Introduction
An important element of an engineer’s job is to have the ability to respond to a need by building or creating a device or structure to carry out a given purpose. It is important for this device to be able to perform its purpose without failure as it will be dealing with people life and therefor the highest amount of safety is needed. Though, everything must eventually fail, in some way e.g. a failure in maintenance or a structure failure. This is why a failure analysis is important to an engineer’s job.
A failure analysis is the process of collecting data and analyzing it to determine the cause of failure and then applying this knowledge to further prevent future occurrence, and/or to improve the performance device, component or structure. In an engineering point of view, this is very important as it allows engineers to understand and learn about past failures in engineering and using this newly gain knowledge, they are able to construct a better design which will lower fail rate and improve the factor of safety within device, components of structure.
In this failure analysis report the topic of choice that will be addressed is the engineering failure of the 1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the U.S.A state of Washington that collapsed in the November 1940 due to its structural design not being aerodynamic, which caused the phenomenon called aeroelastic flutter to occur. The report will address the type of failure the 1940 Tacoma Narrow Bridge is classified under and strategies to mitigate the problem. The report will also discuss the reason for its failure and the ramification it had on financial and social aspects, and through failure analysis, how engineers and scientist were able to identified the problem an...
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[9] “Bridge Collapse Cases/Tacoma Narrows,”(MatDL], [online] 2011, http://matdl.org/failurecases/Bridge_Collapse_Cases/Tacoma_Narrows (Accessed: 15 April 2014)
[10] “Success: Creating the Narrows Bridge 1937-1940,” (Tacoma Narrows Bridge 1937-1940), [online] 2005, http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/tnbhistory/connections/connections2.htm (Accessed: 15 April 2014)
[11] “Aftermath – Engineering Challenge and the Rise of a New Bridge,” (Tacoma Narrows Bridge), [online] 2005, http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/tnbhistory/machine/machine4.htm (Accessed: 15 April 2014)
[12] “Lesson From the Failure of a Great Machine,” (Tacoma Narrows Bridge), [online] 2005, http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/tnbhistory/machine/machine3.htm (Accessed: 15 April 2014)
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Steven Hermosillo Professor Wallace Fire Tech 105 15 November 2015 Silver Bridge Collapse According to Wikipedia, Forty-six people were killed in the silver-bridge collapse and another nine people were injured. “The Silver Bridge was an eye-bar-chain suspension bridge built in 1928 and named for the color of its aluminum paint. The bridge connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, over the Ohio River” (Wikipedia). This was a highly used bridge serving thousands of cars a day before the collapse.
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Hargreaves, Steve. "The High Cost of America's Bad Roads and Bridges." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 12 Feb. 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.
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Quinn, R. (2008). Building the Bridge As You Walk On It. In J.L. Pierce, & J.W. Newstrom (Eds). The Manager’s Bookshelf (pp 233-236). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson