Editor’s note: To this day, most people, including many architects and engineers, are not aware that a third skyscraper, World Trade Center Building 7, mysteriously collapsed along with the World Trade Center Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. The official report on this building’s collapse by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been challenged by many reputable and credentialed technical professionals. The NIST analysis has not undergone the rigors of scientific peer review – the typical pathway for validating significant scientific theories. Chris Sarns’ research appears in Dr. David Ray Griffin’s book titled The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7. The studies below represent years of work by Chris Sarns in unraveling some of the most glaring inconsistencies and outright frauds in the NIST report on World Trade Center 7. He demonstrates that the NIST’s theory of the fire-induced collapse of Building 7 is faulty and misleading.

The destruction of this skyscraper on September 11 was truly unprecedented in the history of high-rise buildings. More than 1,900 architects and engineers at AE911Truth are demanding a new investigation.

Chris Sarns has also been deeply involved in the work of AE911Truth, where he provides his expertise on WTC 7.

Part 1 of Chris Sarns’ report, regarding the burned-out fire in WTC7, is available here.

Part 2 of Chris Sarns' report, examining NIST's claim of thermal expansion, is available here.

Quotes from the NIST WTC7 report are shown in "brown"

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3. MISSING SHEAR STUDS

NIST’s false claim in its Final Report about the lack of shear studs on the floor support girder between columns 44 and 79 is exposed.

By Chris Sarns & Judy Shelton.

The NIST Final Draft on the collapse of World Trade Center building 7 has many flaws, including blatant fraud.

In their June 2004 report (and in the actual shop drawings*), NIST referred to the use of shear studs in World Trade Center 7. Shear studs are used to keep steel floor beams and girders in place; they impart stability and strength to buildings. But in their August 2008 final report, NIST re-worded their comments on shear studs to make it appear that none were used on the floor girders.

Why would they do this? To know the answer, you need to understand NIST’s collapse theory. This is how it goes:

1. The key girder between column 79 and the exterior wall fails at floor 13.

2. Its failure causes the collapse of floors 13 through 6.

3. Column 79, now unsupported laterally by these floors, buckles and brings down the entire building.

This scenario is easier to posit if the key girder isn’t being held firmly with shear studs. Thus, in the August 2008 report, NIST did what it had to do to make it more reasonable that the girder would fail: It magically omitted the shear studs.

Compare these two paragraphs. In the excerpted paragraph of the 2004 report, NIST says that studs were used with both beams and girders, although the studs “were not indicated on the design drawings for many of the core girders” (the girder associated with column 79, by the way, was not a core girder). In the 2008 report, however, not only does NIST drop the association of girders with shear studs (first sentence of excerpted paragraph), but then they go on to imply that studs were not indicated at all on the girders (last sentence of excerpted paragraph):

June 2004 NIST app. L pg 6 [pdf pg 10]

"Most of the beams and girders were made composite with the slabs through the use of shear studs. Typically, the shear studs were 0.75 in. in diameter by 5 in. long, spaced 1 ft to 2 ft on center. Studs were not indicated on the design drawings for many of the core girders."

June 2004 Progress Report on the Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster (NIST SP 1000-5)

August 2008 NCSTAR 1-9 vol.1 pg 15 [pdf pg 59]

"Most of the beams [the words "and girders" are deleted] were made composite with the slabs through the use of shear studs. Typically, the shear studs were 0.75 in. in diameter by 5 in. long, spaced [the words "1 to" are deleted] 2 ft on center**. Studs were not indicated on the design drawings for [the words "many of the core" are deleted] the girders."

Structural Fire Response and Probable Collapse Sequence of World Trade Center Building 7, Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster (NIST NCSTAR 1-9) VOLUMES 1 and 2

Then, in this paragraph of the 2008 report, they use the “absence” of shear studs to help make their case:

August 2008 NCSTAR 1A pg 49 [pdf pg 87]

"At Column 79, heating and expansion of the floor beams in the northeast corner caused the loss of connection between the column and the key girder. Additional factors that contributed to the failure of the critical north-south girder were (1) the absence of shear studs that would have provided lateral restraint and (2) the one-sided framing of the east floor beams that allowed the beams to push laterally on the girders, due to thermal expansion of the beams."

Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7, Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster (NIST NCSTAR 1A)

This deliberate distortion of the evidence can only be called fraud. Even those who have accepted the official story must acknowledge that NIST’s misstatements of its own report are not mistakes. They are bending the facts to accommodate a theory that cannot, so to speak, stand up.

 *NCSTAR 1-9, Vol. 2, Fig. 12-4

** "on center" - a term that means "apart"

 

Structural engineer Ron Brookman found that the Salvarinas “Fabrication and Construction Aspects” a document that outlines the basic structural system of WTC 7, shows 30 shear studs on the girder in question.

Seven World Trade Center, New York, Fabrication and Construction Aspects

The erection drawings show field-installed studs on the beams but not the girder between columns 44 and 79, leaving open the possibility that they were installed in the fabrication shop before being brought to the site. A note on the drawing says "For additional studs see cust. dwg. S8," but the corresponding note has been erased.

WTC 7 Blueprints Exposed Via FOIA Request: Building Plans Allow for Deeper Analysis of Skyscraper’s Destruction

Drawing E12/13