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| engineering disasters 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 disasters 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 disasters in history: Lessons Amid the Rubble Sarah K. A. Pfatteicher, 2010-10-15 The aftermath of September 11, 2001, brought the subject of engineering-failure forensics to public attention as had no previous catastrophe. In keeping with the engineering profession's long tradition of building a positive future out of disasters, Lessons amid the Rubble uses the collapse of the World Trade Center towers to explore the nature and future of engineering education in the United States. Sarah K. A. Pfatteicher draws on historical and current practice in engineering design, construction, and curricula to discuss how engineers should conceive, organize, and execute a search for the reasons behind the failure of man-made structures. Her survey traces the analytical journey engineers take after a disaster and discusses the technical, social, and moral implications of their work. After providing an overview of the investigations into the collapse of the Twin Towers, Pfatteicher explores six related events to reveal deceptively simple lessons about the engineering enterprise, each of which embodies an ethical dilemma at the heart of the profession. In tying these themes together, Pfatteicher highlights issues of professionalism and professional identity infused in engineering education and encourages an explicit, direct conversation about their meaning. Sophisticated and engagingly written, this volume combines history, engineering, ethics, and philosophy to provoke a deep discussion about the symbolic meaning of buildings and other structures and the nature of engineering. |
| engineering disasters 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 disasters 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 disasters 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 disasters in history: Construction Disasters Steven S. Ross, 1984 |
| engineering disasters 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 disasters in history: Bracing for Disaster Stephen Tobriner, 2015-05-01 “The first history of seismic engineering in San Francisco . . . spiced with survivor and eyewitness accounts. ”—Midwest Book Review For the past one hundred and fifty years, architects and engineers have quietly been learning from each quake and designing newer earthquake-resistant building techniques and applying them in an ongoing effort to save San Francisco. Bracing for Disaster is a fresh appraisal of a city responding to repeated devastation. In the language of a skilled teacher, Tobriner examines what really happened during the city’s earthquakes—which buildings were damaged, which survived, and who were the unsung heroes. Filled with more than two hundred photographs, diagrams, and illustrations, this is a revealing look at the history of buildings by a true expert, and it offers lessons not just for San Francisco but for any city beset by natural disasters. “The real saga is how a fast-growing city grapples with the reality that it has more to worry about than fires and fog. The core of the story is fairly technical, rooted in the crude intuitive ways in which builders reacted to a seismic threat they could neither measure nor define. But Tobriner crafts the story well.”—SFGate |
| engineering disasters in history: Atomic Accidents Jim Mahaffey, 2014-02-04 A “delightfully astute” and “entertaining” history of the mishaps and meltdowns that have marked the path of scientific progress (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Radiation: What could go wrong? In short, plenty. From Marie Curie carrying around a vial of radium salt because she liked the pretty blue glow to the large-scale disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima, dating back to the late nineteenth century, nuclear science has had a rich history of innovative exploration and discovery, coupled with mistakes, accidents, and downright disasters. In this lively book, long-time advocate of continued nuclear research and nuclear energy James Mahaffey looks at each incident in turn and analyzes what happened and why, often discovering where scientists went wrong when analyzing past meltdowns. Every incident, while taking its toll, has led to new understanding of the mighty atom—and the fascinating frontier of science that still holds both incredible risk and great promise. |
| engineering disasters 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 disasters in history: Engineers Matthew Wells, 2010-03-04 Describes and illustrates engineering design and what conditions, events, cultural influences and personalities have brought it to its present state. For professional and student architects and engineers. |
| engineering disasters 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 disasters 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 disasters 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 disasters in history: On Cold Iron Dan Levert, 2020-03-13 When engineering students in Canada are soon to graduate, the solemn “Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer,” penned by none other than Rudyard Kipling, charges them with their Obligation to high standards, humility, and ethics. Each budding engineer then receives an Iron Ring to be worn on the small finger of the working hand as a reminder throughout their career. Through the story of the 1907 Quebec Bridge disaster, in which seventy-six men died, author Dan Levert teaches a powerful object lesson in what can happen when that Obligation is forgotten. Woven from transcripts of the inquiry into the collapse, the report of the commissioners, and other sources including the coroner’s inquest, On Cold Iron plays out like a fast-paced thriller. Levert recounts the original 1850s proposals to bridge the St. Lawrence near Quebec City, through the design and construction of what was to be the longest clear span bridge of any kind in the world, to its shocking collapse during construction in August 1907. The missteps, poor policies, hubris, and wrong-headed actions begin to build like a death by a thousand cuts, until its inevitable and horrifying culmination. The meticulously researched and deftly delivered story of this terrible historical event makes fascinating reading for anyone, but even more, it is a powerful cautionary tale and a clarion call for the obligation and responsibility of an engineer. |
| engineering disasters in history: The Book of Massively Epic Engineering Disasters Sean Connolly, 2017-09-05 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 disasters 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 disasters 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 disasters in history: Urban Disaster Mitigation: The Role of Engineering and Technology F.Y. Cheng, M.-S. Sheu, 1995-07-21 Great loss of human life, structural damage, and social and economic upheaval occur repeatedly due to such natural hazards as earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes, landslides, floods and tsunamis. Both the US and Taiwan, along with many other countries, have a history of such occurrences and a common need to reduce their effects.This volume includes papers from the fourth symposium workshop, held jointly between the US and Taiwan to discuss research and its application to multiple hazard mitigation. The workshop, Urban Disaster Mitigation, The Role of Engineering and Technology, discussed lessons learned from recent natural disasters; assessed results of Taiwan's multiple hazards research program and potential application to the US; and proposed further studies on subjects of mutual concern.Topics include recent scientific findings obtained in various natural hazard areas and assessment of actual and potential damage from earthquakes, floods and landslides. Of particular importance are measures that can be taken to mitigate these hazards ranging from use of new algorithms for structural engineering to warning systems for a given region. At a time when natural disasters are widespread, engineers play a key role. Construction methods and building codes are changing; current knowledge shapes the direction of these changes. The research results presented in these proceedings will benefit both the academic and practicing communities around the world, strengthening the relationship between these two important parties. |
| engineering disasters in history: Tay Bridge Disaster Robin Lumley, 2013-11-01 On Sunday, 28 December 1879, the 5.27 mail and passenger train from Burntisland to Dundee went out across the world's longest bridge on a black, fierce night, only to be dashed to pieces in the River Tay as the bridge collapsed during one of the worst storms in Scottish history. The Tay Bridge Disaster remains to this day the worst catastrophic failure of a civil engineering structure in Britain – the land equivalent of the Titanic sinking. In this book, author Robin Lumley brings a poignant human perspective to the fateful night in 1879 that shook Britain and the world of engineering to their core and sent a nation into mourning for the seventy-five souls lost to the dark, freezing waters of the River Tay. Packed full of personal tales and offering technical appendices for those who wish to further their specialised knowledge, Tay Bridge Disaster: The People's Story is a must-read for anyone interested in this tragic event in Scottish and British history. |
| engineering disasters 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 disasters in history: Atomic Accidents James Maheffey, 2021-08-31 From the moment radiation was discovered in the late nineteenth century, nuclear science has had a rich history of innovative scientific exploration and discovery, coupled with mistakes, accidents, and downright disasters. Mahaffey, a long-time advocate of continued nuclear research and nuclear energy, looks at each incident in turn and analyzes what happened and why, often discovering where scientists went wrong when analyzing past meltdowns.Every incident has lead to new facets in understanding about the mighty atom—and Mahaffey puts forth what the future should be for this final frontier of science that still holds so much promise. |
| engineering disasters 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 disasters in history: International Engineering History and Heritage Jerry R. Rogers, Augustine J. Fredrich, 2001 This collection contains 59 papers presented at the Third National Congress on Civil Engineering History and Heritage at the ASCE National Convention, held in Houston, Texas, October 10-13, 2001. |
| engineering disasters in history: The Illustrated History of Natural Disasters Jan Kozák, Vladimir Cermák, 2010-03-14 This book tells the story of the Earth itself, explaining the interplay of its gradual geologi- levolution, presented as a generally slow and safe process, with the sudden manifestations of natural hazards, which involve disasters that affect the environment and lead to huge material damage and human losses. The natural forces at play, whether they are violent explosions ofvolcanic eruptions or almost imperceptible deformations of subsurface rock strata, nally- sulting in devastating earthquakes, all control the existence and destiny of a certain part of the global population. The development of man’s existence down through history has depended upon his understanding of the world in which he lives, and upon his ability to turn to his own best use the materials that were there for the taking. However, he has had not only to furnish himself with food, water, building materials, and energy to protect himself against occasional natural adversities. Protecting himself from them meant comprehending their causes, and the essential core of his understanding was in recording and depicting them. This book is written for anyone interested in the Earth in general, and in natural disasters in particular, presenting a unique collection of historical illustrations of volcanic eruptions and earthquake events and their repercussions. The book represents a golden mean between sci- ti c and popular works. |
| engineering disasters in history: Words Whispered in Water Sandy Rosenthal, 2020-08-11 “Anyone who is interested in Hurricane Katrina, and in America’s failing infrastructure, will want to read this book . . . a fast-paced narrative.” —Scott G. Knowles, Drexel University 2020 Nautilus Silver Winner In the aftermath of one of the worst disasters in US history, Words Whispered in Water tells the story of one woman’s fight, against all odds, to expose a mammoth federal agency—and win. In 2005, the entire world watched as a major US city was nearly wiped off the map. The levees ruptured and New Orleans drowned. But while newscasters attributed the New Orleans flood to “natural catastrophes” and other types of disasters, citizen investigator Sandy Rosenthal set out to expose the true culprit and compel the media and government to tell the truth. This is her story. When the protective steel flood-walls broke, the Army Corps of Engineers—with cooperation from big media—turned the blame elsewhere. In the chaotic aftermath, Rosenthal heroically exposes the federal agency’s egregious design errors and changes the narrative surrounding the New Orleans flood. This engaging and revealing tale of man versus nature and man versus man is a horror story, a mystery, and David and Goliath story all in one. “Reveals what it takes to hold the powerful to account.” —Publishers Weekly “There are only a few civilians that fight like real warriors. Sandy Rosenthal is one of them.” —Russel L. Honoré, Lieutenant General, United States Army (Ret.) |
| engineering disasters in history: Forensic Engineering Alicia Díazde León, 2012-11 Proceedings of the Sixth Congress on Forensic Engineering, held in San Francisco, California, October 31-November 3, 2012. Sponsored by the Technical Council on Forensic Engineering of ASCE. This collection contains 144 peer-reviewed papers presenting findings intended to help forensic engineers develop practices and procedures to reduce the number of failures, disseminate information on failures, and provide guidelines for conducting failure investigations and for ethical conduct. Topics include: bridges; building envelopes; critical infrastructure; design practices; disaster risk management; education; emerging technologies; fires; floods; flooring; geotechnical failures; hurricanes, tornadoes, and extreme winds; investigative methodologies; practices to reduce failures; professional practice; research and testing; residential construction; and structural failures. This will be valuable to engineers, researchers, educators, and students involved in forensic engineering. |
| engineering disasters in history: Collapse Phillip Wearne, 2000 What happens when the very ground beneath your feet gives way? In Collapse, Philip Wearne tells the stories behind the worst structural engineering disasters of the last fifty years, and the forensic engineers who investigated their causes. Using expert testimonies from scientific investigators, Wearne studies eleven high-profile cases of catastrophic structural collapse, from The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City and the Hartford Civic Center in Connecticut, to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Sometimes, if these disasters have a single cause, it is a small flaw that spawns a chain reaction -- for instance, the miniscule flaw in the metal of one eyebar of the Point Pleasant Bridge on the Ohio River. Usually, though, and more alarmingly, the causes are human. Mistakes, misunderstandings, incompetence, greed, and corruption: every facet of human failing is represented in these structural collapses. This makes the investigation of these failures -- by agencies like the Failure Analysis Associates, who can have close to two thousand investigations ongoing at any one time -- dirty and dangerous business. Wearne's case study takes us deep inside the ever-growing industry of forensic engineering, revealing a group of professionals dedicated to determining the cause of a collapse at any cost, while learning and applying valuable lessons from each failure. Provocative and well-written, Collapse is essential for deepening our understanding of -- and readiness for -- catastrophe. |
| engineering disasters in history: Railway Disasters of the World Peter W. B. Semmens, 1994 Railway DisasterSemmens |
| engineering disasters in history: Inviting Disaster James R. Chiles, 2001-08-21 On July 25, 2000, a small piece of debris on the runway at a Paris airport caused a tire to blow out on an Air France Concorde during its take off. A heavy slab of rubber that spun off from a tire created a shock wave in a wing tank, which burst open and sent fuel streaming into an engine intake. As flames trailed two hundred feet behind, the aircraft rolled out of control. The crash killed all 109 people on board and 4 more on the ground. The tragedy of that departing Concorde is just one of many such chain-reaction catastrophes that have occurred as the world has grown more technologically complex and as our machines have become more difficult to control -- and more deadly. Now, in a riveting investigation into the causes and often brutal consequences of technological breakdowns, James R. Chiles offers stunning new insights into the increasingly frequent machine disasters that haunt our lives. The shocking breakup of the Challenger; the dark February morning when the Atlantic swallowed the giant drilling rig Ocean Ranger; the fiery PEPCON factory explosion in Nevada; a deadly runaway police van in Minnesota: Chiles tracks the causes and consequences of these system breakdowns and others, vividly demonstrating why the battle between man and machine may be escalating beyond manageable limits -- and why we all have a stake in its outcome. Chiles reconstructs moments of confusion and then terror as systems collapse, operators make fateful, sometimes incorrect choices, and disaster follows. He uncovers surprising links between past and present tragedies, such as the connections between nineteenth-century steamboat explosions and twentieth-century nuclear power plant failures. And he analyzes the numerous near misses that don't always make the evening news -- times when the quick thinking, heroic gestures, and expert actions of a few individuals have saved the lives of many, often just in time. Combining riveting storytelling with eye-opening findings, Inviting Disaster shows what happens when our reach for new technology exceeds our grasp, and explains what we need to know to survive on the machine frontier. |
| engineering disasters 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 disasters in history: Megadisasters Florin Diacu, 2010 The history and science behind efforts to predict major disasters, from tsunamis to stock market crashes Can we predict cataclysmic disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or stock market crashes? The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 claimed more than 200,000 lives. Hurricane Katrina killed over 1,800 people and devastated the city of New Orleans. The recent global financial crisis has cost corporations and ordinary people around the world billions of dollars. Megadisasters is a book that asks why catastrophes such as these catch us by surprise, and reveals the history and groundbreaking science behind efforts to forecast major disasters and minimize their destruction. Each chapter of this exciting and eye-opening book explores a particular type of cataclysmic event and the research surrounding it, including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, rapid climate change, collisions with asteroids or comets, pandemics, and financial crashes. Florin Diacu tells the harrowing true stories of people impacted by these terrible events, and of the scientists racing against time to predict when the next big disaster will strike. He describes the mathematical models that are so critical to understanding the laws of nature and foretelling potentially lethal phenomena, the history of modeling and its prospects for success in the future, and the enormous challenges to scientific prediction posed by the chaos phenomenon, which is the high instability that underlies many processes around us. Yielding new insights into the perils that can touch every one of us, Megadisasters shows how the science of predicting disasters holds the promise of a safer and brighter tomorrow. |
| engineering disasters in history: Civil Engineering for Disaster Risk Reduction Sreevalsa Kolathayar, Indrajit Pal, Siau Chen Chian, Arpita Mondal, 2021-11-21 The book is a comprehensive volume on multi-hazards and their management for a sustainable built environment. It focuses on the role of civil engineering in building disaster resilient society. This book brings together all diverse disciplines of civil engineering and related areas (for example, geotechnical engineering, water resources engineering, structural engineering, transportation engineering, environmental engineering, construction management, GIS, and remote sensing) towards a common goal of disaster resilience through an interdisciplinary approach. It contains methods and case studies focusing on civil engineering solutions to reduce the disaster risk. The book contents are aligned in line with the priorities set by UN-Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and UN-SDGs to promote a global culture of risk-awareness and disaster reduction. The book will be a useful comprehensive reference for disaster risk reduction beneficial for engineering students, teaching faculty, researchers, industry professionals and policymakers. |
| engineering disasters in history: Gone at 3:17 David M. Brown, Michael Wereschagin, 2012-01-01 At 3:17 p.m. on March 18, 1937, a natural gas leak beneath the London Junior-Senior High School in the oil boomtown of New London, Texas, created a lethal mixture of gas and oxygen in the school’s basement. The odorless, colorless gas went undetected until the flip of an electrical switch triggered a colossal blast. The two-story school, one of the nation’s most modern, disintegrated, burying everyone under a vast pile of rubble and debris. More than 300 students and teachers were killed, and hundreds more were injured. As the seventy-fifth anniversary of the catastrophe approaches, it remains the deadliest school disaster in U.S. history. Few, however, know of this historic tragedy, and no book, until now, has chronicled the explosion, its cause, its victims, and the aftermath. Gone at 3:17 is a true story of what can happen when school officials make bad decisions. To save money on heating the school building, the trustees had authorized workers to tap into a pipeline carrying “waste” natural gas produced by a gasoline refinery. The explosion led to laws that now require gas companies to add the familiar pungent odor. The knowledge that the tragedy could have been prevented added immeasurably to the heartbreak experienced by the survivors and the victims’ families. The town would never be the same. Using interviews, testimony from survivors, and archival newspaper files, Gone at 3:17 puts readers inside the shop class to witness the spark that ignited the gas. Many of those interviewed during twenty years of research are no longer living, but their acts of heroism and stories of survival live on in this meticulously documented and extensively illustrated book. |
| engineering disasters in history: Embedded Systems Kiyofumi Tanaka, 2012-03-16 Nowadays, embedded systems - computer systems that are embedded in various kinds of devices and play an important role of specific control functions, have permeated various scenes of industry. Therefore, we can hardly discuss our life or society from now onwards without referring to embedded systems. For wide-ranging embedded systems to continue their growth, a number of high-quality fundamental and applied researches are indispensable. This book contains 13 excellent chapters and addresses a wide spectrum of research topics of embedded systems, including parallel computing, communication architecture, application-specific systems, and embedded systems projects. Embedded systems can be made only after fusing miscellaneous technologies together. Various technologies condensed in this book as well as in the complementary book Embedded Systems - Theory and Design Methodology, will be helpful to researchers and engineers around the world. |
| engineering disasters 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 disasters 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 disasters in history: Engineering and the Mind's Eye Eugene S. Ferguson, 1994-03-29 In this insightful and incisive essay, Eugene Ferguson demonstrates that good engineering is as much a matter of intuition and nonverbal thinking as of equations and computation. He argues that a system of engineering education that ignores nonverbal thinking will produce engineers who are dangerously ignorant of the many ways in which the real world differs from the mathematical models constructed in academic minds. |
| engineering disasters in history: Geotechnical Engineering for Disaster Mitigation and Rehabilitation Han-Long Liu, An Deng, Jian Chu, 2009-02-18 Geotechnical Engineering for Disaster Mitigation and Rehabilitation presents the latest developments and case studies in the field. All contributions to this proceedings were rigorously reviewed to cover the newest developments in disasters related to earthquakes, landslides and slopes, soil dynamics, risk assessment and management, disaster mitigation and rehabilitation, and others. The book will be a useful reference for geotechnical scientists, engineers and professionals in these areas. |
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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. …
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Published in Affiliation with the European Structural Integrity Society. The Engineering Failure Analysis journal provides an essential reference for analysing and preventing engineering …
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Engineering Geology is an international interdisciplinary journal bridging the fields of the earth sciences and engineering, particularly geological and geotechnical engineering.The focus of the …
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