- Author
- Kodur, V. K. R.
- Title
- Fire Resistance Issues in the Collapse of the WTC Towers.
- Coporate
- National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
- Report
- NRCC-47619,
- Book or Conf
- ASCE Structures Congress'03. Proceedings. May 2003, Seattle, WA, 1-3 p., 2003
- Keywords
- World Trade Center | building collapse | fire resistance | damage | structural systems | fire growth | fire protection | structural elements | impact | jet fuel | flameproofing
- Identifiers
- World Trade Center (110-story-high) Towers, Manhattan, New York, September 11, 2001
- Abstract
- The twin towers of the World Trade Centre suffered significant damage from the impact of the planes, however, they withstood the impact. The severe fires that followed the impact brought down the twin towers, WTC 2 and WTC 1, at different intervals - 59 and 89 minutes respectively following the impact. Thus, fire issues played a major part in the collapse of the twin towers and the role of the various fire resistance issues is examined in this paper. The intense fires ignited by jet fuel, loss of fire defence mechanism, damaged fire proofing and the stressed state of the structural system were some of the key factors that contributed to the collapse of the towers.