| Author(s): |
Stephen W. Banovic; Timothy J. Foecke; William E. Luecke; Joseph D. McColskey; Christopher N. McCowan; Thomas A. Siewert; Frank W. Gayle; |
| Title: |
The role of metallurgy in the NIST investigation of the world trade center towers collapse |
| Published: |
November 01, 2007 |
| Abstract: |
On August 21, 2002, on the direction of the U.S. Congress, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) initiated an investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers. In support of the overall investigation goals, the NIST Metallurgy and Materials Reliability Divisions pursued three objectives: assess the quality of the steel used in the construction of the towers, determine mechanical properties of the steel for input to the finite element models of the building collapse, and assess the failure mechanisms of the recovered steel components. This article describes the major findings of the metallurgical part of the NIST WTC investigation and shows how the findings were integrated into the investigation. |
| Citation: |
Jom-Journal of the Minerals Metals & Materials Society |
| Volume: |
59 |
| Issue: |
11 |
| Pages: |
pp. 22 - 30 |
| Keywords: |
World Trade Center; WTC; collapse, metallurgy; failure analysis; structural steel |
| Research Areas: |
World Trade Center Investigation, Materials performance |
| PDF version: |
 Click here to retrieve PDF version of paper (576KB) |
