 and approximately 9 seconds for WTC 2. These elapsed times were based on: (1) precise timing of the initiation of collapse from video evidence, and (2) ground motion (seismic) signals recorded at Palisades, N.Y., that also were precisely time-calibrated for wave transmission times from lower Manhattan (see NCSTAR 1-5A).
The NIST attempted explanation was:
As documented in Section 6.14.4 of NIST NCSTAR 1, these collapse times show that:
"... the structure below the level of collapse initiation offered minimal resistance to the falling building mass at and above the impact zone. The potential energy released by the downward movement of the large building mass far exceeded the capacity of the intact structure below to absorb that energy through energy of deformation.
Since the stories below the level of collapse initiation provided little resistance to the tremendous energy released by the falling building mass, the building section above came down essentially in free fall, as seen in videos. As the stories below sequentially failed, the falling mass increased, further increasing the demand on the floors below, which were unable to arrest the moving mass."
When one floor hit the other, the bottom floor exerts and equal and opposite force to that which is exerted upon it.
If the lower floors offer little or no resistance, it is impossible for them to be pulverized before hitting the bottom. They are moving out of the way, offering little or no resistance. If it did offer such resistance that it was pulverized, it offered enough resistance to slow the descent and in other observed collapses, the falling object will not continue straight down along the path of most resistance, but will be shunted off to the side.
If you slow the collapse of 2WTC, what caused a seismic shock at 9 seconds, and no similar shock after 9 seconds when the building met the ground?
The observed phenomena defy explanation applying purely gravitational force.
As for 7WTC:
Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7, Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster (NIST NCSTAR 1A)
Other than initiating the fires in WTC 7, the damage from the debris from WTC 1 had little effect on initiating the collapse of WTC 7. The building withstood debris impact damage that resulted in seven exterior columns being severed and subsequently withstood fires involving typical office combustibles on several floors for almost seven hours. The debris damaged the spray-applied fire resistive material that was applied to the steel columns, girders, and beams, only in the vicinity of the structural damage from the collapse of WTC 1. This was near the west side of the south face of the building and was far removed from the buckled column that initiated the collapse. Even without the structural damage, WTC 7 would have collapsed from fires having the same characteristics as those experienced on September 11, 2001. The transfer elements such as trusses, girders, and cantilever overhangs that were used to support the office building over the Con Edison substation did not play a significant role in the collapse of WTC 7.
Structural damage from debris did not cause the collapse.
NIST identifies specific fire observations and their earliest times.
"Other than initiating the fires in WTC 7, the damage from the debris from WTC 1 had little effect on initiating the collapse of WTC 7." [NIST NCSTAR 1-9, p. 194]
"A larger area of the west face near the south edge is visible in the photograph shown in Figure 5-1 10, which was taken shortly after Figure 5- 109 at 12:27:30 p.m. At this time flames were not evident in window 22-14A, but light smoke continued to flow from the window. Higher up on the face, smoke was coming from the six adjacent open windows 29-11 to 29-14A on the 29th floor, with heavy flames filling windows 29-11 and 29-12. As discussed in Section 5.5.2, the condition of windows 29-13A to 29-14A immediately following the collapse of WTC 1 could not be determined, while the glass was intact in windows 29-11 and 29-12. This suggests that the fire burning on this floor had opened windows 29-11 and 29-12 by 12:27:30 p.m." [NIST NCSTAR 1-9, p. 196]
"Prior to 12:10 p.m., there was no evidence of fire on the upper floors of WTC 7. Between 12:10 p.m. and 2:10 p.m., the only fires directly or indirectly observed were on Floors 19, 22, 29, and 30." [NIST NCSTAR 1-9, p. 194]
- - - - -
"Between roughly 2:00 p.m. and the collapse of WTC 7 at 5:20:52, fires were observed spreading on the 7th floor through the 13th floor, with the exception of the 10th floor. One short video clip indicated that a small fire was present on the north side of the 14th floor shortly prior to the collapse. In the following descriptions of these fires, approximate times are used. Details are included in the previous subsection." [NIST NCSTAR 1-9, p. 243]
"7th Floor. Early indications of a developing fire were observed on the west side of the 7th floor shortly after 2:00 p.m." [NIST NCSTAR 1-9, p. 243]
"8th floor. The earliest fires observed on the 8th floor were on the north face in windows near the center of the face. As late as 3:22 p.m., there was no indication of fire in this area, but about 17 min later a substantial fire spreading to the east was visib le between windows 8-47C and 8-53C." [NIST NCSTAR 1-9, p. 243]
"9th Floor. There was no indication of fire in the available imagery on this floor until late in the day. Shortly before 4:00 p.m., a small area of fire was observed in windows 9-54A and 9-54B on the west side of the north face. There are no images suggesting how fire reached this location." [NIST NCSTAR 1-9, p. 244]
"10th Floor.No fires were observed burning on this floor." [NIST NCSTAR 1-9, p. 244]
"11th Floor. A fire was first observed on this floor at 2:08 p.m. on the east face." [NIST NCSTAR 1-9, p. 244]
"12th Floor. The first observation of a fire on the 12th floor was on the east face around 2:08 p.m." [NIST NCSTAR 1-9, p. 245]
"13th Floor. The first visual evidence for burning on the 13th floor was seen on the east face around 2:30 p.m." [NIST NCSTAR 1-9, p. 245]
"14th Floor. A low resolution image recorded around 5:03 p.m. indicated the presence of a fire between Columns 45 and 46 on the north face. Fire at this location or elsewhere on the floor was not evident in similar images recorded roughly ten minutes earlier and six minutes later. This was the only observation of a fire on this floor." [NIST NCSTAR 1-9, p. 246]
"Fires on Other Floors.With the exception of the fires on the 19th, 22nd, 29th, and 30th floors discussed at the start of this section, there is no direct visual evidence of fires on other floors of WTC 7. Heavy smoke was observed coming from the opening created on the south face of WTC 7 by debris falling from WTC 1. This smoke suggests that internal burning was taking place, but provides little indication of specific locations. Light smoke was observed at the height of the louvers on the east side of the 5th and 6th floors around 4:10 p.m. It was not possible to identify the source of this smoke. [NIST NCSTAR 1-9, p. 246]