Originally posted by Kester
Thank you for taking the time to explain. My sugar and toothpick model performs as stated when motionless. However when the 'churning mass' credited
with reducing the buildings and contents to the state preserved on the Fresh Kills landfill is replicated by pouring the sugar..... Well let's put it
this way, I wouldn't trust my life on the structural integrity of those toothpicks.
Lol, neither would I. Keep in mind that the sugar example is a very simplistic way of teaching this to students (where I tried it). With respect to
the WTC, you would have to factor in the specific strengths of the structure, it's shape (the component profile, not the building shape), the spacing
between primary structure/support structure, fall patterns, etc. All the while trying to guess what the non building components would be doing. We
would be talking a very large number of different debris profiles, potential profiles, compaction rates, crush rates, deflections...oiy, I think I
just got a headache thinking about it.
I would dare say that it would be almost impossible to predict with any more accuracy than "there may be some structure remaining after".
In most controlled demolitions much of the debris is found in large chunks which would have the potential to interfere with the collapse of lower
segments of the structure. I'm not sure the comparison is accurate. We must remember of course the WTC Disaster was a gravitational collapse and not
an explosive event in which some materials were blasted outwards rather than descending in the direction gravity dictates.
Absolutely. We also have to remember that different construction styles will give different demolition results. For the type of construction that
the WTC used, I'm actually shocked that there wasn't much larger debris pieces, especially from the zone directly around the impact locations. May
just be my lack of faith in certain modular construction types though.
I am aware through experience that demolition can be a lot harder than anticipated. Forgive me for sounding illogical but I have personally seen
part of a building refusing to fall as if the memory of standing there for so long was keeping it up. The wall of the pentagon stubbornly refused
to fall in spite of the damage caused by that large, rapidly moving jet. It stood for some time, the roofline dipping and obviously about to fall,
allowing some fairly clear photographs of the hole that large plane passed through. April Gallup escaped with her injured child through that hole. Her
account is freely available on the internet.
My own view is an equation incorporating the average size of the WTC remains and the recorded time the destruction took will answer once and for all
this question of outside energy. The 40 acres of debris on the Fresh Kills landfill is a central part of that equation. wtcfamiliesforproperburial
have knowledge relating to the 'fines'. The fines are the human and building remains under 1/4 inch which were recovered then bulldozed over the
rest of the debris.
Well put.
I showed the bolded part to one of my engineers and his response was, "the first thing we learn to anticipate is that it will not turn out exactly as
anticipated" (his first engineering post was with a demo company).
Lol, I thought it was humorous that two different persons with direct demolition experience (having witnessed live, etc.) would have almost the exact
same thoughts on the subject.