There is a new study of the WTC Towers collapse that throws a shadow on the uncritically accepted version of consumption by fire and heat. The “World Trade Center Towers Collapse Architectural and Structural Consequences” analysis in http://www.ponderon.com, without denying their contribution, directs the attention to the Towers’ structural damage caused by the force of impact and the initial fuel explosion. The Towers were unable to absorb these forces and the collapse was a direct result of their construction. The Towers lacked the cross bracing and the structural connections were made by bolting, which failed immediately upon the impacts. Had it not been so, the raging aviation fuel fires would shortly burn themselves out, causing death of some three hundred people and much damage, but without causing the collapse. The analysis details the events as they occurred, affecting the behavior of the towers structural system, during and after the impacts.
An instant the Boeing 767 airplane rammed it the Tower shuddered and snapped backward like a boxer under a blow. But, unlike a boxer who recovers, the Tower after this deathblow, made only a partial recovery. With its equilibrium and structural integrity gone, was already lifeless. Deprived of the functionality, the carcass disintegrated, crating thousands of victims to the hate, madness, irresponsibility, and greed.
Mr. Marian Z. Augustyniak, Architect
77 Cooper Street
New York, NY 10034 mzaug@aol.com
October 2, 2004
U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs
Senator Susan Collins, Chairman
Dear Senator Collins,
The 9/11Commission’s report did not concern itself with the physical state and condition of the World Trade Center prior to the disaster.
However, knowledge and official recognition of them is instrumental in forging the safeguards, taking corrective measures and creating rules and directions to prevent or minimize the possibilities of such catastrophes.
Since the fateful events of September 11th 2001, I researched and analyzed the structural and architectural aspects of them. My conclusions, published in http://www.ponderon.com, are that if the World Trade Center Towers were constructed more substantially, they would have survived the murderous attack. The dominating weaknesses were the lack of cross bracing and that the main structural connections were bolted instead of welded. I further discussed some remedial actions for existing structures, and the ways and concepts how such disasters can be prevented or mitigated. An excerpt follows.
In preparing this presentation I relied on my architectural and urban planning education at the Carnegie Mellon University and the Columbia University. Also, I did so on the years of architectural practice and the efforts to reclaim a New York City’s derelict building to a habitable state. Before the attack I worked in the North Tower and am familiar with the towers construction and operations. In my life I was exposed to, and influenced by, the disasters and harm of wars, and witnessed the destruction of buildings and cities. As a child, in 1939 I saw planes bombing Warsaw. In 1943, although I sent a rifle to the fighters, I watched helplessly the Warsaw Ghetto burning. A year later, August and September 1944 I took part in the Warsaw Rising, which was followed by the destruction of this City. Then, as a prisoner of war in Germany, I watched the destruction of its cities. In 1951, when the train, carrying me to the U.S. Second Infantry Division in Korea, was held in Hiroshima the stop was long enough for me to absorb the enormity of its annihilation.
The present buildings design, materials, processes and construction methods must be reviewed, revised and enhanced with new concepts, and knowledge to assure a continued development and progress toward the stable, safe and agreeable living environment for the people. To achieve these goals, a reliance on the governmental agencies and activities must be supplemented and assisted by actions of all those directly involved in the actual creation of such conditions, including the universities, associations, and professional media.
Sincerely,
Augustyniak
WTC TOWERS COLLAPSE (www.Ponderon.com excerpt)
OBSERVATIONS
To put it in other words, were the structures of WTC designed to withstand an earthquake of a magnitude seven on the Richter scale, they would be still standing. To wit: The AT&T Company which is historically dedicated to a strong, solid construction erected the building that suffered only surface damage, while adjacent to it the WTC 7, of similar to WTC’s buildings construction, collapsed, even if not from the same fire. Were the Towers spared, in a decade they would have to be vacated and disassembled for safety, perhaps after a collapse of a floor or two.
Still another shortcoming was the lack of rescue systems, equipment and concepts in fire and other disasters. Such dangerous conditions existed in tall buildings for decades, for which no remedy was provided and still they are amiss. Was there anyone viewing this tragedy who did not think of some net, air bag, or foam put in place that would receive and save the victims? It is a tragedy also that there were materials and technologies to create such safeguards. All that was needed was a a system, whether air bags, bubbles, foam, net or lattice that would bring to stop a person weighing 200 pounds falling 160 miles per hour, without serious harm. A deceleration to zero for such effect requires less than 20 feet. The feasibility of such systems was attested to by the successful January 2004 delivery of Rovers to Mars. There are also aerial rescue possibilities, such as roof pickups and helicopters’ suspended cages at the sides of buildings.
Another consideration is of the structural concept of using bolts as the means of fastening and holding together major structural elements. It is a prevailing method in erection of high buildings, and indeed in most of steel construction in the United States. The bolting method is wrought with uncertainties, inaccuracies and unreliability. Main detractors are: rust, loosening of connections under wind sway, thermal expansion, inconsistency, and structural, not easily detectable flows in bolts, washers and nuts. The indications in the commonly used in fastening torque wrenches are not precise and at variance with the actual forces. Their false readings are caused by the uneven threads friction, temperature at time of connecting, and a lack of reliable verification methods. There is no better example of it than the Towers. There is no justification, structural and economic, to continue the use of bolts as a primary means of holding together tall structures. The bolting syndrome driving the construction industry has to be arrested and reduced to the low, for short lifespan warehouses and commercial buildings. The welding has to be the standard for the structural steel construction. There is ample experience, knowledge, and understanding to amplify the guides, standards, and procedures to assist and rely on in the implementation of welding processes. A scarcity of the competent journeymen, may be a drawback , but which can be remedied in two or three years. Also, it has to be noted that the reliance on the steel as a primary structural and construction material has to be revised and modified to incorporate and integrate with other materials and technologies.
CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING STANDARDS
The current standards originated in the nineteenth century and were perpetuated without extensive efforts to verify, test and improve them. Consider The American Society for Testing Materials, ASTM E119: “Loss of integrity is deemed to have occurred when a specified cotton wool pad applied to the unexposed face is ignited.”
A continuous and extensive research is needed to update and expand the safety directives. Although there are numerous entities, governmental, public and private that concern themselves with the safety, quality, appearance and functionality of the buildings and their construction, generally they are slow to act, sometimes are without an authority to do so and are limited to verbalization. As professionals, the architects, engineers, designers and constructors, including also the owners and investors, have some leeway in the selection of construction methods and materials. Theirs is to choose for safety, durability, as well as the esthetics, economy and the prevention of human loss and tragedy, in facilitation of the Constitution mandated “Pursuit of Happiness”.
REDUNDANCY IN WARNING AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
The Port Authority, the manager, had the Center organized for fire emergencies. Each Tower floor had a fire warden in charge of the emergencies, and periodically conducted fire drills. In the bewilderment and chaos that the attack created, these measures served in good stead, and the wardens must be given due recognition for assisting in Towers’ evacuation. The failure to evacuate the floors above the fires may be laid in part to the lack of anticipation of such circumstances, but mostly to a lack of communications. At the North Tower there were usable, if damaged, stairs accessible from the south west. At the South Tower the north east stairs were open. This escape window was short, perhaps a quarter of an hour before the fire, heat, and smoke blocked the way out. However, there were no means to communicate these roads to safety. There was no clear cut central authority in command of all emergencies at the Center that would receive, evaluate and act upon the information from any source. These who succeeded in negotiating the stairs had no one to report this way of escape. Also, for this to help, a Public Address system was necessary. A PA system, as well as a central authority, that has built in redundancies and bypasses to insure its functioning in catastrophic conditions. There were adequate stairs for the evacuation. However, all were located in a central core, short distances from each other, so that the fires blocked access to most of them. Their proper location was at the opposite ends of the building, accessible from any part of it. Further, the Towers, as all other individual tall buildings in the densely built areas, should have been connected at several levels by passages to provide emergency means of escape for the occupants.
Augustyniak
After spending weeks of or looking for picture of construction or plans of the Trade center I conclude that there aren’t any, with the except of distant shot from a great distance. Doesn’t the Fire Department usually relie on plans provided by the city of building in volve in a fire for evacquation. But all plans for the WTC have disappeared. I did find one picture of the floor system taken from the Noth tower looking down on the South tower. It appears to look like the 64 ft Truss’s were hung off the small 36″ Truss’s. Now there must have been a beam or perhaps a Dbl or Triple truss at this point becase the 64′ Truss was much biger,, I think I read that is was almost twice as big and the short ones. But everything was attached to that flimsy rim or steel that held the collumns together. Also and not to forget the nonexistance of spines for attaching the columns together. The columns were only bolted end to end and with 4 bolts. The interior cor is unknown but was much more substantial as it did house the stairs and elevators. I have also read that the steel the the base floors was provided by Japan because American Steel Manufactures could produce the gage required. I also just was a blurry cross section of the beam to clad and am not exactly sure of it’s attachment except that it would have made me nervous to lean against the windows after seeing it. As the clad, with unknown attachment to the interior onlt touches the column on it’s interior side witch was then covered with plaster. There is no scale given but basically the windows hand off the clad wich looks to have about 1/2″ of air space between the column and the clad. I guss I am assuming theat the lateral shear would have to have been the floor but I don’t thing that is possible. I have read a lot of independant engineers on the web who definitelt question the building integrety. Even to the fact that the panels were stagered in a stair step manner. The question that drings to mind is that both planes crashed into the buildings at an angle, and it would be interesting to know if it was the same angle as the steps to produce the most amount of damage. I think the other interesting thing to note is that WTC 7 was not built in the same manner and I sure can’t see any reason for it to fall straight down into it foot print. Exccept for the recording or Larry Silverstein telling someone who called him on the phone that perhaps they should just pull the building and the seconds later the building did just that, collasps on itself. Now dropping a building on itself seems to take quite a bit of time to weaken it and set explosives. However it happens in just minutes. Which leads to the question, are tall building built with Demolitions incorporated into the building when it is built just for the purpose of building removal? Building 7 was built 10 times better than the 2 towers from what I have seen. I also don’t go with the Collasps idea/ dream of FEMA’s report, the domino theory. I have looked at the video of the collasps. When Tower 2 came down the top 50 stories broke off and started for the plaza and should have ended up there I believe, but at the last minute it seems to be sucked back into the buildings foot print and disappear. I thought it was interesting that everything seemed to be sucked back in like you were watching a movie being played backwards. It would seem to anyone that if you dropped the center cor what you saw would would have indeed produced what did happen. Now the North Tower, it would seems, if you want to drop a building all you have to do is set a fire on the top floor and wait for the steel to melt and then the whole building will come down. I don’t under stand why when all the dust settled why there was no central cor standing for either building, just lots of the flimsey exterior loddey sections going up 20 to 50 stories, maybe that was the Japannes steel. I am just a carpenter and a designer, not a structional engineer but if I was building a house with the attachments I have seen I wouldn’t have been able to get a permit.
why hasn\’t controlled demolition been considered more in the collapse of these buildings? Judging from what we\’ve seen of buildings around the country being imploded, these collapse have all the earmarks of being wired with explosives.
Why was spoliation of evidence allowed, when buildings were exploded and their remains were immediately hauled off and melted away in a foreign country. Who represents the insurance investors whose billions of dollars are being illegally transferred to the greatest criminals of our century just past?
I don\’t buy it. The sway of the building with the wind was shown to be the same before and after the planes hit. The amount of sway the building has is a very diliberate number, decided by the engineers. Any change in structural integrity would have changed the buildings reaction to winds.
REVISED WTC TOWERS COLLAPSE
There is a new study of the WTC Towers collapse that throws a shadow on the uncritically accepted version of consumption by fire and heat. The “World Trade Center Towers Collapse Architectural and Structural Consequences” analysis in http://www.ponderon.com, without denying their contribution, directs the attention to the Towers’ structural damage caused by the force of impact and the initial fuel explosion. The Towers were unable to absorb these forces and the collapse was a direct result of their construction. The Towers lacked the cross bracing and the structural connections were made by bolting, which failed immediately upon the impacts. Had it not been so, the raging aviation fuel fires would shortly burn themselves out, causing death of some three hundred people and much damage, but without causing the collapse. The analysis details the events as they occurred, affecting the behavior of the towers structural system, during and after the impacts.
An instant the Boeing 767 airplane rammed it the Tower shuddered and snapped backward like a boxer under a blow. But, unlike a boxer who recovers, the Tower after this deathblow, made only a partial recovery. With its equilibrium and structural integrity gone, was already lifeless. Deprived of the functionality, the carcass disintegrated, crating thousands of victims to the hate, madness, irresponsibility, and greed.
Mr. Marian Z. Augustyniak, Architect
77 Cooper Street
New York, NY 10034
mzaug@aol.com
October 2, 2004
U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs
Senator Susan Collins, Chairman
Dear Senator Collins,
The 9/11Commission’s report did not concern itself with the physical state and condition of the World Trade Center prior to the disaster.
However, knowledge and official recognition of them is instrumental in forging the safeguards, taking corrective measures and creating rules and directions to prevent or minimize the possibilities of such catastrophes.
Since the fateful events of September 11th 2001, I researched and analyzed the structural and architectural aspects of them. My conclusions, published in http://www.ponderon.com, are that if the World Trade Center Towers were constructed more substantially, they would have survived the murderous attack. The dominating weaknesses were the lack of cross bracing and that the main structural connections were bolted instead of welded. I further discussed some remedial actions for existing structures, and the ways and concepts how such disasters can be prevented or mitigated. An excerpt follows.
In preparing this presentation I relied on my architectural and urban planning education at the Carnegie Mellon University and the Columbia University. Also, I did so on the years of architectural practice and the efforts to reclaim a New York City’s derelict building to a habitable state. Before the attack I worked in the North Tower and am familiar with the towers construction and operations. In my life I was exposed to, and influenced by, the disasters and harm of wars, and witnessed the destruction of buildings and cities. As a child, in 1939 I saw planes bombing Warsaw. In 1943, although I sent a rifle to the fighters, I watched helplessly the Warsaw Ghetto burning. A year later, August and September 1944 I took part in the Warsaw Rising, which was followed by the destruction of this City. Then, as a prisoner of war in Germany, I watched the destruction of its cities. In 1951, when the train, carrying me to the U.S. Second Infantry Division in Korea, was held in Hiroshima the stop was long enough for me to absorb the enormity of its annihilation.
The present buildings design, materials, processes and construction methods must be reviewed, revised and enhanced with new concepts, and knowledge to assure a continued development and progress toward the stable, safe and agreeable living environment for the people. To achieve these goals, a reliance on the governmental agencies and activities must be supplemented and assisted by actions of all those directly involved in the actual creation of such conditions, including the universities, associations, and professional media.
Sincerely,
Augustyniak
WTC TOWERS COLLAPSE (www.Ponderon.com excerpt)
OBSERVATIONS
To put it in other words, were the structures of WTC designed to withstand an earthquake of a magnitude seven on the Richter scale, they would be still standing. To wit: The AT&T Company which is historically dedicated to a strong, solid construction erected the building that suffered only surface damage, while adjacent to it the WTC 7, of similar to WTC’s buildings construction, collapsed, even if not from the same fire. Were the Towers spared, in a decade they would have to be vacated and disassembled for safety, perhaps after a collapse of a floor or two.
Still another shortcoming was the lack of rescue systems, equipment and concepts in fire and other disasters. Such dangerous conditions existed in tall buildings for decades, for which no remedy was provided and still they are amiss. Was there anyone viewing this tragedy who did not think of some net, air bag, or foam put in place that would receive and save the victims? It is a tragedy also that there were materials and technologies to create such safeguards. All that was needed was a a system, whether air bags, bubbles, foam, net or lattice that would bring to stop a person weighing 200 pounds falling 160 miles per hour, without serious harm. A deceleration to zero for such effect requires less than 20 feet. The feasibility of such systems was attested to by the successful January 2004 delivery of Rovers to Mars. There are also aerial rescue possibilities, such as roof pickups and helicopters’ suspended cages at the sides of buildings.
Another consideration is of the structural concept of using bolts as the means of fastening and holding together major structural elements. It is a prevailing method in erection of high buildings, and indeed in most of steel construction in the United States. The bolting method is wrought with uncertainties, inaccuracies and unreliability. Main detractors are: rust, loosening of connections under wind sway, thermal expansion, inconsistency, and structural, not easily detectable flows in bolts, washers and nuts. The indications in the commonly used in fastening torque wrenches are not precise and at variance with the actual forces. Their false readings are caused by the uneven threads friction, temperature at time of connecting, and a lack of reliable verification methods. There is no better example of it than the Towers. There is no justification, structural and economic, to continue the use of bolts as a primary means of holding together tall structures. The bolting syndrome driving the construction industry has to be arrested and reduced to the low, for short lifespan warehouses and commercial buildings. The welding has to be the standard for the structural steel construction. There is ample experience, knowledge, and understanding to amplify the guides, standards, and procedures to assist and rely on in the implementation of welding processes. A scarcity of the competent journeymen, may be a drawback , but which can be remedied in two or three years. Also, it has to be noted that the reliance on the steel as a primary structural and construction material has to be revised and modified to incorporate and integrate with other materials and technologies.
CONSTRUCTION AND BUILDING STANDARDS
The current standards originated in the nineteenth century and were perpetuated without extensive efforts to verify, test and improve them. Consider The American Society for Testing Materials, ASTM E119: “Loss of integrity is deemed to have occurred when a specified cotton wool pad applied to the unexposed face is ignited.”
A continuous and extensive research is needed to update and expand the safety directives. Although there are numerous entities, governmental, public and private that concern themselves with the safety, quality, appearance and functionality of the buildings and their construction, generally they are slow to act, sometimes are without an authority to do so and are limited to verbalization. As professionals, the architects, engineers, designers and constructors, including also the owners and investors, have some leeway in the selection of construction methods and materials. Theirs is to choose for safety, durability, as well as the esthetics, economy and the prevention of human loss and tragedy, in facilitation of the Constitution mandated “Pursuit of Happiness”.
REDUNDANCY IN WARNING AND COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
The Port Authority, the manager, had the Center organized for fire emergencies. Each Tower floor had a fire warden in charge of the emergencies, and periodically conducted fire drills. In the bewilderment and chaos that the attack created, these measures served in good stead, and the wardens must be given due recognition for assisting in Towers’ evacuation. The failure to evacuate the floors above the fires may be laid in part to the lack of anticipation of such circumstances, but mostly to a lack of communications. At the North Tower there were usable, if damaged, stairs accessible from the south west. At the South Tower the north east stairs were open. This escape window was short, perhaps a quarter of an hour before the fire, heat, and smoke blocked the way out. However, there were no means to communicate these roads to safety. There was no clear cut central authority in command of all emergencies at the Center that would receive, evaluate and act upon the information from any source. These who succeeded in negotiating the stairs had no one to report this way of escape. Also, for this to help, a Public Address system was necessary. A PA system, as well as a central authority, that has built in redundancies and bypasses to insure its functioning in catastrophic conditions. There were adequate stairs for the evacuation. However, all were located in a central core, short distances from each other, so that the fires blocked access to most of them. Their proper location was at the opposite ends of the building, accessible from any part of it. Further, the Towers, as all other individual tall buildings in the densely built areas, should have been connected at several levels by passages to provide emergency means of escape for the occupants.
Augustyniak
AUGUSTYNIAK
WTC REMAINDER
After spending weeks of or looking for picture of construction or plans of the Trade center I conclude that there aren’t any, with the except of distant shot from a great distance. Doesn’t the Fire Department usually relie on plans provided by the city of building in volve in a fire for evacquation. But all plans for the WTC have disappeared. I did find one picture of the floor system taken from the Noth tower looking down on the South tower. It appears to look like the 64 ft Truss’s were hung off the small 36″ Truss’s. Now there must have been a beam or perhaps a Dbl or Triple truss at this point becase the 64′ Truss was much biger,, I think I read that is was almost twice as big and the short ones. But everything was attached to that flimsy rim or steel that held the collumns together. Also and not to forget the nonexistance of spines for attaching the columns together. The columns were only bolted end to end and with 4 bolts. The interior cor is unknown but was much more substantial as it did house the stairs and elevators. I have also read that the steel the the base floors was provided by Japan because American Steel Manufactures could produce the gage required. I also just was a blurry cross section of the beam to clad and am not exactly sure of it’s attachment except that it would have made me nervous to lean against the windows after seeing it. As the clad, with unknown attachment to the interior onlt touches the column on it’s interior side witch was then covered with plaster. There is no scale given but basically the windows hand off the clad wich looks to have about 1/2″ of air space between the column and the clad. I guss I am assuming theat the lateral shear would have to have been the floor but I don’t thing that is possible. I have read a lot of independant engineers on the web who definitelt question the building integrety. Even to the fact that the panels were stagered in a stair step manner. The question that drings to mind is that both planes crashed into the buildings at an angle, and it would be interesting to know if it was the same angle as the steps to produce the most amount of damage. I think the other interesting thing to note is that WTC 7 was not built in the same manner and I sure can’t see any reason for it to fall straight down into it foot print. Exccept for the recording or Larry Silverstein telling someone who called him on the phone that perhaps they should just pull the building and the seconds later the building did just that, collasps on itself. Now dropping a building on itself seems to take quite a bit of time to weaken it and set explosives. However it happens in just minutes. Which leads to the question, are tall building built with Demolitions incorporated into the building when it is built just for the purpose of building removal? Building 7 was built 10 times better than the 2 towers from what I have seen. I also don’t go with the Collasps idea/ dream of FEMA’s report, the domino theory. I have looked at the video of the collasps. When Tower 2 came down the top 50 stories broke off and started for the plaza and should have ended up there I believe, but at the last minute it seems to be sucked back into the buildings foot print and disappear. I thought it was interesting that everything seemed to be sucked back in like you were watching a movie being played backwards. It would seem to anyone that if you dropped the center cor what you saw would would have indeed produced what did happen. Now the North Tower, it would seems, if you want to drop a building all you have to do is set a fire on the top floor and wait for the steel to melt and then the whole building will come down. I don’t under stand why when all the dust settled why there was no central cor standing for either building, just lots of the flimsey exterior loddey sections going up 20 to 50 stories, maybe that was the Japannes steel. I am just a carpenter and a designer, not a structional engineer but if I was building a house with the attachments I have seen I wouldn’t have been able to get a permit.
why hasn\’t controlled demolition been considered more in the collapse of these buildings? Judging from what we\’ve seen of buildings around the country being imploded, these collapse have all the earmarks of being wired with explosives.
Why was spoliation of evidence allowed, when buildings were exploded and their remains were immediately hauled off and melted away in a foreign country. Who represents the insurance investors whose billions of dollars are being illegally transferred to the greatest criminals of our century just past?
I don\’t buy it. The sway of the building with the wind was shown to be the same before and after the planes hit. The amount of sway the building has is a very diliberate number, decided by the engineers. Any change in structural integrity would have changed the buildings reaction to winds.