Last september we did two thermite experiments here in germany. One with a steel pipe welded onto a flange of a HEB column, packed with 5 kilo common used thermite, the other with a "combustion chamber", with three sites of the reaction stalled. The outcome was very different.

See yourself:

In the first experiment the molten iron did nothing to the column, because it splashed away before it hit the surface. In the second the reaction lasted much longer and more concentrate, the column did glow afterwards in bright orange colour, indication temperatures between 850° and 1.000° centigrade.See my blog entry on it, translated to english language via google translator.

http://translate.google.de/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.911-archiv...

Please also remind the experiment by Jon Cole, who showed way better what thermite can do to steel.
http://911blogger.com/news/2011-01-31/911-experiments-eliminate-impossible