Catastrophic failure
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A catastrophic failure is a sudden and total
For example, catastrophic failure can be observed in steam turbine rotor failure, which can occur due to peak stress on the rotor; stress concentration increases up to a point at which it is excessive, leading ultimately to the failure of the disc.
In firearms, catastrophic failure usually refers to a rupture or disintegration of the barrel or receiver of the gun when firing it. Some possible causes of this are an
In chemical engineering, a reaction which undergoes thermal runaway can cause catastrophic failure.
It can be difficult to isolate the cause or causes of a catastrophic failure from other damage that occurred during the failure, forensic engineering and failure analysis are used to find and analyse these causes.
Examples
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Original_Tay_Bridge_before_the_1879_collapse.jpg/300px-Original_Tay_Bridge_before_the_1879_collapse.jpg)
Examples of catastrophic failure of engineered structures include:
- The Tay Rail Bridge disasterof 1879, where the center 0.5 miles (0.80 km) of the bridge was completely destroyed while a train was crossing in a storm. The bridge was inadequately designed and its replacement was built as a separate structure upstream of the old.
- The failure of the South Fork Dam in 1889 released 4.8 billion US gallons (18 billion litres) of water and killed over 2,200 people (popularly known as the Johnstown Flood).
- The collapse of the St. Francis Dam in 1928 released 12.4 billion US gallons (47 billion litres) of water, resulting in a death toll of nearly 600 people.
- The collapse of the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge of 1940, where the main deck of the road bridge was totally destroyed by dynamic oscillations in a 40 mph (64 km/h) wind.
- The De Havilland Comet disasters of 1954, later determined to be structural failures due to greater metal fatigue than anticipated at the corners of windows.
- The 62 Banqiao Dams failure event in China in 1975, due to Typhoon Nina. Approximately 86,000 people died from flooding and another 145,000 died from subsequent diseases, a total of 231,000 deaths.
- The Hyatt Regency walkway collapse of 1981, where a suspended walkway in a hotel lobby in Kansas City, Missouri, collapsed completely, killing over 100 people on and below the structure.
- The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of 1986, in which an O-ring of a rocket booster failed, causing the external fuel tank to break up and making the shuttle veer off course, subjecting it to aerodynamic forces beyond design tolerances; the entire crew of 7 and vehicle were lost.
- The radioactivematerials.
- The collapse of the world's tallest structure.
- The Sampoong Department Store collapse of 1995, which happened due to structural weaknesses, killed 502 people and injured 937.
- The World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, weakened the floor joiststo the point of catastrophic failure.
- The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster of 2003, where damage to a wing during launch resulted in total loss upon re-entry.
- The collapse of the multi-span I-35W Mississippi River bridge on August 1, 2007.
- The collapse of the Olivos-Tezonco Mexico City Metro overpass of 2021, which had structurally weakened over the years.
See also
- Dragon King Theory
- List of bridge disasters
- Seismic performance
- Structural collapse
- Structural failure
- Resonance disaster
- Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth
References
- ISBN 978-1420062977. Retrieved 2014-02-24.
Many firearms are destroyed and injuries sustained by home reloaders who make a mistake in estimating the correct powder charge.
- ISBN 978-0-313-38670-1. Retrieved 2014-02-24.
... and left the copper jacket lodged in the barrel, leading to a catastrophic failuer of the rifle when the next bullet fired hit the jacket remnants.
Further reading
- ISBN 0-553-17334-0.
- Lewis, Peter R. (2004). Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay: Reinvestigating the Tay Bridge Disaster of 1879. Tempus. ISBN 0-7524-3160-9.