Workshop to investigate the collapse of the WTC towers

ISO's technical committee on fire safety engineering (ISO/TC92/SC4) meets on the last week of September 2005 in Beijing, at the invitation of the Tianjin Fire Research Institute (TFRI).

ISO/TC92/SC4 has consequently taken the opportunity to organize, in close cooperation with its Chinese host (TFRI) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST – USA), a workshop on the investigation done on the collapse of the World Trade Centre Towers.

NIST, in charge of the study of the behaviour of the World Trade Centre towers following the terrorist attack on 11 September 2001, has just finalized the investigation on the World Trade Centre Towers disaster.

The goals of this investigation of the disaster were:

To investigate the building construction, the materials used, and the technical conditions that contributed to the outcome of the WTC disaster after terrorists flew large jet-fuel laden commercial airliners into the WTC towers.

To serve as the basis for:

• Improvements in the way buildings are designed, constructed, maintained, and used;
• Improved tools and guidance for industry and safety officials;
• Recommended revisions to current codes, standards, and practices; and
• Improved public safety

The workshop will be held on 24 September 2005 at the Beijing International Convention Centre (BICC) and deal mainly with Aircraft Impact Simulation, Reconstruction of the Fires and Heating of the Structural Steel, Structural Response and Collapse Mechanisms as well as NIST's recommendations.

These outcomes, which have to be related to one of the work item of ISO/TC 92/SC 4 on the overall behaviour of structures in real fires, will provide attendees the opportunity of a constructive discussion with NIST experts who have managed this large investigation.

To get the most value from the session, people should read at least the Executive Summary (and preferably the draft Final Report, NIST NCSTAR 1) which can be downloaded from the web at http://wtc.nist.gov .