Upload Login Sign Up English Engineering Catastrophes

Technology disasters oftentimes ascend from shortcuts in the design process. Engineering is the science and technology used to meet the needs and demands of guild.^[1] These demands include buildings, shipping, vessels, and computer software. In lodge to meet society's demands, the creation of newer technology and infrastructure must be met efficiently and cost-effectively. To accomplish this, managers and engineers need a mutual arroyo to the specified demand at hand. This can atomic number 82 to shortcuts in technology blueprint to reduce costs of structure and fabrication. Occasionally, these shortcuts can lead to unexpected design failures.

Overview [edit]

Failure occurs when a structure or device has been used by the limits of design that inhibits proper office.^[2] If a construction is designed to just support a certain amount of stress, strain, or loading and the user applies greater amounts, the construction will begin to deform and eventually fail. Several factors contribute to failure including a flawed blueprint, improper use, financial costs, and miscommunication.

Safety [edit]

In the field of engineering science, the importance of condom is emphasized. Learning from past engineering failures and infamous disasters such as the Challenger explosion brings the sense of reality to what can happen when appropriate safety precautions are not taken. Rubber tests such as tensile testing, finite chemical element analysis (FEA), and failure theories help provide information to design engineers about what maximum forces and stresses tin exist applied to a certain region of a pattern. These precautionary measures assistance prevent failures due to overloading and deformation.^[3]

Static loading [edit]

Stress–strain curve showing typical yield behavior for ductile metals. Stress (σ) is shown as a office of strain (ϵ). Stress and strain are correlated through Young's Modulus: σ=Eϵ where E is the slope of the linear department of the plot.

Static loading is when a force is applied slowly to an object or structure. Static load tests such as tensile testing, bending tests, and torsion tests aid determine the maximum loads that a pattern tin withstand without permanent deformation or failure. Tensile testing is mutual when calculating a stress-strain curve which can make up one's mind the yield strength and ultimate force of a specific test specimen.

Tensile testing on a blended specimen

The specimen is stretched slowly in tension until information technology breaks, while the load and the distance across the gage length are continuously monitored. A sample subjected to a tensile test can typically withstand stresses higher than its yield stress without breaking. At a certain signal, however, the sample volition intermission into two pieces. This happens because the microscopic cracks that resulted from yielding will spread to large scales. The stress at the point of complete breakage is called a material's ultimate tensile force.^[four] The result is a stress-strain curve of the material's behavior under static loading. Through this tensile testing, the yield strength is establish at the point where the material begins to yield more readily to the applied stress, and its rate of deformation increases.^[v]

Fatigue [edit]

When a material undergoes permanent deformation from exposure to radical temperatures or constant loading, the functionality of the material can become impaired.^{[6] [vii]} This fourth dimension–dependent plastic distortion of material is known as creep. Stress and temperature are both major factors of the rate of pitter-patter. In order for a design to be considered safe, the deformation due to creep must be much less than the strain at which failure occurs. Once the static loading causes the specimen to surpass this point, the specimen will begin permanent, or plastic, deformation.^[seven]

In mechanical design, most failures are due to fourth dimension-varying, or dynamic, loads that are applied to a system. This phenomenon is known as fatigue failure. Fatigue is known equally the weakness in a fabric due to variations of stress that are repeatedly applied to said material.^[eight] For example, when stretching a rubber ring to a certain length without breaking it (i.e. not surpassing the yield stress of the rubber band) the rubber band will return to its original form after release; however, repeatedly stretching the safe band with the same amount of forcefulness thousands of times would create micro-cracks in the band which would lead to the safe band existence snapped. The same principle is applied to mechanical materials such as metals.^[5]

Fatigue failure always begins at a crack that may form over fourth dimension or due to the manufacturing process used. The three stages of fatigue failure are:

1. Crack initiation- when repeated stress creates a fracture in the material being used
2. Crack propagation- when the initiated cleft develops in the material to a larger scale due to tensile stress.
3. Sudden fracture failure- caused by unstable cleft growth to the point where the textile will fail

Note that fatigue does non imply that the force of the material is lessened later failure. This notion was originally referred to a cloth becoming "tired" after cyclic loading.^[five]

Miscommunication [edit]

Engineering is a precise discipline, requiring communication amidst project developers. Several forms of miscommunication can atomic number 82 to a flawed blueprint. Various fields of engineering must intercommunicate, including civil, electrical, mechanical, industrial, chemic, biological, and ecology engineering. For instance, a modern automobile design requires electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, and environmental engineers to piece of work together to produce a fuel-efficient, durable production for consumers. If engineers exercise not adequately communicate among ane some other, a potential design could have flaws and be unsafe for consumer purchase. Engineering disasters can be a result of such miscommunication, including the 2005 levee failures in Greater New Orleans, Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, and the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse.^{[9] [ten] [11]}

An exceptional example of this is the Mars Climate Orbiter. "The principal cause of the orbiter's violent demise was that i piece of ground software supplied by Lockheed Martin produced results in a United States customary unit, contrary to its Software Interface Specification (Sister), while a 2d system, supplied by NASA, expected those results to be in SI units, in accordance with the SIS." Lockheed Martin and the prime contractor spectacularly failed to communicate.

Software [edit]

Software has played a function in many high-profile disasters.

• Ariane 5 Flying 501
• Mars Climate Orbiter
• TAURUS — UK share settlement arrangement and dematerialized cardinal share depository.
• Therac-25 — A radiation therapy motorcar responsible for half-dozen overdoses due to faulty software.
• Failure at Dharan — Patriot Missile clock issue.

Systems engineering [edit]

• King of beasts Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 — Faulty "MCAS" system on the Boeing 737 MAX^[12]

Examples [edit]

When larger projects such as infrastructures and airplanes fail, multiple people can be affected which leads to an engineering science disaster. A disaster is defined as a calamity that results in significant damage which may include the loss of life.^[xiii] In-depth observations and postal service-disaster analysis take been documented to a large extent to help prevent similar disasters from occurring.

Infrastructure [edit]

Ashtabula River Bridge Disaster (1876) [edit]

Tay Span Disaster (1879) [edit]

Johnstown Flood (1889) [edit]

Quebec Bridge collapse (1907) [edit]

St. Francis Dam plummet (1928) [edit]

Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse (1940) [edit]

Hyatt Regency Hotel walkway collapse (1981) [edit]

Delineation of the modified design made by the fabricator

On the night of July 17, 1981, in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, 2 suspended walkways of the Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed, killing 114 people and injuring 200 more. During this calamity, the hotel was hosting a dance competition. At that place were numerous competitors and observers standing and dancing on the suspended walkways when connections supporting the ceiling rods that hoisted both the 2d and fourth floor walkways across the atrium failed and collapsed onto the crowded start floor atrium below.^[xiv]

During investigation after the walkway collapse, architectural engineer Wayne Grand. Lischka noticed a substantial amending of the original design. The fabricator constructed a double-rod support system rather than the originally designed single-rod system without approval of the engineering design squad. In doing so, the created support beams doubled the loading on the connector which resulted in the failure of the walkway. It was documented that fifty-fifty the single-rod arrangement would have barely supported the expected load and would non have met Kansas Metropolis Building Code standards.^[fourteen]

The terminal assay of the harm had several conclusions reported including:

• The maximum load chapters of the 4th flooring walkway was simply 53% the maximum load chapters of Kansas City Building Lawmaking standards
• The fabrication alterations from the original design doubled the load that was received by the fourth floor walkway
• The deformation and distortion of the quaternary floor hanger rods back up the notion that the plummet began at that point
• No evidence that the quality of construction or cloth option played a office in the walkway collapse.^[9]

Ponte Morandi collapse (2018) [edit]

Surfside condominium building collapse (2021) [edit]

Aeronautics [edit]

Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (1986) [edit]

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on Jan 28, 1986, when the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger (OV-099) (mission STS-51-L) broke autonomously 73 seconds into its flying, leading to the deaths of its vii crew members. Disintegration of the vehicle began later on an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed at liftoff.

Infinite Shuttle Columbia disaster (2003) [edit]

The crew of the STS-107 mission.

The Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) disaster occurred on February 1, 2003 during the concluding leg of STS-107. While reentering World'southward atmosphere over Louisiana and Texas the shuttle unexpectedly disintegrated, resulting in the deaths of all seven astronauts on board. The cause was later discovered to be damage to thermal shielding tiles from impact with a falling piece of cream insulation from an external tank during the January 16 launch. It was the seventh known instance of this particular slice breaking free during launch.^[15] As the shuttle re-entered Earth'southward atmosphere at a speed of Mach 23, the wing experienced temperatures of 2,800 °F (1,540 °C). The harm from the insulation strike experienced during launch proved fatal as the shuttle disintegrated during the mission return.^[11] NASA's investigation team found melted aluminum on the thermal tiles and within edges of the left fly of the spacecraft, supporting the notion that the Columbia'southward destruction was due to hot gases that penetrated the damaged spot on the fly.^[16]

Roger L. Thousand. Dunbar of New York Academy and Raghu Garud of Pennsylvania State University procured a case description of what missteps NASA had taken that led to the Columbia spacecraft ending. Mission control deemed that foam shedding was a not a safety factor prior to launch, believed harm of the shuttle panels were not a significant issue which in plow delayed analysis on amercement every bit of January 17, 2003, and denied mission activity request between January 18 and 19. Information technology was non until January 24, 2003, that mission control had classified the damage as a problematic issue. These missteps in communication between mission control and the debris assessment team inhibited a proper examination of the amercement to the spacecraft.^[11]

Vessels [edit]

Liberty ships in WWII [edit]

Early Liberty ships suffered hull and deck cracks, and a few were lost to such structural defects. During Earth War II, there were nearly 1,500 instances of significant brittle fractures. 3 of the two,710 Liberties congenital bankrupt in one-half without alert. In cold temperatures the steel hulls cracked, resulting in later on ships being constructed using more suitable steel.

Steamboat Sultana (1865) [edit]

Depiction of the steamboat Sultana disaster

On the night of April 26, 1865, the passenger steamboat Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River seven miles (xi km) north of Memphis, Tennessee. This maritime disaster is categorized as the worst in United states of america history. The explosion resulted in the loss of ane,547 lives, surpassing the total number of deaths caused by the sinking of Titanic (which, despite New York being the Titanic 's intended destination, is not classified every bit a United states maritime disaster since it did not involve a United states of america - flagged vessel and did non occur in Usa territorial waters). Sultana was overcrowded due to a soldier-prisoner exchange towards the terminate of the American Ceremonious War. The overcrowding contributed significantly to the high death toll. Another reason for the high decease price was the steamer's mostly-wood construction, which was documented to accept been completely engulfed in flames approximately seven minutes later on the explosion. The explosion happened effectually midnight which was when the Mississippi River was at inundation stage. It was documented that the unmarried metal lifeboat on lath Sultana was thrown from the upper deck, landing on several people swimming from the steamer, resulting in further deaths.^[17]

The disaster was believed to exist the result of a repaired boiler explosion that led to the explosion of two of the three other boilers. The initial boiler had been previously found to have had a leak and was improperly repaired by boilermaker R. G. Taylor due to orders from Captain J. Cass Mason considering of time constraints in Vicksburg, Mississippi. While chief engineer Nathan Wintringer approved the repaired boiler, Taylor stated that the boiler could not exist considered safety since the boiler appeared to exist burned from being worked on with too trivial h2o. ^[17] Traveling forth the Mississippi River, the boiler exploded causing fire to spread throughout the steamer. The fire on board led to the collapse of both of Sultana 's smokestacks, killing many passengers. Sultana 's captain died with the send.^[18]

See also [edit]

• Industrial disasters
• List of structural failures and collapses
• Nuclear and radiation accidents
• List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents
• List of maritime disasters
• Structural failure
• Normalization of deviance

References [edit]

1. ^ "Engineering." Definition of in Oxford Dictionaries (British & World English). N.p., n.d. Web. 22 February. 2013.
2. ^ "Failure." Definition of in Oxford Dictionaries (British & Globe English). North.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.
3. ^ Dax, Mark (Dec 1997). "Failure Analysis Prevents Disaster Reoccurance". R&D Magazine. EBSOhost.com. pp. 30–31.
4. ^ Doehring, James; Fritsky, Lauren. "What Is a Static Load?". WiseGeek. Retrieved Oct 3, 2020.
5. ^ ^{a b c} Norton, Robert L. (2011). Auto Design: An Integrated Approach. Boston: Prentice Hall.
6. ^ "CreepAbout Our Definitions: All Forms of a Discussion (noun, Verb, Etc.) Are At present Displayed on One Folio." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2013.
7. ^ ^{a b} Hibbeler, R. C. (2011). Mechanics of Materials. Boston: Prentice Hall.
8. ^ "Fatigue." Definition of in Oxford Dictionaries (British & World English). N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2013
9. ^ ^{a b} Marshall, Richard D. (1982). "Investigation of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Walkways Collapse". U.S. Dept. Of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards. Washington, D.C.
10. ^ Carl Strock. "Defense.gov News Transcript: Defense Department Special Briefing on Efforts to Mitigate Infrastructure Damage from Hurricane Katrina". United States Department of Defense. Archived from the original on 2012-12-31. Retrieved 22 Feb 2013.
11. ^ ^{a b c} Dunbar, R. L. G.; R., Garud (2009). "Distributed Knowledge and Indeterminate Meaning: The Instance of the Columbia Shuttle Flying". Organization Studies. 30 (4): 397–421. doi:10.1177/0170840608101142. S2CID 145524035.
12. ^ "Boeing 737 Max MCAS system explained". BBC News.
13. ^ "Disaster." Definition of in Oxford Dictionaries (British & Globe English language). Due north.p., n.d. Spider web. 22 Feb. 2013.
14. ^ ^{a b} "Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse." ENGINEERING.com. Due north.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2013.
15. ^ Columbia Accident Investigation Lath, Written report Book 1, August 2003
16. ^ "Molten Aluminum institute on Columbia's thermal tiles". U.s. Today. Associated Printing. March iv, 2003. Retrieved February 15, 2013
17. ^ ^{a b} Berryman, J.O.; Potter; Oliver, S. (May 1988). "The Ill-Fated Passenger Steamer Sultana: An Inland Maritime Mass Disaster of Unparalleled Magnitude" (PDF). Periodical of Forensic Sciences. JFSCA. 33 (3): 842–850. doi:10.1520/JFS12500J. ^{[ permanent expressionless link ]}
18. ^ Trek Journal Stephen Ambrose May. "Disaster on the Mississippi: The Sultana Tragedy." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, Spider web. 22 Feb. 2013.

weaverpinuplanst.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_disasters

Share this post