Kathy Stansfield reports on the Evening Meeting of 3 June, 'Recent advances in mitigation of progressive structural collapse' given by Dr Fahim Sadek (NIST USA). There was no advance paper. A capacity audience turned up to hear Dr Sadek, who, as Research Engineer in the Building and Fire Research Lab at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), was responsible for the team investigating the impact of aircraft on the 9/11 collapse of the Twin Towers, and work following Hurricane Katrina. He explained that two sets of guidelines on progressive collapse had been developed in the US, based on British Standards and UK experience. Following 9/11 NIST's report contained 30 recommendations, including improving standards for mitigating progressive collapse. Dr Sadek said that the research had shown the importance of structural behaviour as a complete system.
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