According to a definition engineering is the use of math and science in order to solve certain problems. Engineering is not a new concept to the people around the world and is in fact has been used for ages. It is a perfect blend of invention and innovation which has lead to the creation of various marvels in the world. But nothing in this world is perfect. Everything has its cons. Though engineering failures happen seldom but they are capable of causing a great deal of loss of life and capital. Even a slight negligence in the engineering of anything can lead to a great disaster. Ten worst engineering negligence that turned into the biggest fails are listed below:
- TITANIC
The unsinkable ship was set to sail on 19 April 1914, to voyage from Southampton, England to New York, United States but never reached its destination. On its very first journey, the massive ship collided with an iceberg and sunk under the ocean within 3 hours of the accident. Being the biggest ship of its time, it resulted in the death of around 1500 passengers. There were a number of engineering blunders that led to such a massive destruction. The titanic weighed around 46,000,000kg and was ignorantly heading at a high speed towards the iceberg. By the time the ice berg was spotted it was too late. The right side of the ship was damaged allowing water to flow inside the ship. Other factors responsible were the breakage of the hull steel and the wrought iron rivets, due to ‘brittle fracture’ (a terrible fail in structural materials).
- TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE COLLAPSE
The Tacoma Narrow Bridge was a Twin Suspension bridge in Washington, United States which opened and collapsed in 1948. The bridge extended over Tacoma Narrows strait was the third longest suspension bridge in the history. So, what actually went wrong? From inception the bridge use to swing in windy conditions and this was the main reason for its collapse. Another reason for its fall was the failure of the band cable at the north side of the bridge. Due to this on November 7, 1948 the when strong wind blew over the bridge at a speed of 65 km/h, in matter of minutes the bridge had a twisting motion in two different directions. So the bridge came crashing down at a very high speed. Other reasons for its fall were its aerodynamically unstable shape.
- CHALLENGER EXPLOSION
On the 28th of January in 1986, 7 astronauts lost their lives in the explosion of the space shuttle challenger of U.S. The mission aimed at launching a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite and a Spartan Halley spacecraft but never succeeded because of its crash within minutes of its launch. The night before the launch cold waves led to the deposition of thick ice on the launch pad. It reduced the resilience if the rubber O-rings between the lower segment of the rocket booster. Another factor responsible was an effect called “joint rotation”, which paved a way for exhaust gas to be released from the booster which eroded a strut securing the booster’s base. This made the booster’s base spin outward and ultimately led to the explosion. On investigation, NASA as a whole and contactor Morton Thiokol, were held responsible for the poor engineering of the shuttle and its fail.
- CHERNOBYL
The Chernobyl accident of 1986 is remembered till date for its severity. The accident happened because of the flaws in the nuclear reactor design. The power plant was also operated by inadequate trained workers and the tragedy was outcome of lack of any safety measure. Analyzing the duration for which the turbines in the reactor can spin and provide power to the circulation pumps in the absence of electricity, the reactor became unstable and went out of control. 5% of the radioactive reactor’s core was released into the environment because of the explosion. Two workers in the plant died on the night of the explosion and 28 more workers died within 3 months due to Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS). Since the ill fated incident, around 5000 thyroid cancer cases were diagnosed in the nearby areas of the reactor. One of its kinds, the Chernobyl was the only accident with radiation related casualty at such a scale.
- SS SULTANA
Sultana, a wooden steamboat that sank on the night on 27 April, 1865 drowning the 2200 passengers abode on it into Mississippi River. The ship was designed to carry around 350 to 375 passengers but on the night of drowning the ship was carrying around 2200 passengers which were way more than its intended capacity. Most of its passengers were Union Prisoners of war who were brought to Vicksburg to be released. Mason, The captain on the ship in greed of money agreed to overload the boat. The mechanic on the boat felt the need to cut out and replace a ruptured seam, because of the leakage from one of the boilers. But, Mason along with Nathan Wintringer, the chief engineer on the ship neglected his words and asked him to make temporary repairs. This temporary fix was made in less than a day but temporary things do not sustain long. Three of the four boilers of the ship exploded, leading to the demise of the steamboat as well as the passengers abode. The death toll from incident was estimated to be 1800 people making it the worst marine disaster in the history of America.
- BANQIAO DAM FAILURE
The Banqiao Dam along with 61 other dams in Henan, China collapsed as a dreadful consequence of Typhoon Nina in August 1975. The dam was built over Ru River and was efficient to bear a half meter of rainfall for3-4 days. It was built as a measure for Flood- prevention and electricity production. But it rained six times than what the dam could endure and the typhoon was making its way. On the night of August 8, the water level reached over a foot above the dam’s crest. This initiated a chain reaction of dam bursts. With an estimated death toll of 230,000, it is one of the worst disasters in history. Chen Xing, the chief engineer at the dam, had already warned about the danger the water cables possess and the disaster the dam was capable of making. His suggestion of twelve sluices was also neglected and the dam had only 5 sluices.
- HYATT REGENCY HOTEL WALKWAY COLLAPSE
On july17, 1981 The Hyatt Regency hotel in the Kansas City organized a tea dance in the hotel’s lobby where 114 people lost their lives and 216 people were severely injured. The 40 story building has 1600 guests present when walkways in the second floor and the fourth floor collapsed. The lobby of the hotel had atrium with walkways suspended through the ceiling. The walkways were made of steel, concrete and glass and were connected to the second, third and fourth floors. According to the original architectural plan, the second floor walkway was supposed to be suspended from the ceiling with the help of six steel hangers. But the contractor deviated from the original plan and connected the second floor walkway to the fourth-floor walkway and the fourth floor walkway to the ceiling. In doing so two sets of tie rods were used which was not a part of the original plan. This put double strain on the beam and hanger rods of the fourth floor walkway. Since the second floor walkway was below the fourth floor , as the later collapsed, the former automatically came under it. Also the rods were carrying more stress than they were meant to, so the design of the rod was also responsible for the disaster.
- QUEBEC BRIDGE COLLAPSE
Though the Quebec Bridge in Canada is functional at present, but the fall of the bridge is historic because it collapsed not once but twice. The first time the bridge collapsed was in 1907 while it was still in making. It first slump killed 75 workers. The cause of the fall was unsuitable design of the compression chords. The longest cantilever bridge of its time collapsed the second time in 1916. This time the central span fell into the river causing 13 casualties. The structure of the bridge was inadequate and it was informed by the chief engineer on the project 6 weeks prior to the accident. Due to budget restrictions the design and the construction of the bridge was compromised.
· BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY
The Bhopal gas tragedy has an impact on the people living in the city even after more than 30 years since the incident. On December 3, 1984, 45 tons of methyl Isocyanate was leaked from an insecticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The gas spread over the neighborhood in a drop of a hat. It caused death of almost 20 thousand people immediately and lakhs of people suffered from respiratory and other kind of diseases. The plant was not well equipped with no manual backup system, a broken MIC tank alarm, only one functional gas operator, a malfunctioned MIC tank pressure gauge, to name a few. The disaster was a result of all chemical, civil and mechanical fails.
· COLUMBIA SPACE SHUTTLE DISASTER
After the Challenger disaster, the second most fatal incident that cost the life of seven Astronauts is the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster. On February 1, 2003 Columbia began its descent on earth, but just 38 miles above the earth’s surface it exploded, killing the crew members abode. The cause of the explosion was damage in the edge of the left wing by the polyurethane foam shed discarded during the launch. Because of this the aluminum metal frame could not resist the high temperature during reentering. In 1990s, upgrading the leading edge was suggested but the proposal was not funded and was ignored. Though no particular individual was to be blamed yet because of flaws in the organizational structure and processes of NASA, safety was compromised.
