Well Chris, the important thing to remember is that NIST admits it found no evidence that burning debris from the Towers started fires in WTC7, or that fires spread from floor to floor. You are free to look into the data yourself and come to a different conclusion, but when you do that you have to make sure to clearly note that your conclusion is not NISTs conclusion because it found no evidence to support it. You have a BIG problem because several of your forum buddies like to conflate their own opinions with NISTs report, giving the false idea that NIST supports what they are saying, and then you trust them and make their opinions your own.
I looks to me that you are imagining the 4 corners supporting each other with rigid perimeter frame "walls" between them. The problem is not the corners, but the 47 story high walls, which are way too tall and wide to remain rigid without support from the core. Once the floors/girder assemblies outside the core start to fail, the perimeter exterior frame starts to sag inward, and this is exactly what NISTs computer model shows, meaning it fails to support the notion that the perimeter could remain rigid while the interior collapses.
NISTs model also fails to show the free fall collapse, and NIST was on record saying free fall would be impossible, before Chandler proved it.
In the end the problem is that NISTs work did not explain the observed phenomena of the collapse, such as the symmetric free fall, which is what it was supposed to do. NIST failed big time.
Don´t you think it would be more fitting to ask for a real independent scientific investigation to find out what really happened, rather than laymen and anonymous forum posters making up imagined stories of what could have happended?
Anonymous Ziggi,
NIST did say "it is possible that potential ignition sources entered WTC 7 through openings created in the south and west faces of the building during the collapses of the towers. ... the available data suggests that this was
highly likely." Whether fires were started by the Tower collapse or arsonists is secondary to whether the whole perimeter wall coming down as a unit is evidence of CD and simultaneous destruction of columns.
I have seen the Shyam Sunder video where he said freefall of Building 7 would be impossible, and he explains why as if he were you! When NIST's final report said that these 2.25 seconds of freefall were consistent with their prior explanations, I believe that was a mistake which explanations from JREF people were unconvincing. You're right about that, in my opinion. And BTW I asked NIST about this problem and never got a satisfactory reply.
You say, "The problem is not the corners, but the 47 story high walls, which are way too tall and wide to remain rigid without support from the core." But we have the observed phenomena of the two penthouses collapsing (we don't know for sure how far down). I hypothesized that the corners would provide a few flimsy seconds of support to help keep the perimeter wall standing for a short time.
But if you believe in CD, how do you explain that it sure looks to me like a core collapse preceded the perimeter wall collapse? Seems like there is the same problem whether it's CD or natural collapse. In your CD scenario, how does the wall remain standing even after the core has at least a partial or maybe total collapse (we can't see and assert with certainty)?
BTW from the very beginning, when I debated Richard Gage in 2011, I said I was not a defender of the NIST Report, but an advocate for natural collapse of the buildings. As just one example, JSanderO has a very different collapse scenario based on his research. I won't say that his is better or worse than NIST's, because again I am no engineer. And CTBUH had its suggestions for improvements on the NIST Report. The NIST Report doesn't have to be perfect. The bar for me for wanting a new investigation would be positive evidence of CD, such as tons of thermite in the dust, or CD devices in the debris, or melted ends of the columns, or any number of things for which no evidence has been found, in my opinion. Another bar would be even one of those investigations by Purdue, Hawaii, CTBUH, or any other major organization proclaiming that the NIST Report is fatally flawed. Not one major organization anywhere has said this! Everyone agrees with the basic collapse scenario and questions only some of the details.