Engineering Disasters

Learning from past failures helps to prevent future mistakes

Engineering Disasters and Learning from Failure

Engineers respond to a customer's need by building or creating something along a certain set of guidelines which performs a given function. That device, plan or creation should perform its function without fail.

Therefore engineers must struggle to design in such a way as to avoid any failure. Most importantly to avoid catastrophic failure which could result in damage to the environment, loss of property, and injury or loss of life. Through analysis and study of engineering disasters, modern engineering designers can learn what not to do and how to create designs with a greater resistance to failure.

Primary Causes of Engineering Disasters

The primary causes of engineering disasters are usually attributed to: human factors (including both unethical and 'ethical' failures or accidents) design flaws (many of which are also the result of unethical practices) materials failures extreme conditions or environments and most commonly to combinations of several of these reasons

When: September 11 , 2001 What: Planes Crashed into the towers as an act of terrorism against U.S. What Failed: The structural supports of the building Why?: Plane Collision Continuous fire and failed sprinkler system Progressive Collapse

The World th Trade Center

The World Trade Center

Possible Corrective Actions Supports that do not allow progressive collapse More effective fireproofing material Who is at Fault? Terrorists- Al Qaeda Engineers?

The Hindenburg Incident

The Hindenburg Incident occurred on May 6, 1937. The Zepplin that flew from Europe across the Atlantic Ocean was known as the Titanic of the air. As the huge Zepplin approached Lakehurst, New Jersey, the large aircraft burst into flame and went down in a burning heap of fire. The burning Zepplin fell from the sky. It only killed 35 people, but injured many more. The biggest question of all was how did this happen?

The Hindenburg Incident

After the incident occurred, it was determined that the new & improved covering the exterior of the aircraft was very flammable. The slightest spark easily could have set the covering ablaze. Most people believed that the air inside the aircraft keeping it aloft was to blame, saying that it was too rich in oxygen, however, this is not the case. It is believed that as the Zepplin approached Lakehurst, static friction caused a spark that sent the craft crashing to the ground!

The Hindenburg Incident

Since then, all new materials undergo rigorous property testing for strength and ignition point (the point when an object is able to light on fire)

The Hindenburg Incident

Learning from this incident has enabled us to safely travel the skies using air and hydrogen mixtures. Due to the Hindenburg Incident, engineers have learned that nothing can be over looked.

Kansas City Hyatt Regency

July 17, 1981
During a dance contest the second and fourth floor walkways Collapse killing a 114 and leaving over 200 Injured

Kansas City Hyatt Regency

Causes of Failure

Design Change of Walkway 1. Single rod to double rod changed loading on joint 2. Occurred so rod wouldnt have to be threaded Did Not Meet Building Codes 1. Required that joints could support 151 kN 2. Designed so joints could support 91 kN Poor Construction 1. Improper welding and connections 2. Inadequate building materials

Kansas City Hyatt Regency

The serious flaws of the revised design were further compounded by the fact that both designs placed the bolts directly in a welded joint between two facing C channels, the weakest structural point in the box beams. Photographs of the wreckage showed excessive deformations of the cross-section.

Kansas City Hyatt Regency

The Missouri Board of Architects, Professional Engineers, and Land Surveyors convicted the engineers employed by Jack D. Gillum and Associates who had signed off on the final drawings of gross negligence, misconduct, and unprofessional conduct in the practice of engineering.

Titanic Disaster

Titanic ship which has the reputation of unsinkable was sank in April 15,1912 at 2 am. The ship was equip with all sort of facilities and built using the latest technology. The ship lurched sideways when it hit and then kept bouncing back against the berg leaving spaced ruptures in the steel plate below the water line.

The steel that used to make the ship had amounts of phosphorous, oxygen and sulfur which caused the steel to become more brittle as it sailed through the cold Atlantic ocean. It was considered the best steel of the time, however it wouldnt be acceptable for constructing ships today.

Titanic Disaster
It is possible that whatever steel was used, the ship would have suffered the same damage. The ship could have avoided the ice, but the captain picked a faster course and had the ships speed at maximum at the time it struck the iceberg. The responsibility fell upon the captain since he failed to identify or ignored the ice dangers in advance.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

On November 7, 1940 a horrifying experience changed the science of bridge design forever. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge was a suspension bridge that caught the wind rather than allowing it to pass through. The wind set up a standing wave in the bridge resulting in a corkscrewing motion of the roadway. There are several accounts of drivers saying that the 2,800 foot center was more of a roller costar that a bridge. The bridge was nicknamed galloping gertie

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

A 42 mile per hour wind storm lead the to bridge's collapse. Before the end, the bridges sides were reportedly 28 feet higher that the other. After this catastrophe, engineers began including aerodynamics into the art of bridge design. Engineers later reinforced bridges such as the golden gate, and many other suspended bridges

Challenger Accident

The space shuttle Challenger was destroyed on a mission in 1986. STS-51-L was the name of the mission which the main objective was to deploy the Tracking Data relay Satelite-2 All 7 crew members on board were killed which consisted of five men, and two women which one of them was a school teacher.

Challenger Accident

The cause: 73 seconds after launch, Challenger was destroyed because of an O-ring seal failure in the booster system. The O-ring became brittle and allowed a plume of flame to stream out of the SRB which weakened the external fuel tanks. This lead to the orbiter's rapid breakup under aerodynamic stresses.

Challenger Accident

President Reagan appointed a special commission to investigate the accident called the Rogers Commission. The Rogers Commission concluded that the poor design of the O-ring and the lack of inspections lead to the disaster. This was the tenth and last mission flown by the challenger. There were no farther manned flights until late 1988.

Apollo 13

Launch 4/11/1970 Landed 4/17/1970. Date of Explosion: 4/13/1970 Apollo 13 was the third planned mission to moon where they were to explore the Fra Mauro Formation. About 200,000 miles from the moon while stirring the oxygen tanks, an explosion occurred in oxygen tank 2.

Apollo 13

The oxygen was stirred to stop stratification of the liquid oxygen. Teflon-insulated wires, powering the stirring motor, caught on fire. The concentrated oxygen and flames caused the tank to explode. Better insulated wires were used in future missions. No single person was found responsible, but the failure was attributed to the wires manufacturer.

Three Mile Island

Date: March 28, 1979 What: Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station partial core meltdown What/Why Failed: the plants main feed water pumps in the secondary non-nuclear cooling system failed. Poor operator training was determined to be the leading factor in the failure.

Three Mile Island

The accident caused concerns about the possibility of radiation-induced health effects such as cancer. However, there has been no evidence of any unusual health problems in the area. The cleanup took nearly 12 years and cost approximately $973 million. Training reforms are among the most significant outcomes. Training became centered on protecting a plants cooling capacity.

Chernobyl

On April 25, 1986 in the former USSR now Ukraine, a nuclear chain reaction in the reactor went out of control creating explosions and a fireball which blew off the reactor's heavy steel and concrete lid. Lost control of the reaction was blamed on an unauthorized experiment in Reactor No. 4.

Chernobyl

Thirty-one people died immediately in the explosion. Thousands more are believed to have died since then from exposure to radioactive waste. More than 3 million of Ukraine's 50 million people were affected by the disaster.

Chernobyl

The main health concern centered around exposure to radioactive iodine. Over 116,000 people were relocated shortly after the explosion. Now years after the disaster, the people of Ukraine are still dealing with the radioactive byproducts.

New Orleans Levee

The Levee in New Orleans Failed on August 29, 2005 The levee broke from high water levels due to Hurricane Katrina. Many thousands of peoples lives were ruined in the New Orleans district.

New Orleans Levee

Reasons The Levee Failed Massive amounts of water build up behind the levee. After the pressure reached the levees breaking point, all the water drained into the city of New Orleans. Poor designs, workmanship, and bad politics all seeming lead to the failure.

Bhopal Disaster

On the night of Dec. 2nd and 3rd 1984, a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, began leaking 27 tons of the deadly gas methyl isocyanate. Soon it spread out to nearby Bhopal city. 20,000 people died from the disaster and about 120,000 people were injuried. 15 years later, researchers found chemical compounds in the water near Bhopal at levels 50 times higher than those specified by the EPA as safe.

Bhopal Disaster

In 2001 the Michigan-based chemical corporation Dow Chemical purchased Union Carbide, thereby acquiring its assets and liabilities. However both chemical company still refuse to be clean up the site. As yet, the contamination is still unsolved.

Minnesota's I-35 Bridge Collapse

The bridge collapse is being blamed on corrosion of support steel. However repairs to the bridge were underway and may have played a role in the failure.

Minnesota's I-35 Bridge Collapse

The bridge has been replaced with the latest developments in monitoring equipment to help ensure that maintenance and repairs are made in a timely manner.