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| engineering failures in history: The Biggest Engineering Failures Connie Colwell Miller, 2018-01-01 The world is full of engineering marvels created by humankind. But when something goes wrong, the most amazing structure can become a horrific nightmare. Get the details of some of the most disastrous engineering failures in human history. |
| engineering failures in history: The Book of Massively Epic Engineering Disasters Sean Connolly, 2017-10-04 It’s hands-on science with a capital “E”—for engineering. Beginning with the toppling of the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, to the destructive, laserlike sunbeams bouncing off London’s infamous “Fryscraper” in 2013, here is an illustrated tour of the greatest engineering disasters in history, from the bestselling author of The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science. Each engineering disaster includes a simple, exciting experiment or two using everyday household items to explain the underlying science and put learning into action. Understand the Titanic’s demise by sinking an ice-cube-tray ocean liner in the bathtub. Stomp on a tube of toothpaste to demonstrate what happens to non-Newtonian fluids under pressure—and how a ruptured tank sent a tsunami of molasses through the streets of Boston in 1919. From why the Leaning Tower of Pisa leans to the fatal design flaw in the Sherman tank, here’s a book of science at its most riveting. |
| engineering failures in history: To Engineer is Human Henry Petroski, 2018-10-16 “Though ours is an age of high technology, the essence of what engineering is and what engineers do is not common knowledge. Even the most elementary of principles upon which great bridges, jumbo jets, or super computers are built are alien concepts to many. This is so in part because engineering as a human endeavor is not yet integrated into our culture and intellectual tradition. And while educators are currently wrestling with the problem of introducing technology into conventional academic curricula, thus better preparing today’s students for life in a world increasingly technological, there is as yet no consensus as to how technological literacy can best be achieved. I believe, and I argue in this essay, that the ideas of engineering are in fact in our bones and part of our human nature and experience. Furthermore, I believe that an understanding and an appreciation of engineers and engineering can be gotten without an engineering or technical education. Thus I hope that the technologically uninitiated will come to read what I have written as an introduction to technology. Indeed, this book is my answer to the questions 'What is engineering?' and 'What do engineers do?' - Henry Petroski, To Engineer is Human |
| engineering failures in history: To Forgive Design Henry Petroski, 2012-04-13 Argues that failures in structural engineering are not necessarily due to the physical design of the structures, but instead a misunderstanding of how cultural and socioeconomic constraints would affect the structures. |
| engineering failures in history: The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science Sean Connolly, 2011-11-15 Stand back! Genius at work! Encase your little bother in a giant soap bubble. Drop mentos into a bottle of diet soda and stand back as a geyser erupts. Launch a rocket made from a film canister. Here are 64 amazing experiments that snap, crackle, pop, ooze, crash, boom, and stink. Giant air cannons. Home-made lightning. Marshmallows on steroids. Matchbox microphones. There’s even an introduction to alchemy. (Not sure what that is? Think “medieval wizard.”) None of the experiments requires special training, and all use stuff found in the kitchen or in the garden shed. You’d be irresponsible not to try them. ATTENTION, PARENTS: Yes, your kids may need your help with a few experiments. And yes, sometimes it may get a tad messy. But it’s not pure mayhem. The balloon rocket whizzing through the garden? It demonstrates Newton’s Third Law of Motion. That chunk of potato launched across the kitchen from a tube? Welcome to Boyle’s Law. Every experiment demonstrated real science, at its most memorable. |
| engineering failures in history: Construction Disasters Steven S. Ross, 1984 |
| engineering failures in history: Success Through Failure Henry Petroski, 2018-05-29 This book examines the importance of engineering design as well as society's ability to respond to design flaws. |
| engineering failures in history: Engineering Failures and Their Lessons... Edward Godfrey, 2013-12 Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy. |
| engineering failures in history: The Biggest Engineering Failures Connie Colwell Miller, 2018 The world is full of engineering marvels created by humankind. But when something goes wrong, the most amazing structure can become a horrific nightmare. Get the details of some of the most disastrous engineering failures in human history. |
| engineering failures in history: Failures in Civil Engineering J. David Frost, 1995-01-01 This convenient summary of case studies reviews the performance and failure of structural, foundation, and geoenvironmental civil engineering systems. Failures in embankments, dams, slopes, landfills, recycling facilities, bridges, and buildings are covered. For each study, an outline, a summary of the lessons learned, and a list of background references are provided. The ongoing study of the tower of Pisa, the lower San Fernando Dam, Love Canal, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the Cypress Viaduct, the Hartford Civic Center Coliseum, and the Hyatt Regency Hotel Pedestrian Walkways are among the case studies examined. |
| engineering failures in history: Normal Accidents Charles Perrow, 2011-10-12 Normal Accidents analyzes the social side of technological risk. Charles Perrow argues that the conventional engineering approach to ensuring safety--building in more warnings and safeguards--fails because systems complexity makes failures inevitable. He asserts that typical precautions, by adding to complexity, may help create new categories of accidents. (At Chernobyl, tests of a new safety system helped produce the meltdown and subsequent fire.) By recognizing two dimensions of risk--complex versus linear interactions, and tight versus loose coupling--this book provides a powerful framework for analyzing risks and the organizations that insist we run them. The first edition fulfilled one reviewer's prediction that it may mark the beginning of accident research. In the new afterword to this edition Perrow reviews the extensive work on the major accidents of the last fifteen years, including Bhopal, Chernobyl, and the Challenger disaster. The new postscript probes what the author considers to be the quintessential 'Normal Accident' of our time: the Y2K computer problem. |
| engineering failures in history: History of Engineering and Technology Ervan G. Garrison, 2018-12-19 A History of Engineering and Technology offers a highly readable account of the development of engineering and technology from prehistory to the present. The author uses the broad sweep of history as a backdrop for expositions of important benchmarks in engineered works and products. The book presents early hydraulic engineering in the context of modern ideas relating technology to the complex social structures that arose in Sumeria and Egypt. It also provides a comprehensive and objective review of the greatest engineering civilization of antiquity-Greco-Roman-and discusses the western world's attempts to recover its achievements after the Middle Ages. The flowering of French and British engineered technology is portrayed through the men and machines that led to today's industrial society. Other topics discussed in A History of Engineering and Technology include the evolution of the modern ship, engineering in modern war and medicine, the advent of the computer, and the Space Age. Over 100 illustrations and the book's in-depth presentation of key theoretical developments make this volume essential as a college textbook for students, as well as an important reference resource for libraries, engineers, and scientists. |
| engineering failures in history: Hostages of Each Other Joseph V. Rees, 2009-08-03 Rees offers the first in-depth account of the extraordinary transformation in the safety standards, operations, and management of the nation's nuclear facilities spurred by the accident at Three Mile Island. Detailing the surprising success of self-regulation within the nuclear industry, his book reveals the possibilities for effective communitarian action. |
| engineering failures in history: Failure Analysis of Engineering Materials Charles R. Brooks, Ashok Choudhury, 2002 Suitable for engineers, this work presents a tool for expert investigation and analysis of component failures. It is designed-to-be-used introduction to principals and practices. It includes: 500 illustrations; pinpoints fracture type with comparative fractographs; and can be used as expert examples in reports. |
| engineering failures in history: Engineers of Victory Paul Kennedy, 2013-01-29 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Paul Kennedy, award-winning author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers and one of today’s most renowned historians, now provides a new and unique look at how World War II was won. Engineers of Victory is a fascinating nuts-and-bolts account of the strategic factors that led to Allied victory. Kennedy reveals how the leaders’ grand strategy was carried out by the ordinary soldiers, scientists, engineers, and businessmen responsible for realizing their commanders’ visions of success. In January 1943, FDR and Churchill convened in Casablanca and established the Allied objectives for the war: to defeat the Nazi blitzkrieg; to control the Atlantic sea lanes and the air over western and central Europe; to take the fight to the European mainland; and to end Japan’s imperialism. Astonishingly, a little over a year later, these ambitious goals had nearly all been accomplished. With riveting, tactical detail, Engineers of Victory reveals how. Kennedy recounts the inside stories of the invention of the cavity magnetron, a miniature radar “as small as a soup plate,” and the Hedgehog, a multi-headed grenade launcher that allowed the Allies to overcome the threat to their convoys crossing the Atlantic; the critical decision by engineers to install a super-charged Rolls-Royce engine in the P-51 Mustang, creating a fighter plane more powerful than the Luftwaffe’s; and the innovative use of pontoon bridges (made from rafts strung together) to help Russian troops cross rivers and elude the Nazi blitzkrieg. He takes readers behind the scenes, unveiling exactly how thousands of individual Allied planes and fighting ships were choreographed to collectively pull off the invasion of Normandy, and illuminating how crew chiefs perfected the high-flying and inaccessible B-29 Superfortress that would drop the atomic bombs on Japan. The story of World War II is often told as a grand narrative, as if it were fought by supermen or decided by fate. Here Kennedy uncovers the real heroes of the war, highlighting for the first time the creative strategies, tactics, and organizational decisions that made the lofty Allied objectives into a successful reality. In an even more significant way, Engineers of Victory has another claim to our attention, for it restores “the middle level of war” to its rightful place in history. Praise for Engineers of Victory “Superbly written and carefully documented . . . indispensable reading for anyone who seeks to understand how and why the Allies won.”—The Christian Science Monitor “An important contribution to our understanding of World War II . . . Like an engineer who pries open a pocket watch to reveal its inner mechanics, [Paul] Kennedy tells how little-known men and women at lower levels helped win the war.”—Michael Beschloss, The New York Times Book Review “Histories of World War II tend to concentrate on the leaders and generals at the top who make the big strategic decisions and on the lowly grunts at the bottom. . . . [Engineers of Victory] seeks to fill this gap in the historiography of World War II and does so triumphantly. . . . This book is a fine tribute.”—The Wall Street Journal “[Kennedy] colorfully and convincingly illustrates the ingenuity and persistence of a few men who made all the difference.”—The Washington Post “This superb book is Kennedy’s best.”—Foreign Affairs |
| engineering failures in history: Engineering Failures and Their Lessons Edward Godfrey, 1924 |
| engineering failures in history: Trapped Under the Sea Neil Swidey, 2014-02-18 The harrowing story of five men who were sent into a dark, airless, miles-long tunnel, hundreds of feet below the ocean, to do a nearly impossible job—with deadly results A quarter-century ago, Boston had the dirtiest harbor in America. The city had been dumping sewage into it for generations, coating the seafloor with a layer of “black mayonnaise.” Fisheries collapsed, wildlife fled, and locals referred to floating tampon applicators as “beach whistles.” In the 1990s, work began on a state-of-the-art treatment plant and a 10-mile-long tunnel—its endpoint stretching farther from civilization than the earth’s deepest ocean trench—to carry waste out of the harbor. With this impressive feat of engineering, Boston was poised to show the country how to rebound from environmental ruin. But when bad decisions and clashing corporations endangered the project, a team of commercial divers was sent on a perilous mission to rescue the stymied cleanup effort. Five divers went in; not all of them came out alive. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and thousands of documents collected over five years of reporting, award-winning writer Neil Swidey takes us deep into the lives of the divers, engineers, politicians, lawyers, and investigators involved in the tragedy and its aftermath, creating a taut, action-packed narrative. The climax comes just after the hard-partying DJ Gillis and his friend Billy Juse trade assignments as they head into the tunnel, sentencing one of them to death. An intimate portrait of the wreckage left in the wake of lives lost, the book—which Dennis Lehane calls extraordinary and compares with The Perfect Storm—is also a morality tale. What is the true cost of these large-scale construction projects, as designers and builders, emboldened by new technology and pressured to address a growing population’s rapacious needs, push the limits of the possible? This is a story about human risk—how it is calculated, discounted, and transferred—and the institutional failures that can lead to catastrophe. Suspenseful yet humane, Trapped Under the Sea reminds us that behind every bridge, tower, and tunnel—behind the infrastructure that makes modern life possible—lies unsung bravery and extraordinary sacrifice. |
| engineering failures in history: Understanding Bridge Collapses Björn Åesson, 2014-04-21 This book presents a detailed overview of 20 cases of famous and other highly interesting bridge collapses over the last two centuries. Every case is illustrated and described in detail and the failure analyses made are supported by well-known explanations and, in some cases, by new theories. The chronological order makes it easy to follow the gradual development in the use of different bridge types and the choice of construction material. This analysis of the complex phenomena of fatigue and buckling is a critical area for consulting engineers and for advanced-level and postgraduate students in structural and bridge engineering. |
| engineering failures in history: Catastrophe in the Making William R. Freudenburg, Robert B. Gramling, Shirley Laska, Kai Erikson, 2011-08-08 When houses are flattened, towns submerged, and people stranded without electricity or even food, we attribute the suffering to “natural disasters” or “acts of God.” But what if they’re neither? What if we, as a society, are bringing these catastrophes on ourselves? That’s the provocative theory of Catastrophe in the Making, the first book to recognize Hurricane Katrina not as a “perfect storm,” but a tragedy of our own making—and one that could become commonplace. The authors, one a longtime New Orleans resident, argue that breached levees and sloppy emergency response are just the most obvious examples of government failure. The true problem is more deeply rooted and insidious, and stretches far beyond the Gulf Coast. Based on the false promise of widespread prosperity, communities across the U.S. have embraced all brands of “economic development” at all costs. In Louisiana, that meant development interests turning wetlands into shipping lanes. By replacing a natural buffer against storm surges with a 75-mile long, obsolete canal that cost hundreds of millions of dollars, they guided the hurricane into the heart of New Orleans and adjacent communities. The authors reveal why, despite their geographic differences, California and Missouri are building—quite literally—toward similar destruction. Too often, the U.S. “growth machine” generates wealth for a few and misery for many. Drawing lessons from the most expensive “natural” disaster in American history, Catastrophe in the Making shows why thoughtless development comes at a price we can ill afford. |
| engineering failures in history: Deepwater Horizon Earl Boebert, James M. Blossom, 2016-09-06 On April 20, 2010, the crew of the floating drill rig Deepwater Horizon lost control of the Macondo oil well forty miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Escaping gas and oil ignited, destroying the rig, killing eleven crew members, and injuring dozens more. The emergency spiraled into the worst human-made economic and ecological disaster in Gulf Coast history. Senior systems engineers Earl Boebert and James Blossom offer the most comprehensive account to date of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Sifting through a mountain of evidence generated by the largest civil trial in U.S. history, the authors challenge the commonly accepted explanation that the crew, operating under pressure to cut costs, made mistakes that were compounded by the failure of a key safety device. This explanation arose from legal, political, and public relations maneuvering over the billions of dollars in damages that were ultimately paid to compensate individuals and local businesses and repair the environment. But as this book makes clear, the blowout emerged from corporate and engineering decisions which, while individually innocuous, combined to create the disaster. Rather than focusing on blame, Boebert and Blossom use the complex interactions of technology, people, and procedures involved in the high-consequence enterprise of offshore drilling to illustrate a systems approach which contributes to a better understanding of how similar disasters emerge and how they can be prevented. |
| engineering failures in history: Beyond Failure Norbert J. Delatte, 2009 Norbert Delatte presents the circumstances of important failures that have had far-reaching impacts on civil engineering practice, organized around topics in the engineering curriculum. |
| engineering failures in history: Guiding Principles for the Nation's Critical Infrastructure ASCE Critical Infrastructure Guidance Task Committee, 2009 The Critical Infrastructure Guidance Task Committee presents guiding principles to ensure quality in critical infrastructure systems that may involve multiple constituents, multiple jurisdictions, and complex financing. |
| engineering failures in history: Disaster Forensics Anthony J. Masys, 2016-09-03 This book aims to uncover the root causes of natural and man-made disasters by going beyond the typical reports and case studies conducted post-disaster. It opens the black box of disasters by presenting ‘forensic analysis approaches’ to disasters, thereby revealing the complex causality that characterizes them and explaining how and why hazards do, or do not, become disasters. This yields ‘systemic’ strategies for managing disasters. Recently the global threat landscape has seen the emergence of high impact, low probability events. Events like Hurricane Katrina, the Great Japan Earthquake and tsunami, Hurricane Sandy, Super Typhoon Haiyan, global terrorist activities have become the new norm. Extreme events challenge our understanding regarding the interdependencies and complexity of the disaster aetiology and are often referred to as Black Swans. Between 2002 and 2011, there were 4130 disasters recorded that resulted from natural hazards around the world. In these, 1,117,527 people perished and a minimum of US$1,195 billion in losses were reported. In the year 2011 alone, 302 disasters claimed 29,782 lives; affected 206 million people and inflicted damages worth a minimum of estimated US$366 billion. |
| engineering failures in history: Collapse! Kirstin Cronn-Mills, 2009 Explains, using examples of structural collapses from around the world, the science behind structural engineering and the reasons behind engineering failures. |
| engineering failures in history: Engineering Nature Jessica B. Teisch, 2011 Focusing on globalization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Jessica Teisch examines the processes by which American water and mining engineers who rose to prominence during and after the California Gold Rush of 1849 exported the United |
| engineering failures in history: Practical Plant Failure Analysis Neville W. Sachs, 2016-04-19 Component failures result from a combination of factors involving materials science, mechanics, thermodynamics, corrosion, and tribology. With the right guidance, you don’t have to be an authority in all of these areas to become skilled at diagnosing and preventing failures. Based on the author’s more than thirty years of experience, Practical Plant Failure Analysis: A Guide to Understanding Machinery Deterioration and Improving Equipment Reliability is a down-to-earth guide to improving machinery maintenance and reliability. Illustrated with hundreds of diagrams and photographs, this book examines... · When and how to conduct a physical failure analysis · Basic material properties including heat treating mechanisms, work hardening, and the effects of temperature changes on material properties · The differences in appearance between ductile overload, brittle overload, and fatigue failures · High cycle fatigue and how to differentiate between high stress concentrations and high operating stresses · Low cycle fatigue and unusual fatigue situations · Lubrication and its influence on the three basic bearing designs · Ball and roller bearings, gears, fasteners, V-belts, and synchronous belts Taking a detailed and systematic approach, Practical Plant Failure Analysis thoroughly explains the four major failure mechanisms—wear, corrosion, overload, and fatigue—as well as how to identify them. The author clearly identifies how these mechanisms appear in various components and supplies convenient charts that demonstrate how to identify the specific causes of failure. |
| engineering failures in history: How to Organize and Run a Failure Investigation Daniel P. Dennies, 2005 Learning the proper steps for organizing a failure investigation ensures success. Failure investigations cross company functional boundaries and are an integral component of any design or manufacturing business operation. Well-organized and professionally conducted investigations are essential for solving manufacturing problems and assisting in redesigns. This book outlines a proven systematic approach to failure investigation. It explains the relationship between various failure sources (corrosion, for example) and the organization and conduct of the investigation. It provides a learning platform for engineers from all disciplines: materials, design, manufacturing, quality, and management. The examples in this book focus on the definition of and requirements for a professionally performed failure analysis of a physical object or structure. However, many of the concepts have much greater utility than for investigating the failure of physical objects. For example, the book provides guidance in areas such as learning how to define objectives, negotiating the scope of investigation, examining the physical evidence, and applying general problem-solving techniques. |
| engineering failures in history: Design Paradigms Henry Petroski, 1994-05-27 Case histories of engineering success and failure are presented to enrich understanding of the design process. |
| engineering failures in history: Thomas Edison: Success and Innovation through Failure Ian Wills, 2020-01-01 This book develops a systematic approach to the role of failure in innovation, using the laboratory notebooks of America's most successful inventor, Thomas Edison. It argues that Edison's active pursuit of failure and innovative uses of failure as a tool were crucial to his success. From this the author argues that not only should we expect innovations to fail but that there are good reasons to want them to fail. Using Edison's laboratory notebooks, written as he worked and before he knew the outcome we see the many false starts, wrong directions and failures that he worked through on his way to producing revolutionary inventions. While Edison's strengths in exploiting failure made him the icon of American inventors, they could also be liabilities when he moved from one field to another. Not only is this book of value to readers with an interest in the history of technology and American invention, its insights are important to those who seek to innovate and to those who employ and finance them. |
| engineering failures in history: Engineering Failures and Their Lessons Edward Godfrey, 2015-08-09 This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. |
| engineering failures in history: Disasters and History Bas van Bavel, Daniel R. Curtis, Jessica Dijkman, Matthew Hannaford, Maïka de Keyzer, Eline van Onacker, Tim Soens, 2020-10-22 Disasters and History offers the first comprehensive historical overview of hazards and disasters. Drawing on a range of case studies, including the Black Death, the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 and the Fukushima disaster, the authors examine how societies dealt with shocks and hazards and their potentially disastrous outcomes. They reveal the ways in which the consequences and outcomes of these disasters varied widely not only between societies but also within the same societies according to social groups, ethnicity and gender. They also demonstrate how studying past disasters, including earthquakes, droughts, floods and epidemics, can provide a lens through which to understand the social, economic and political functioning of past societies and reveal features of a society which may otherwise remain hidden from view. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core. |
| engineering failures in history: Failure Case Studies in Civil Engineering Paul A. Bosela, Pamalee Brady, Norbert J. Delatte, M. Kevin Parfitt, 2013 This report provides short descriptions of 50 real-world examples of performance failures designed specifically for classroom use. |
| engineering failures in history: Edenville and Sanford Dam Failures Daniel Pradel, Adam Lobbestael, 2021 GSP 327 presents the results of on-ground and aerial assessments of the Edenville and Sanford Dam failures of 2020-- |
| engineering failures in history: Engineering: Feats & Failures Stephanie Paris, 2012-09-01 What is the most impressive man-made thing you have ever seen? Whatever you think of, there is a good chance that it was made by an engineer. But, engineers are people. And people make mistakes. Sometimes our greatest feats can turn into our worst failures. Come explore some of engineering's greatest feats and failures!--P. [4] of cover. |
| engineering failures in history: The Global Engineers Evan Thomas, 2020-07-17 The Global Engineers: Building a Safe and Equitable World Together, is inspired by the opportunities for engineers to contribute to global prosperity. This book presents a vision for Global Engineering, and identifies that engineers should be concerned with the unequal and unjust distribution of access to basic services, such as water, sanitation, energy, food, transportation, and shelter. As engineers, we should place an emphasis on identifying the drivers, determinants, and solutions to increasing equitable access to reliable services. Global Engineering envisions a world where everyone has safe water, sanitation, energy, food, shelter, and infrastructure, and can live in health, dignity, and prosperity. This book seeks to examine the role and ultimately the impact of engineers in global development. Engineers are solutions-oriented people. We enjoy the opportunity to identify a product or need, and design appropriate technical solutions. However, the structural and historical barriers to global prosperity requires that Engineers focus more broadly on improving the tools and practice of poverty reduction and that we include health, economics, policy, and governance as relevant expertise with which we are conversant. Engineers must become activists and advocates, rejecting ahistorical technocratic approaches that suggest poverty can be solved without justice or equity. Engineers must leverage our professional skills and capacity to generate evidence and positive impact toward rectifying inequalities and improving lives. Half of this book is dedicated to profiles of engineers and other technical professionals who have dedicated their careers to searching for solutions to global development challenges. These stories introduce the reader to the diverse opportunities and challenges in Global Engineering. |
| engineering failures in history: Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety of U.S. Nuclear Plants National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety and Security of U.S. Nuclear Plants, National Research Council, Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board, Division on Earth and Life Studies, 2014-10-29 The March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami sparked a humanitarian disaster in northeastern Japan. They were responsible for more than 15,900 deaths and 2,600 missing persons as well as physical infrastructure damages exceeding $200 billion. The earthquake and tsunami also initiated a severe nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Three of the six reactors at the plant sustained severe core damage and released hydrogen and radioactive materials. Explosion of the released hydrogen damaged three reactor buildings and impeded onsite emergency response efforts. The accident prompted widespread evacuations of local populations, large economic losses, and the eventual shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan. Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety and Security of U.S. Nuclear Plants is a study of the Fukushima Daiichi accident. This report examines the causes of the crisis, the performance of safety systems at the plant, and the responses of its operators following the earthquake and tsunami. The report then considers the lessons that can be learned and their implications for U.S. safety and storage of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste, commercial nuclear reactor safety and security regulations, and design improvements. Lessons Learned makes recommendations to improve plant systems, resources, and operator training to enable effective ad hoc responses to severe accidents. This report's recommendations to incorporate modern risk concepts into safety regulations and improve the nuclear safety culture will help the industry prepare for events that could challenge the design of plant structures and lead to a loss of critical safety functions. In providing a broad-scope, high-level examination of the accident, Lessons Learned is meant to complement earlier evaluations by industry and regulators. This in-depth review will be an essential resource for the nuclear power industry, policy makers, and anyone interested in the state of U.S. preparedness and response in the face of crisis situations. |
| engineering failures in history: Resilience Engineering Professor David D Woods, Professor Nancy Leveson, Professor Erik Hollnagel, 2012-10-01 For Resilience Engineering, 'failure' is the result of the adaptations necessary to cope with the complexity of the real world, rather than a malfunction. Human performance must continually adjust to current conditions and, because resources and time are finite, such adjustments are always approximate. Featuring contributions from leading international figures in human factors and safety, Resilience Engineering provides thought-provoking insights into system safety as an aggregate of its various components - subsystems, software, organizations, human behaviours - and the way in which they interact. |
| engineering failures in history: Failed Bridges Joachim Scheer, 2011-08-24 Gilt immer noch, dass ein Bauwerkseinsturz der beste Lehrmeister für den Fortschritt des Bauens ist? Oder, anders formuliert: Ist Bauen dann, wenn wir das Bewährte verlassen und Neues wagen, Experimentieren? Über die Ursache von Schadensfällen und Einstürzen, die oft mit dem Verlust von Menschenleben verbunden sind, wird nicht gern öffentlich gesprochen. Aber aus Fehlern kann man lernen. Die Lehren und Erfahrungen aus den Schadensauswertungen führen zu mehr Sicherheit und oft zum Innovationsschub. Die Kenntnis der Schadensursachen ist Voraussetzung für ihre zukünftige Vermeidung. Mit diesem Buch liegt eine systematische Zusammenstellung von über 400 Versagensfällen vor, die in besonderer Weise betrachtet werden: Sie werden nach dem Zeitpunkt ihres Auftretens im Lebenszyklus der Brücke, z. B. im Bauzustand oder im Betrieb, und nach den Schadensereignissen, z. B. Anprall oder Erdbeben, geordnet. Die wichtigsten Ursachen sind: menschliches Versagen, mangelnde Aussteifung, Materialversagen oder Überlastung. Es werden vorwiegend Brückeneinstürze, die in der Literatur wenig oder nach dem Urteil des Verfassers nicht vollständig oder nicht zutreffend behandelt sind, ausführlich analysiert. Mit Akribie gesammelt, kompetent und exzellent aufgearbeitet und mit Mut präsentiert, ergibt dies eine unverzichtbare Erkenntnisquelle für jeden Bauingenieur in der Praxis und für das Studium. Ein Katalog von Regeln wurde erstellt. Seine Beachtung kann helfen, Fehler bei Entwurf, Planung und Ausführung zu vermeiden. |
| engineering failures in history: The Challenger Launch Decision Diane Vaughan, 1996 List of Figures and TablesPreface1: The Eve of the Launch 2: Learning Culture, Revising History 3: Risk, Work Group Culture, and the Normalization of Deviance 4: The Normalization of Deviance, 1981-1984 5: The Normalization of Deviance, 1985 6: The Culture of Production 7: Structural Secrecy 8: The Eve of the Launch Revisited 9: Conformity and Tragedy 10: Lessons Learned Appendix A. Cost/Safety Trade-Offs? Scrapping the Escape Rockets and the SRB Contract Award Decision Appendix B. Supporting Charts and Documents Appendix C. On Theory Elaboration, Organizations, and Historical EthnographyAcknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved. |
| engineering failures in history: When Technology Fails Neil Schlager, 1994 Discusses aircraft, airships, automobiles, bridges, buildings and other structures, chemical and environmental disasters, dams, medical disasters, nuclear plants, ships, spacecraft, and submarine disasters. |
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The effect of age on mapping auditory icons to visual icons for ...
Oct 1, 1996 · This research explored the abilities of subjects in grade 1 (6–7 years old) and grade 3 (8–9 years old) to identify auditory icons that are commonly introduced in software …
Toward establishing a link between psychomotor task complexity …
Oct 1, 1996 · The objective of this research is to propose and validate a link between an existing information processing model for psychomotor tasks and a comprehensive characterization of …
Engineering | Journal | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
The official journal of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Higher Education Press. Engineering is an international open-access journal that was launched by the Chinese …
Pickering stabilization of double emulsions: Basic concepts, …
Double emulsions (DEs) offer unique compartmentalized structures but are inherently unstable, prompting significant scientific and industrial efforts …
Engineering Structures | Journal | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
Engineering Structures provides a forum for a broad blend of scientific and technical papers to reflect the evolving needs of the structural engineering and structural mechanics communities. …
Engineering Failure Analysis | Journal - ScienceDirect
Published in Affiliation with the European Structural Integrity Society. The Engineering Failure Analysis journal provides an essential reference for analysing and preventing engineering …
Engineering Geology | Journal | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier
Engineering Geology is an international interdisciplinary journal bridging the fields of the earth sciences and engineering, particularly geological and geotechnical engineering.The focus of …
Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence | Journal ...
A journal of IFAC, the International Federation of Automatic Control Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing a major role in the fourth industrial revolution and we are seeing a lot of evolution in …
High-Entropy Approach vs. Traditional Doping Strategy for …
Jun 1, 2025 · The traditional doping strategy has emerged as an effective method for addressing challenges such as irreversible phase transitions and poor cycling s…
Food Hydrocolloids | Vol 168, December 2025 - ScienceDirect
Read the latest articles of Food Hydrocolloids at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature
