Keene State College Presentation Sept 12Presentation Transcript
The Emerging Science Around the World Trade Center Destruction Kevin R. Ryan Keene State College, New Hampshire September 12th, 2009
Outline of talk
The destruction of the WTC buildings
Questions about what happened
Official answers
Evidence ignored
Underwriters Laboratories
Three mainstream scientific articles
Points of agreement with official reports
Environmental anomalies
Discovery of explosive materials in the WTC dust
Summary of findings and future work
Unprecedented Building Failures
No tall building has ever suffered “global collapse” due to any reason other than demolition. But on 9/11, we’re told there were three
No building exhibiting so many of the characteristics of demolition has ever NOT been a demolition
99.7% of steel evidence was destroyed despite severe criticism from public and fire investigation experts
WTC 7 was a 47 story building not hit by a plane It fell in 6.5 seconds
Why did three World Trade Center buildings “collapse” completely? Spain, 2005 Twin towers shortly after WTC2 hit Venezuela, 2004
The WTC towers exploded… then fell into piles of rubble in <12 seconds (per NIST)
Characteristics of a demolition
Sudden onset
Straight down, symmetrical fall
High velocity bursts of debris
Near free-fall speed
Sounds of explosions and flashes of light
Relatively small rubble piles
Total collapse
Pulverization of concrete and other materials
Huge dust clouds (resembling pyroclastic flows from volcanoes)
“ The building structure would still be there. “ John Skilling
Official investigations into the collapse of the WTC buildings
FEMA (floor pancake theory)
Turned ASCE investigation into an “assessment”
Report released May 2002
Silverstein / Weidlinger (columns only)
report released October 2002
NIST
Final draft 10/04…Final, final draft 6/05
First report 9/05…Responses to FAQs 8/06, & again on 12/07
WTC 7 report finally released 8/08
Test results vs. NIST computer * Unavailable to the public Questions Physical tests NIST computer * What were WTC steel temperatures? Up to 250 C Up to 800 C How much could the floors have sagged ? 3 inches after 2 hours of fire 42 inches after < 1 hour of fire What were the actual “collapse” dynamics? No tests done No comment How about WTC 7? No tests done 600 C rise in 1.5 seconds, a few inches of thermal expansion
Different stories, but same people DOD FEMA WTC or Pent. Silverstein Weidlinger NIST Popular Mechanics Gene Corley X X X X X Thornton-Tomasetti X X X X X Levy / Weidlinger X X X X X Mete Sozen X X X Greenhorne & O'Mara X X X ARUP X X X X Paul Mlakar X X X Hughes Associates X X X X William Baker / SOM X X X Jon Magnusson X X X John Gross X X X SGH X X X Mark Loizeaux X * X * Mark Loizeaux was hired to clean up the evidence
Eyewitnesses to explosions
Paramedic Daniel Rivera – “[Did] you ever see professional demolition where they set the charges on certain floors and then you hear ‘Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop?’…I thought it was that.”
Firefighter Edward Cachia – “It actually gave at a lower floor, not the floor where the plane hit. We originally thought there was like an internal detonation, explosives…”
Assistant Commissioner Stephen Gregory -- “I thought…that I saw low-level flashes…[at] the lower level of the building. You know like when they demolish a building?”
Firefighter Richard Banaciski – “It seemed like on television [when] they blow up these buildings. It seemed like it was going all around like a belt, all these explosions.”
Battalion Chief Brian Dixon – “the lowest floor of the fire in the south tower actually looked like someone had planted explosives all around it because…everything blew out on the one floor.”
Firefighter Kenneth Rogers – “there was an explosion in the south tower…I kept watching. Floor after floor after floor. [It] looked like a synchronized deliberate kind of thing.”
Questions left unanswered
What about resistance of floors below? If these floors each caused hesitation of only half a second, an extra 40 seconds would be needed.
What about the observed “squibs”? (No more pancaking!)
What about the molten metal observed pouring from the building and the pools of molten metal in the rubble of both Towers and WTC 7?
What about the intergranular melting and sulfidation of steel reported by FEMA?
My involvement
Began questioning 9/11 in 2003
Fired by UL in 2004,
for writing a letter to NIST
Presentations, essays, books
Scientific articles
Why question 9/11?
To get the “bad guys”
To get justice for the victims
To stop the 9/11 wars
To save our country
To prevent more terrorist attacks
To reverse the damage done
Because it is the right thing to do
To learn about ourselves
“ We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves” Goethe
“ We tested the steel with all the required fireproofing on, and it did beautifully.”
“ As we do not do follow-up service on this kind of product, we can give an opinion only on the test sample which was indeed properly coated.”
“ We test to the code requirements, and the steel clearly met those requirements and exceeded them.”
Loring Knoblauch, CEO of UL
"The World Trade Center stood for almost an hour after withstanding conditions well beyond those experienced in any typical fire. In that time, thousands of people escaped with their lives. ASTM E-119 and UL's testing procedures helped make that possible ." Tom Chapin, Fire Resistance Manager for UL, in April 2002 letter to NY Times
Figure 3-11: Fire exposure side of the 35 ft restrained test assembly after almost 2 hours of fire during ASTM E119 test.. NIST said WTC gas temps were only “as high as 1,000 ° Celsius .” NIST responses to FAQs, August 2006, UL tests (ASTM E119) used an average temp. of 1,090 ° Celsius Floors sagged only 3 to 4 inches in mid-section UL Floor tests vs WTC fires
Molten metal at the WTC… Was it Iron or steel… Or Aluminum?
Eyewitness accounts of molten metal at Ground Zero
“ As of 21 days after the attack, the fires were still burning and molten steel was still running.” Leslie Robertson, October 2001
“ I talked to many contractors and they said they actually saw molten metal trapped, beams had just totally been melted because of the heat.”
Herb Trimpe, Chaplain at Ground Zero
“ [I was shown slides of ] molten metal, which was still red hot weeks after the event.” Dr. Keith Eaton of Institute of Structural Engineers
“ You’d get down below and you’d see molten steel, molten steel, running down the channel rails, like you’re in a foundry, like lava.” Capt. Philip Ruvolo, FDNY
“ In some pockets now being uncovered they are finding molten steel.” Dr. Alison Geyh, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
Unexplained corrosion and holes in WTC steel “ The severe corrosion and subsequent erosion of Samples 1 [WTC7] and 2 [Towers] are a very unusual event. No clear explanation for the source of the sulfur has been identified.” FEMA “ A one inch [steel] column has been reduced to half-inch thickness. Its edges--which are curled like a paper scroll--have been thinned to almost razor sharpness. Gaping holes--some larger than a silver dollar—let light shine through a formerly solid steel flange. This Swiss cheese appearance shocked all of the firewise professors, who expected to see distortion and bending--but not holes.” FEMA Comments from Worcester Polytechnic Institute team led by Prof. Jonathon Barnett
The Open Civil Engineering Journal (Bentham Science)
Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction
By: Steven E. Jones, Frank M. Legge, Kevin R. Ryan, Anthony F. Szamboti, and James R. Gourley
First mainstream journal to publish “9/11 Truth” scientific article
Point 5: Essentially in Free Fall
NIST: [Question:] “How could the WTC towers collapse in only 11 seconds (WTC 1) and 9 seconds (WTC 2)—speeds that approximate that of a ball dropped from similar height in a vacuum (with no air resistance)?”
Answer: We agree with some of this, that the buildings “came down essentially in free fall, as seen in videos.” This is an important starting point. NIST evidently neglects a fundamental law of physics in glibly treating the remarkable “free fall” collapse of each Tower, namely, the Law of Conservation of Momentum. This law of physics means that the hundreds of thousands of tons of material in the way must slow the upper part of the building because of its mass, independent of deformation which can only slow the fall even more. (Energy and Momentum must both be conserved.)
Point 7: Fires of Short Duration
NIST: “The initial jet fuel fires themselves lasted at most a few minutes”. “At any given location, the duration of [air, not steel] temperatures near 1,000 °C was about 15 min to 20 min. The rest of the time, the calculated temperatures were near 500 °C or below”.
We agree. But then, given that the fires were brief and patchy, how did both towers experience sudden-onset failure of structural steel over a broad area in each tower and how could the collapses of all three WTC high-rises have been so symmetrical and complete? We seek discussion on these points.
Journalof911Studies.com Extremely high temperatures during the World Trade Center destruction Steven E. Jones, Jeffrey Farrer, Gregory S. Jenkins, Frank Legge, James Gourley, Kevin Ryan, Daniel Farnsworth, and Crockett Grabbe.
[Here is] A “vesicular alumino-silicate particle” which exemplifies the “round open porous structure having a Swiss cheese appearance as a result of boiling and evaporation”. “ Various metals (most notably iron and lead) were melted during the WTC Event, producing spherical metallic particles. … high heat exposure of the WTC Dust has also created … spherical, vesicular siliceous [silicate particles] and [these]…are classic examples of high temperature or combustion by-products and are generally absent in typical office dust…” The RJ Lee Report* *Note: RJ Lee firm was hired by Deutsche Bank lawyers to evaluate WTC dust signature
Microspheres - USGS Obtained from USGS via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) – a molybdenum -rich spherule which was not mentioned in the earlier reports. No explanation given by USGS for the presence of these iron-rich and silicate spheres that they reported (and which imply very high temperatures along with droplet formation)
Temperatures required to explain evidence Gas temperatures supported by officials
The Environmentalist (Springer)
Environmental Anomalies at the WTC: Evidence for Energetic Materials
By: Kevin R. Ryan, James R. Gourley and Steven E. Jones
Second mainstream journal to publish “9/11 Truth” scientific article
The fires at Ground Zero could not be put out
Several inches of dust covered the entire area after the destruction of the WTC buildings
Millions of gallons of water were sprayed onto the debris pile*
Several rainfall events occurred at GZ, some heavy
A chemical fire suppressant called Pyrocool was pumped into the piles, but had no effect*
Photo by Joel Meyerowitz * NY Times, 2001
Spikes in VOC Emissions at GZ
Other unexplained detections at GZ
Spikes in Iron, Aluminum, and compounds of Silicon & Sulfur
Spikes in rare metals, like Vanadium
1,3-Diphenylpropane
Cahill et al, 2003 UC Davis
The thermite reaction
Fe 2 O 3 + 2Al -> Al 2 O 3 + 2Fe + 848.54 kJ
iron oxide + aluminum -> alumina + (molten) iron
->
Several other oxidants can be used including V 2 O 5 and MoO 3 , giving molten vanadium or molten molybdenum respectively
Thermite Addition of pyrotechnic additives has been found to produce superior thermite for incendiary purposes. Composition by weight is typically ~70% [ Fe 2 O 3 + Al ], ~30% barium nitrate OR potassium permanganate, 2.0% sulfur and 0.3% binder.
Nano-thermites
One or more components on the scale of 10 to 100 nm.
As particle size decreases, surface to volume ratio increases, and so does reaction front
Ignites at lower temperature
Explosive
Sol-gel nano(super)-thermites
Hybrid sol-gel materials, made with a silicon-oxide base, have been combined with iron oxide (or other oxidant) and nano-scale aluminum powder to form superthermite materials
Known to be amenable to spray-on applications.
“ The sol-gel process is very amenable to dip-, spin-, and spray-coating technologies to coat surfaces. We have utilized this property to dip-coat various substrates to make sol-gel Fe 2 O 3 ,/ Al / Viton coatings. The energetic coating dries to give a nice adherent film. Preliminary experiments indicate that films of the hybrid material are self-propagating when ignited by thermal stimulus”
(Gash et al 2002).
An amazing coincidence
Fireproofing upgrades
in 1998,1999 and 2000
NCSTAR 1-6, p 20
WTC security plan
Designed by Kroll
Implemented by:
Electronic Systems Associates
E.J. Electric Installation
Ensec
Securacom
Managed from June to Sep 2001 by:
Silverstein Properties / FBI agent John’ O’Neill
Rudy Giuliani and his OEM
Google “Demolition access to the WTC towers”
Photomicrographs of WTC dust Typical WTC dust sample Particles extracted from WTC dust with magnet
The Open Journal of Chemical Physics (Bentham Science)
Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe
By: Niels H. Harrit 1 , Jeffrey Farrer 2 , Steven E. Jones, Kevin R. Ryan, Frank M. Legge, Daniel Farnsworth, Gregg Roberts, James R. Gourley and Bradley R. Larsen
1 - Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
2 - Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University
Latest mainstream journal to publish article on 9/11
Four samples of WTC dust
Analytical techniques
Extraction of magnetic particles
Visible light microscopy (obtained photos)
SEM, scanning electron microscopy
SE, secondary electron imaging
BSE, backscattered electron imaging
XEDS, X-Ray energy dispersive spectroscopy
DSC, Differential Scanning Calorimetry
Photomicrographs of red/gray chips from samples 1-4 of the WTC dust involved in this study, shown in ( a )-( d ) respectively. The inset in ( d ) shows the chip edge on, which reveals the gray layer. The red/gray chips are mounted on an aluminum pedestal, using a carbon conductive tab, for viewing in the scanning electron microscope (SEM).
This shows a BSE image (a) and XEDS maps (b-f) of the red-layer cross section of a red/gray chip from dust sample 1. The elements displayed are: (b) Fe, (c) Al, (d) O, (e) Si, and (f) C.
DSC trace of sample 1 (blue line) compared with DSC of xerogel Fe2O3/UFG Al nanocomposite (from Tillotson et al. [28]). Both DSC traces show completion of reaction at temperatures below 560 °C.
Energy release for monomolecular explosives HMX, TNT and TATB, for energetic composite Al/Fe2O3, [21] and energy release by mass for four red/gray chips found in the WTC dust as measured in a Differential Scanning Calorimeter.
Conclusions of new paper
Red/gray chips are scattered throughout the WTC dust
The red part of these chips is composed of nano-meter scale, intimately mixed iron oxide, elemental aluminum, silicon oxide, and an unidentified carbon compound.
These chips ignite, releasing energy on the scale of high explosives
The ignition temperature matches closely with nano-thermite
Metallic spheres form on the ignition residue
The metallic spheres have the same XEDS chemical fingerprint as spheres from known thermite reactions
We conclude that these red/gray chips are active nanothermite
Evidence for Energetic Materials at the WTC
Fires that could not be put out
All 3 WTC buildings exhibited all the characteristics of demolition
Many witnesses to explosions at the time of “collapse”
Photographs and witness testimony of molten metal and white clouds
Extremely high temperatures evidenced by metallic and other microspheres, evaporated metals and silicates
Unusual spikes in volatile organic chemical emissions, suggesting abrupt, violent fires on specific dates, and other unusual species in the environmental monitoring data, also corresponding to specific dates
Analytical data confirm the presence of nanothermites in the WTC dust
Future papers
Preparation of nanothermites and comparison to red/gray chips
FTIR analysis
M Ö ssbauer spectroscopy
Tests for other explosives (e.g. RDX)
Ignited Red/Gray chips Each blue scale-marker represents 50 microns. Ignited nanothermites
FTIR analysis of red/gray chips
Questions?
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