Quote:
Originally Posted by jsr
On the program they claimed wind tunnel testing had revealed issues with the covered spire. I don't recall ever hearing about that.
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Yes, I saw that. The paranoid conspiracy theorist in me wants to say "they faked" the wind tunnel tests to give themselves a non monetary reason for eliminating the spire covering. But the other voices in my head find him annoying and don't usually give him opportunity to speak.
Wind tunnel testing a big spire like that is normal procedure. An extreme oscillation of the spire could potentially rip it from its mount and bring a 400 foot, couple hundred ton spear of steel down on the streets of lower Manhattan. Not good.
If truly the case, the "monetary reason" for canceling the spire covering could actually be referring to the redesign costs that would have needed to be incurred in order to correct the design flaws causing the oscillation. It would have probably meant a completely new steel inner structure and outer covering design. All very costly if the simple answer was to continue using the steel structure, but just not use the outer covering.
Nevertheless, I think the oscillation at low wind speeds pretty much puts an end to speculation that one day they might actually outfit the spire with its outer covering.
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