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To: Senator Pardek
The metal did not actually melt. Steal is very strong(duh) however when heated and cools it looses its structural integrity. The metal is stresses or fatigued. Take a wire and bend it back and fourth and the wire will not melt but it will fatigue and break. I have been on fire scenes and seen large structural steal pieces bent like pretzels.
24 posted on 09/11/2001 4:54:43 PM PDT by Engine82
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To: Engine82
I was involved in arson investigation and fire fighting in my younger days, and am now a professional engineer. Both of these schools of thought teach the same principle of high rise building failure during fires. That is thermal expansion of the steel. A long steel beam or column exposed to intense heat can grow many feet in length, resulting in column buckling or shearing of the fastening system.

I saw a building that had an accidental rocket motor burn take place in it. The building bulged out almost in the shape of a foot ball from the expanding gas. The building did not collapse but had to be torn down because warpage in the long steel beams made it structurally unsound.

Same thing happenes in high rise buildings with a different twist (intended pun). The concrete and steel interface adhesion will be destroyed both by steel warping and concrete spalling. The heat can travel through the beams to parts untouched by the fire and experience failures there.

52 posted on 09/11/2001 5:25:13 PM PDT by SSN558 (hippieslayer@guns.com)
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