December 9, 2002, Progress Report on the NIST Building and Fire Investigation Into the World Trade Center Disaster.
December 9, 2002, Progress Report on the NIST Building
and Fire Investigation Into the World Trade Center
Disaster.
(1468 K)
Shyam-Sunder, S.
NISTIR 6942; NIST SP 1000-2; 17 p. December 2002.
Available from:
Orders Only) 800-553-6847;
Website: http://www.ntis.gov
Order number: PB2003-103400
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).
Building and Fire Research Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899