Engineering Disasters

[livius drusus]

Occasionally the History Channel hooks you up; yesterday's Modern Marvels marathon with focus on engineering disasters was one of those times. I'm embarassed to admit it since it is more than a little macabre, but I find myself fascinated by massive failures of human structures. The toll is tragic, sometimes horrific; I fear to look yet I cannot turn away.

The one that left me entirely jaw-dropped was the Lake Peigneur disaster (http://www.lft.k12.la.us/chs/la_studies/ParishSeries/IberiaParish/LakePeigneur.htm
) (slightly annoying but useful description here (http://members.tripod.com/~earthdude1/texaco/texaco.html)). It's amazing to see such a small error lead to such extraodinarily huge consequences. The fact that nobody was killed makes it even more amazing.

The basic story is that a 14 inch drill bit from an oil rig poked a hole in the dome of an underwater salt mine and the entire lake was sucked down through that hole, which soon became a whirlpool a quarter of a mile in diameter.

That in turn reversed the direction of canal that had been flowing from the lake to the Gulf of Mexico creating a 50 foot waterfall (the biggest ever in the Louisiana) and eventually filling the salt mine and the lake back up. Several barges that had been sucked down into the whirlpool even popped right up like corks once the lake was full again. Now a lake that was once 3 to 11 feet deep (sources vary) is 1300 feet deep in parts.

I can't find any pictures online, dammit, but there was some amazing footage of the whirlpool, the crater and the waterfall on the program.

Does anybody else find such incidents riveting? Are there any other disasters born of human error that have impressed you for one reason or another?

[Godless Wonder]

The Tacoma Narrows bridge is probably too famous to bother mentioning.

[livius drusus]

Not to me. (Raised in Italy, donchaknow.) Do tell.

[LadyShea]

In '94, the Las Vegas Hilton erected the tallest freestanding sign in the world, 362 feet. It had been tested, supposedly, to withstand hurricane force winds. 2 weeks later, it blew down in a wind storm (not a hurricane) onto Paradise Rd, a very busy street. Nobody was hurt amazingly.

[pzmyers]

Not to me. (Raised in Italy, donchaknow.) Do tell.

That was in my backyard (but before my time). The Tacoma Narrows bridge was a spectacular example of resonance: winds started small rolling movements in the bridge that accelerated until the whole thing was rippling and bucking and heaving -- the bridge got the nickname "Galloping Gertie". People got seasick crossing the thing.

Finally, one windstorm ripped it apart. You can see some photos here (http://www.vibrationdata.com/Tacoma.htm). It seems like we used to get to watch the movie of the collapse every year in school. The most memorable thing about it was that someone abandoned his car in the middle of the span and fled, leaving his dog behind. It was horrible watching this poor animal get a roller coaster ride, and then die when the bridge disintegrated.

[livius drusus]

Holy crap. Now I see why Godless Wonder thought it too famous to mention. I've seen the footage so many times but I had no idea what it was from. It was just the bridge waving in the wind, though; no horrible dog desertion.

[wade-w]

I wonder if the random quote about bridges and who should design them was inspired by that incident.

[Skep]

Modern Marvels... great show. Until last week I had never heard of the Boston Molasses Disaster (http://edp.org/molasses.htm).

Basically, a tank holding some two million gallons of molasses ruptured, killing 21 people in January, 1919. It's hard to imagine the kind of mess that must have made.

[Dingfod]

Was Chernobyl an engineering disaster or just an operational error?

Or how about the cold sensitive o-rings responsible for the Challenger shuttle accident? Engineering disaster or operational error?

I have a book around here somewhere about this sort of thing, "Why Buildings Fall Down". In almost every case, the reason for failure of structures is lack of redundancy.

[davidm]

All sorts of potentially terrible engineering (and other) disasters are discussed here. (http://www.issues.org/issues/20.1/br_park.html)

This would have been the ultimate disaster, which, of course, was dodged:

Rees recounts the opposition to the first test, at Brookhaven National Laboratory, of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The accelerator is meant to replicate, in microcosm, conditions that prevailed in the first microsecond after the Big Bang, when all the matter in the universe was squeezed into a quark-gluon plasma. However, some physicists raised the possibility that the huge concentration of energy by RHIC could initiate the destruction of Earth or even the entire universe. Every scientist agreed that this was highly unlikely, but that wasn’t very comforting to the nonscientists whose taxes paid for RHIC.

:explode2:

[Godless Wonder]

Another too famous one:, the Hindenberg.
http://oceancounty.lib.nj.us/Branches/MA/images/hindenberg.jpg

[ceptimus]

The real reason why the dinosaurs died out...

[Dingfod]

All sorts of potentially terrible engineering (and other) disasters are discussed here. (http://www.issues.org/issues/20.1/br_park.html)

This would have been the ultimate disaster, which, of course, was dodged:

Rees recounts the opposition to the first test, at Brookhaven National Laboratory, of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The accelerator is meant to replicate, in microcosm, conditions that prevailed in the first microsecond after the Big Bang, when all the matter in the universe was squeezed into a quark-gluon plasma. However, some physicists raised the possibility that the huge concentration of energy by RHIC could initiate the destruction of Earth or even the entire universe. Every scientist agreed that this was highly unlikely, but that wasn’t very comforting to the nonscientists whose taxes paid for RHIC.

:explode2:
Didn't a lot of people think that about the first hydrogen bomb?

[livius drusus]

The real reason why the dinosaurs died out...

I thought that was cigarettes. (If Gary Larson doesn't know the real reason, who does?)

[livius drusus]

Modern Marvels... great show. Until last week I had never heard of the Boston Molasses Disaster (http://edp.org/molasses.htm).

Basically, a tank holding some two million gallons of molasses ruptured, killing 21 people in January, 1919. It's hard to imagine the kind of mess that must have made.

Many thanks for the link, Skeptoid. I read all the stories I could find on it. Downtown Boston smelled like molasses for 40 years because of the flood and I had never heard of it. I went to college in Massachusetts too (although not in Boston).

[The Lone Ranger]

How about the Titanic?

Apparently, no one thought to check the properties of the low-quality, high-sulfur steel that was used to build her. In near-freezing water, high-sulfur steel becomes quite brittle. Had the builders not gone with the lower-price, lower-quality steel, the Titanic would have survived its encounter with an iceberg. When the ship sideswiped the iceberg, the hull plates cracked and let in water, instead of simply buckling as they would have had they been made of higher-quality steel.


While its loss was hardly a disaster, remember the Mars Climate Observer? It turns out that one of the engineering teams used metric measurements, while another used English measurements, and no one thought to check that the measurements being used by one team were in the same units as those used by the other. Oops!

Cheers,

Michael

[Dingfod]

Who in any space program would still be using English units?

[The Lone Ranger]

Who in any space program would still be using English units?

My thought exactly! My guess is that Team 2 never bothered to check that Team 1 was using metric units because who in their right minds would be using English units in such a situation?

Cheers,

Michael

[Dingfod]

Wait. It was probably Oklahoma State University using the English units.

[Shake]

All sorts of potentially terrible engineering (and other) disasters are discussed here. (http://www.issues.org/issues/20.1/br_park.html)

This would have been the ultimate disaster, which, of course, was dodged:

Rees recounts the opposition to the first test, at Brookhaven National Laboratory, of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The accelerator is meant to replicate, in microcosm, conditions that prevailed in the first microsecond after the Big Bang, when all the matter in the universe was squeezed into a quark-gluon plasma. However, some physicists raised the possibility that the huge concentration of energy by RHIC could initiate the destruction of Earth or even the entire universe. Every scientist agreed that this was highly unlikely, but that wasn’t very comforting to the nonscientists whose taxes paid for RHIC.

:explode2:
Didn't a lot of people think that about the first hydrogen bomb?
Actually, some of the scientists involved in the Manhattan project thought the same thing. Since a fission bomb is a runaway chain reaction, they weren't sure it would stop with the fissible material.

There was an ad here for some car stereo system several years ago where they used footage from the Tacoma Narrows bridge film (playing Ministry no less, IIRC), and when he shuts the stereo off, they cut back to footage of the bridge beforehand and he says, "Sorry." :D

[Dingfod]

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge clip was used in another commercial, the product I forget, but the song used was Jerry Lee Lewis' Whole Lot of Shakin'. Might have been the McDonald's Salad Shaker thing, I don't remember. Shake it baby, shake it. Shake?

[Shake]

The Tacoma Narrows Bridge clip was used in another commercial, the product I forget, but the song used was Jerry Lee Lewis' Whole Lot of Shakin'. Might have been the McDonald's Salad Shaker thing, I don't remember. Shake it baby, shake it. Shake?
Afraid I can't help you with that one, Warren. Sorry, don't remember it.

[Dingfod]

Don't worry Shake, the commercial was as big a failure as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, it failed to imprint the product in my mind.

[Corona688]

The Quebec Bridge Disaster (http://www.civeng.carleton.ca/ECL/reports/ECL270/Introduction.html), or why you really ought to check your numbers several times before building something heavy.

It may just be an urban legend, but I'm told that the Iron Rings engineers get up here on their graduation are forged from the ruins of that bridge, a little bit of a reminder...

[Clutch Munny]

Don't forget the Firth Of Tay bridge disaster (http://www.tts1.demon.co.uk/tay.html).

It certainly wasn't the last time that people contemplated plunging into the river as an alternative to actually going to Dundee, but it was the most significant case.

Besides, it evoked the most famous warblings of that Ogden-Nash-minus-raised-eyebrow, Mr William McGonagall (http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/poems/pgdisaster.htm).

[Shake]

I'm surprised no one's brought this (http://www.fordpinto.com/blowup.htm) up yet. Hell, it even says, "Engineering Disaster" in the second line! :eek:

[Dingfod]

I'm surprised no one's brought this (http://www.fordpinto.com/blowup.htm) up yet. Hell, it even says, "Engineering Disaster" in the second line! :eek:
Wiki-pinto-dia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto)
More recently, it has been argued (in a 1991 law review paper by Gary Schwartz, among others) that the case against the Pinto was less clear cut than commonly supposed. Only 27 people ever died in Pinto fires, which given the Pinto's production figures (over 2 million built) was no worse than typical for the time. Schwartz argues that the car was no more fire-prone than other cars of the time, and that the supposed 'smoking gun' document showing Ford's callousness actually referred to the auto industry in general rather than the Pinto specifically.The Ford Crown Victoria, a car twice as big and twice as heavy had a worse record than that, over 30 killed, 16 of them police officers... out of approximately the same number of cars built, about 2 million over 20+ years. The question is, is that worse than other makes and models? No, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's analysis showed the fire risk in rear crashes in Ford Crown Victoria comparable to the Chevrolet Caprice, which is right in line with the average of all makes and models.
Based on an analysis of FARS data, the risk of fire per fatal rear crash in the CPVI vehicles was comparable to that of Chevrolet Caprice police vehicles. A study conducted by the Florida Highway Patrol reached similar conclusions.

[livius drusus]

I've been rear-ended in my dad's 1972 metallic hunter green Ford Pinto not once but twice. My dad was hit at least that many times back when he first got it. He's still driving that thing, and in fact, regularly gets 5 and 6 thousand dollar offers for it. (He paid $2,000 for it when he bought it brand new back in 1971.)

[Dingfod]

One of my jokes used to be:

You know someone is serious about committing suicide when they drive their Pinto sixty mph...

... backwards.

[Shaguar]

Millennium foot bridge across the thames in London. Smart alek designers HOK lobb forgot about resonance in structures (see tacoma narrows) and the brand bew bridge had to be strenghtened immediately on opening to stop it swaying.
I f they had bothered to ask even the most junior soldier they would have been told that the British army always breaks step on a bridge and had done for 200 years exactly because of this phenomonon (sic)

[ceptimus]

Don't forget the Firth Of Tay bridge disaster (http://www.tts1.demon.co.uk/tay.html).

It certainly wasn't the last time that people contemplated plunging into the river as an alternative to actually going to Dundee, but it was the most significant case.

Besides, it evoked the most famous warblings of that Ogden-Nash-minus-raised-eyebrow, Mr William McGonagall (http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/poems/pgdisaster.htm).
That poem is so bad that a kind of grandeur forms around it. Here's an excerpt.

So the train mov'd slowly along the Bridge of Tay,
Until it was about midway,
Then the central girders with a crash gave way,
And down went the train and passengers into the Tay!
The Storm Fiend did loudly bray,
Because ninety lives had been taken away,
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

[livius drusus]

I f they had bothered to ask even the most junior soldier they would have been told that the British army always breaks step on a bridge and had done for 200 years exactly because of this phenomonon (sic)

That's fascinating. I had never heard that but it makes sense, of course. Armies have a long history of engineering cleverness even when they weren't quite sure why things worked the way they did.

[wei yau]

Armies have a long history of engineering cleverness even when they weren't quite sure why things worked the way they did.

I think it's the History Channel, but I could be wrong...there's a series of docu-episodes in which modern-day engineers build ancient weapons and other devices based on knowledge of the Legions of Rome.

Fascinating stuff.

[Shaguar]

Eldar, they were made by Channel 4 over here and they were great, if it is the same series we are talking about they tried to build a giant pickaxe type device designed by Leonardo Da vinci and a giant crossbow, both failed engineering wise.

[livius drusus]

I have to confess that most of Leonardo's designs look less than workable to me. Now, Galileo: there's your killer gadget man.

[Corona688]

Eldar, they were made by Channel 4 over here and they were great The same channel 4 that invented 'junkyard wars' before the americans bastardized it? I'll BET it was great.

[Corona688]

I have to confess that most of Leonardo's designs look less than workable to me. Quite. I mean -- a square parachute? C'mon. What makes Leonardo's stuff interesting is their similarity to more modern ones, though. The concept of "parachute" was something new when he drew one.

[Dingfod]

Eldar, they were made by Channel 4 over here and they were great The same channel 4 that invented 'junkyard wars' before the americans bastardized it? I'll BET it was great.I've got to say that England has much more interesting junkyards than most of the American ones these days. Anything that isn't directly retrievable for replacement parts is sold off as scrap metal any more. I don't find too many junk boats or interesting but workable stuff like weedeater motors, ATVs, outboard motors and such in the five different junkyards within three miles of my house. The most interesting thing I've found, but I don't know what to do with them, is a bunch of semi-tractor sleeper cabs. In a pinch, I suppose one could be used to live in rather than a cardboard box.[/offtopic]

[livius drusus]

I have to confess that most of Leonardo's designs look less than workable to me. Quite. I mean -- a square parachute? C'mon. What makes Leonardo's stuff interesting is their similarity to more modern ones, though. The concept of "parachute" was something new when he drew one.

Right. I think his strength was in the far-ranging modernity of the concepts, not necessarily the design. I remember being perplexed when as a little girl my dad would tell me the giant statue of Leonardo outside the Rome airport was holding a helicopter blade because Leo invented them. I stared at that thing in the statue's hand from every direction and it didn't look like any helicopter blade I'd ever seen.

Eventually I realized that it wasn't about his blades working right; it was about him thinking up that vertical takeoff flying machine/whirligig thing centuries before anyone could make one that worked. That's just plain cool.

[ceptimus]

I read a science fiction short story once about a guy named Leonard Vincent, living in the 21st century (I think) who builds a time machine. You can guess the rest.

[Dingfod]

Leonard wasn't much of an engineer?

[livius drusus]

I read a science fiction short story once about a guy named Leonard Vincent, living in the 21st century (I think) who builds a time machine. You can guess the rest.

I bet the city of Vinci has that book on the Index.

[viscousmemories]

During my stint as a campus security guard in my early 20's I had to monitor an exhibition of Da Vinci sketches and models. As mentioned the watches, helicopters, parachutes, etc. were really cool. I'd always previously thought he was a 'mere' artist, I never knew he was an inventor.

[ceptimus]

I read a science fiction short story once about a guy named Leonard Vincent, living in the 21st century (I think) who builds a time machine. You can guess the rest.

I bet the city of Vinci has that book on the Index.
:D Hey! I never said it was a good book. :D And as time paradoxes go, the naming of a city after someone born a thousand or so years later is small beer.

Edit: Aha! I googled on it, and apparently it was a Robert Heinlein story named 'The Door into Summer' (yeah, I used to read that shit). Anyway, Leonard Vincent wasn't the genius who built the time machine, he was just the dumb lab assistant who stole it.