[patent]

Can a stronger steel be used, or one more fire resistant? How about some combination of titanium/stronger steel for some of the beam and regular steel for others? I know its not possible to plan for everything, nor is it cost efficient. It seems as though these days it may be prudent to spend a little more if you want to build a landmark building.

patent

[summer]

See my post #28 on this thread. Thanks, summer

[summer]

It seems as though these days it may be prudent to spend a little more if you want to build a landmark building.

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patent, IMO, great point. Thanks for sharing it. summer

[snooker]

Why hasn't anyone said WEIGHT. Do you know what a plane like these weigh. Add fire of all that jet fuel and the intitial impact, it is easy to see how these towers came down.

Note ... the impact took out a large number of outside building supports.

Note ... the fire consumed several floors immediately.

Note ... they chose some of the heaviest common planes.

If you carefully examine the collaspe sequence you will see the top floors came down on top of the 'on fire floors', then a chain reaction progressed as the weight(gravity) brought the buildings down one floor at a time. The added weight of the A/C played a role in the final collaspe, IMHO. I happen to have a DVR-TIVO hooked up and in slow-mo frame stop mode you clearly can see the sequence.

This was a sophisticated attack. As a engineer it is not clear how you defend a building against such a catastrophic attack. But I am sure engineers the world over will be looking for a solution since the vulnerability is now crystal clear.

snooker

[HiTech RedNeck]

Another possibility, what about making the beams hollow and filling them with a coolant such as water?