How did jet fuel fire cause the WTC towers to collapse on 9/11?

Question

The temperature of jet fuel fires do not exceed 1,800°F under optimal conditions

Underwriters Laboratories certified that the steel used would not lose strength in a 6 hour 2,000°F fire.

The melting point of steel is about 2,700°F.

@ ehwatsup, do you mean other things like fire retardant office furniture and carpeting?

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@ Alen S: The steel was was certified to ASTM E119. The time temperature curves for this standard require the samples to be exposed to temperatures around 2000F for several hours. .

Answer 1

There was a plausible explanation for WTC 1 & 2: steel is weakened at a lower temp than it melts.

Oddly, fewer debunkers have successfully explained why WTC 7 collapsed, which wasn't hit by an airplane, just some debris. Take a look at a video comparing a high rise that burned for a day until it was just a skeleton, but still standing, and WTC 7.

Answer 2

I've been doing engineering design work for almost 30 years and for most of that time it's been in fire protection. In all that time I have never run across any fire retardant material that will protect structural steel from 2,000 deg for 6 hours with no loss of strength, much less bare steel. (whatever fire retardant spray they used back in the 70's on that steel; I'm certain it did not remain intact after being impacted from the side at over 250 MPH by several hundred tons of aircraft.
stop posting erroneous UL or ULC data unless you enjoy looking like a jackass.
If you had any engineering background you would know that you don't have to melt steel to cause it to fail, Jack.

Answer 3

I'm not sure about the jet fuel temperature. I don't doubt your figures.

But a lot of other stuff was set to burning and it didn't necessarily require that steel melt for the buildings to fall. There were millions of tons above the fires, and unbalanced for any reason and gravity could do the rest.

There is no doubt in my mind that the jet collisions, jet fuel fires, whatever caused the WTC to fall.

Answer 4

Marvin is bushes younger brother and molten metal was found at ground zero. "Jake: Nice try but your attempts to breathe some credibility into your "theories" isn't going to make it. And neither is you "professor" from BYU." Uh I think it just did and who said anything about a theory? Here is another fact you might of missed, dont worry you can watch it on PBS. John O'Neil, Deputy Director to the FBI was the leading authority on terrorist groups. After his investigations were shut down at the pentagon he quit his job. He was offered a job as head of security at the WTC, his first day on the job the building came down. I dont think you want to hear my theory on that issue and even if I told you it would be met with another nice try. Does that work with most people just saying nice try? One sec, let me try it real fast and see if it works. Nice try!!

Answer 5

You had thousands of pounds of jet fuel burning. You had thousands of pounds of building contents burning. You had structural damage all the way to the center of multiple floors. You had approx. 1 acre of floor area per floor resting on lightweight floor trusses ( web type trusses). Even if the temperature impinging on the steel trusses didn't 'melt' them, it would deform them. It would deform them out of there respective attachment points. All it would take is for 1 of them to fail (and many more than that did) and you have the beginnings of a 'pancake' type collapse. Floor after floor fails to support itself and the added weight coming down on it from the floors above. A collapse, all the way to the ground.
Simple, certainly no less devastating...

Answer 6

Gee, I haven't a clue. Perhaps structural engineering is not an exact science? Maybe they made a mistake and filled the airplane fuel tanks with liquid oxygen? Or, perhaps the government knows something and they're not sharing it? Hmm.

Answer 7

yes it would, you don't know anything about metallurgy, ANY heating of steel weakens it, the hotter you heat any metal, the softer it is going to get

they may simply be referring to steel that is heated to 2000 degrees and then returned to normal (operating) temperature (which is not what happened in this case), any metal that is at an elevated temperature becomes more plastic

Answer 8

For starters you have to take into account the other materials that were burning. It wasn't just jet fuel.

EDIT: Fire retardant doesn't mean un-flammable it just means it's resistant. Logic

Answer 9

It loses 50% strength at 1000°.

And I'm sure the carpet wouldn't burn if it was covered in jet fuel*

Answer 10

You know what happened, terrorists. Your theory has been de-bunked. You and your more than 30 yahoo answer identities have zero credibility.