- Author
- Shyam Sunder, S.
- Title
- December 9, 2002, Progress Report on the NIST Building and Fire Investigation Into the World Trade Center Disaster.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
- NISTIR 6942; NIST SP 1000-2, December 2002, 17 p.
- Distribution
- AVAILABLE FROM: National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Technology Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161. Telephone: 1-800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000; Fax: 703-605-6900; Rush Service (Telephone Orders Only) 800-553-6847; Website: http://www.ntis.gov
- Keywords
- World Trade Center | fire investigations | fire research | fire safety | building research | building technology | disasters
- Abstract
- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced its 24-month building and fire safety investigation of the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster on August 21, 2002. NIST also released the final plan for its investigation at the same time. This plan, which reflects comments received in writing and at a June 24, 2002 public meeting held in New York City may be found at http://wtc.nist.gov. This public update summarizes the progress made by NIST and the cooperation it has received from a variety of organizations since the August announcement. This report covers: Availability of funding to support the investigation element of the NIST public-private response plan; Passage of the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Act and new authorities for the WTC investigation; Progress toward the establishment of an Advisory Committee as called for by the NCST Act; Access to the work of technical experts involved in the insurance litigation related to the WTC towers; NISTs use of a balance of analytical, experimental, and numerical tools to evaluate alternative collapse hypotheses; Progress in identifying and collecting materials relevant to the investigation from the building owner, leaseholder, their consultants and contractors, New York City authorities, and other sources, with more information still needed; Selection of external experts to augment the NIST team in the area of occupant behavior and evacuation; The outline of a systematic data collection methodology for studying occupant behavior, evacuation, and emergency response; Status of steel and its analysis, photographic and video image collection and analysis, and contracting plans; Exchange of information and discussions with the New York City Department of Buildings related to the activities of its World Trade Center Building Code Task Force; and Progress in NISTs concurrent WTC Research and Development (R&D) Program and the Dissemination and Technical Assistance Program (DTAP).