There's also the issue of density. You can blow more smoke in less volume if it's a denser grade of smoke.

My Google Alert linked to Residual Forces, which linked over to the original Hometown Source item:

by T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter

Former Ventura Transportation Commissioner Elwyn Tinklenberg questions whether the recent preliminary findings by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on the I-35W bridge collapse — a finding that suggested a design flaw likely brought down the bridge — has answered anything.

The NTSB’s asserts that the use of thinner connector plates in the bridge design — half-inch thick plates instead of inch thick — could have been a fatal design flaw.

But Tinklenberg explained that there’s also the issue of metallurgy.

Depending on how steel is tempered or otherwise fashioned, a half-inch steel plate can actually be stronger than an inch thick steel plate, Tinklenberg opined.

Come on. They do not just spec a thickness. They specify a grade. If one-inch thick steel of a particular grade were specified; and 1/2 inch steel of that grade were used, well, the answer is --- what ---



Metallurgy.