Michaelangelica Posted September 27, 2008 Report Share Posted September 27, 2008 My first thread in this forum.?Wobbily steel? At high temperature, the strength of steel is controlled by magnetic properties. It is a quantum effect, and explains why the Twin Towers in New York collapsed in 2001. The thermal insulation panels on the columns were knocked off by the impact from the aircraft, exposing the steel to the high temperatures of the fire. The solution is applying the insulation in a different way, or using new steels with additives, allowing them to maintain strength at high temperatures.. . .Sergei Dudarev: The most interesting aspect of steels at high temperature is that their strength turns out to be controlled by their magnetic properties, and you would not normally associated quantum mechanics with such large-scale events as building collapse. . .Sergei Dudarev: In fact it was known to engineers that if you raise temperature above, say, 600 degrees centigrade that it is not good news for the structural steels, and this is why the thermal insulation panels were installed to protect the building. . .we definitely need to take a broader view at what we call steels. Most likely quite common elements could be used in order to control the magnetic properties and hence the mechanical properties.. . .Robyn Williams: Does this scotch some of those many conspiracy theories (I'm sure you're familiar with them) and explain actually what happened? Sergei Dudarev: The answer to the terrible tragedy is had the thermal insulating panels been glued better to the steel structures, nothing would have happened, or at least the buildings could have been evacuated before they collapsed.Twin Towers toppled by weakened steel columns - Science Show - 20 September 2008 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JusDennis Posted January 4, 2009 Report Share Posted January 4, 2009 Whenever a building, or bridge structure fails there is almost no limit the amount of effort we will put into understanding the cause. For example; the northridge earthquake had a dramatic effect on how we fabricate and weld the joints together in structural steel. The types of steels we use for different conditions. The list goes on. The insulation used on the steel in the twin towers was, addmitedly, not the best that could have been used. We knew of it's properties before it was even applied. We knew it could be knocked off by a sharp impact. (sometimes we drop things when we're putting them up.. ooops) But it should have been sufficient. Who could have known that a psychopath would exploit the buildings only weakness by crashing into it with a fully loaded, freshly fueled airliner?That mistake won't happen again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexander Posted January 6, 2009 Report Share Posted January 6, 2009 yes, anti aircraft systems and rail guns should take care of things... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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