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Did you guys know that WTC Twin Towers (even demolished) are of significant importance to Structural Engineering as they were the first buildings to have a lot of new structural innovations incorporated. One example is that they were the fist structure outside of the military and the nuclear industries designed to resist the impact of a jet airliner. The structural engineers that designed the WTC Twin Towers think that the fire-resistive systems, however, did not and could not have contemplated the subsequent fire fueled by thousands of gallons of jet fuel. You can read their complete statement at: http://www.lera.com/world-trade-center-sep-11-2011- A listing of the innovations incorporated into the World Trade Center is over long. Still, listing just a few of the ideas and innovations conceived and developed by LERA: - The tubular framing system for the perimeter wallresisting all of the lateral forces imposed on the building; - The introduction of the outrigger system; structurally linking the outside wall to the services core; - The prefabrication in structural steel to a degree never before achieved; - The use of the boundary-layer wind tunnel for predicting both steady-state and dynamic forces on structure and on glazing, and for developing the dynamic component of wind-induced structure motion; - Motion-simulators to determine acceptable levels of wind-induced structure motion; - The viscoelastic damping system, effectively dissipating the dynamic component of building motion; - The development of a theory to predict the breakage rate of glass under the dynamic forces of the wind; - The development of a theory to predict stack action and both temperature- and wind-induced airflow within a high-rise building; - The concept of the fire-rated shaft Wall partition system, which partition has replaced masonry and plaster walls… at the time the standard enclosure for elevators, stairs, duct shafts and the like. Source: 1) http://www.lera.com/world-trade-center-