The Importance of Disaster Investigations for Systems Engineers

1342 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Importance of system analysis and system design

The Importance of Disaster Investigations for Systems Engineers

- What is a Systems Engineer?

In the modern industry engineering systems are becoming more complex

by the day. Therefore a need for elite engineers i.e. the Systems

Engineer, capable of applying a wide range of engineering disciplines

to a variety of tasks from product design and development from

requirements analysis to simulation to manufacturing and marketing

etc… is essential.

Such engineers work within a team at the heart of the organisation

where the design and development of a project is carried out. At this

stage it is of great importance that every aspect of the design is

studied accurately in order to ensure the final product works

effectively, efficiently and safely. However, although maximum effort

is made during the design, it is impossible to produce a result 100%

efficient. This unfortunately leads to the occurrence of accidents and

in some extreme cases to a disaster. By carrying out investigations

into the disasters and their causation, lessons can be learnt and

employed in future designs. This allows the team of engineers to

improve the performance and efficiency of the system whilst

maintaining the maximum safety levels.

- Disasters and why they happened?

- Air disasters caused due to faulty design:

There have been historically countless cases of confusion in handling

the flaps and the gear controls on the DC3 aircraft as they are in

close proximity to each other and of similar shape. This is a problem

that should have been addressed by the system engineers before the

final go ahead for production was approved considering the importance

of such instruments and their role during the flight of the aircraft.

- Challenger disaster caused due to faulty design:

This incident saw the destruction of the United States space shuttle

Challenger 73 seconds after take-off from the Kennedy Space Centre on

January 28, 1986 killing the entire shuttle crew.

The disaster was caused by the failure of an "O-ring" seal in the

solid-fuel rocket on the shuttle's right side. The seal's faulty

design and the unusually cold weather, which affected the seal's

proper functioning, allowed hot gases to leak through the joint.

Flames from inside the booster rocket escaped through the failed seal

and enlarged the small hole. The flames then burned through the

shuttle's external fuel tank and cut away one of the supports that

attached the booster to the side of the external tank. The booster

broke loose and collided with the tank, piercing the tank's side.

Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuels from the tank and booster

mixed and ignited, causing the shuttle to tear apart.

It is quite clear from this example that had the design of the ring

Show More
Related

  • The Bus Incident Case Study

    818 Words  | 2 Pages

    On the second day of March in the year 1955, a young, black girl named Claudette Colvin waited for the bus. She was 15 years old and lived in Montgomery. Colvin had just finished school for the day and was heading home. The city bus came, and she sat down in the area reserved for “black” passengers. As the bus filled up, left standing was a young, white woman. The seats in the white area were full, but there was an available seat in the opposite row of Colvin. Because of Jim Crows law- a law that said that a white person could not sit opposite of a colored person, the white woman refused to sit there. The bus driver ordered Colvin to move to the back of the bus so that the white female could sit down. Colvin refused to move.

    Read More

  • Engineering disasters

    694 Words  | 2 Pages

    On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost due to structural failure in the left wing. On take-off, it was reported that a piece of foam insulation surrounding the shuttle fleet's 15-story external fuel tanks fell off of Columbia's tank and struck the shuttle's left wing. Extremely hot gas entered the front of Columbia's left wing just 16 seconds after the orbiter penetrated the hottest part of Earth's atmosphere on re-entry. The shuttle was equipped with hundreds of temperature sensors positioned at strategic locations. The salvaged flight recorded revealed that temperatures started to rise in the left wing leading edge a full minute before any trouble on the shuttle was noted. With a damaged left wing, Columbia started to drag left. The ships' flight control computers fought a losing battle trying to keep Columbia's nose pointed forward.

    Read More

  • Crash Tragedy Analysis

    976 Words  | 2 Pages

    A tragedy is a wretched event that puts a person in despair. Tragedy is a genre which consists of continuous tragic happenings that ultimately lead to an unhappy ending. Arthur Miller expresses that what makes a tragic hero is their attempt to take fate into their own hands, which ends up being the reason for their ruin; while those who accept their fates tend to be the lucky and are spared a demise. Miller claims there are tragic consequences for a man who questions his position, regardless of whether he wants more or thinks he deserve less. The film, Crash, is an example of a tragedy, because one character tries to alter their own fate, and other characters have reservations of where they lie on the social spectrum.

    Read More

  • Rational Soundness In Don Quixote

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are a few conceivable understandings for what gives off an impression of being Don Quixote's progressive recuperation of rational soundness through the span of the novel. The most straightforward clarification might be that Don Quixote is crazy in the first place and his condition gradually makes strides. Second, it may be the case that, in his first energetic burst of sense of duty regarding knight errantry in the First Part, he acts more thoughtlessly than he needs to and in the long run figures out how to control his unusual conduct. Then again, it may be the case that Don Quixote is reliably rational from the earliest starting point and that. Cervantes just gradually uncovers this reality to us, along these lines placing us in an indistinguishable position from Don Quixote's companions, who wind up noticeably mindful of his rational soundness just by degrees. Or on the other hand it may be the case that Cervantes started his novel proposing Don Quixote to be a straightforward, ludicrous maniac yet then chose to add profundity to the story by gradually bringing him out of his franticness in the Second Part. At long last, it must be recollected that Cervantes never

    Read More

  • Accident Case Study: American Airlines Flight 1420

    1980 Words  | 4 Pages

    Fifteen years have passed since American Airlines flight 1420 experienced a botched landing tragically killing 10 passengers, the captain, and injuring 110 others. Thankfully, 24 passengers were uninjured, and the first officer survived. This horrific accident could have turned out much worse, but it could have also been easily avoided.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of the Crash of Air France Flight 4590

    1462 Words  | 3 Pages

    Travelling at a speed twice that of sound might seem to be something futuristic; however, this feat has already been achieved almost 40 years ago by the world’s only supersonic passenger aircraft-The Concorde. Concorde brought a revolution in the aviation industry by operating transatlantic flights in less than four hours. The slick and elegant aircraft with one of the most sophisticated engineering was one of the most coveted aircrafts of its time. However, this was all destined to end when Air France Flight 4590 was involved in a tragic disaster just outside the city of Paris on July 25, 2000. The crash killed 113 people, but more disastrous was its impact. The belief and confidence people had with Concorde gradually started to fade, and finally Concorde was grounded after two and a half years of the crash. Official reports state that the main cause of the crash was a piece of metal dropped by a Continental aircraft that flew moments before Concorde, but, over the last decade, the report has met a lot of criticism, and many alternative hypotheses have thus been proposed.

    Read More

  • Air Disaster- Creative Writing

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    not on the outside. All I wanted to do was find someone, get a story,

    Read More

  • Cervantes' Motivation for Writing Don Quixote

    1869 Words  | 4 Pages

    When Cervantes began writing Don Quixote, the most direct target of his satirical intentions was the chivalric romance. He makes this aim clear in his own preface to the novel, stating that "..[his] sole aim in writing..is to invalidate the authority, and ridicule the absurdity of those books of chivalry, which have, as it were, fascinated the eyes and judgment of the world, and in particular of the vulgar.” Immediately after the beginning of the novel, he demonstrates some of the ridiculous and unbelievable writing of these books: as Alonso Quixano--the man who decides to become the knight Don Quixote, after going mad from reading too many of these romances--sits in his study, tirelessly poring over his belo...

    Read More

  • Imagination in Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his novel, Don Quixote, Miguel Cervantes proves that a strong imagination is necessary to lead a fulfilling life. The main character, Alonso Quejana, is a man close to the age of fifty who has spent most of his life reading books about the medieval knights. In doing so, he has altered his sense of reality and came to believing he himself was a knight errant. He gave himself the name Don Quixote and decided to follow the chivalric code and bring justice to the world. Before Quejana became Quixote, he had no desire to help out humanity or bring an end to injustice, but with the help of his imagination his whole outlook on life changed. He saw life how it should be through his ideals rather than the reality of it.

    Read More

  • Case Study Of Investigating An Arson

    1024 Words  | 3 Pages

    Investigating an arson is very difficult because fires tend to destroy evidence and firefighters while fighting the blaze will move things around and destroy even more evidence. Once an investigation is open for an arson, investigators need to find the source of heat and the material ignited in order to determine if it was a set fire. The two most important question investigators will ask is where and how did the fire start? When a fire has multiple starting points that should raise the level of suspicion and dictate if the fire was purposely set. Other preliminary steps to take is for investigators to find ignition devices. These devices can be gasoline, chemicals, matches, or other types of accelerants. Accelerants also known as boosters speeds of the process of a fire by adding to the initial fire for the fire to burn rapidly and increase the intensity. Firefighter and law enforcement can look for melted metals or similar materials. This can mean that accelerants were used because metals usually burn at about 3,000*F. The most important thing for law enforcement and fire fighters when suspecting an arson is to not move and contaminate any physical evidence. The first thing they should secure is any harm or injuries and clear

    Read More

  • My Future as an Electrical Engineer

    998 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...p technology working properly; system engineers rely on their ability to think about a system comprehensively and application engineers are required to be resourceful. Although learning electrical engineering does make job-hunting much easier, engineers must pass a radical examination to receive their licenses. In order to get the licenses, I will have to complete a minimum number of years on the job.

    Read More

  • Causes and Factors Involving Aircraft Accidents

    1448 Words  | 3 Pages

    This term paper reviews the three most common catagories of aviation accident causes and factors. The causes and factors that will be discussed are human performance, environmental, and the aircraft itself. Although flying is one of the safest means of transportation, accidents do happen. It is the investigators job to determine why the accident happened, and who or what was at fault. In the event of an accident, either one or all of these factors will be determined as the cause of the accident. Also discussed will be one of the most tradgic plane crashes in aviation history and the human factors involved.

    Read More

  • Disaster Film Essay

    1503 Words  | 4 Pages

    Film-goers’ attraction to disasters as a subject started since the time of the silent film era. Even in this present time, the interest on disaster film maintains. The disasters are either approaching, ongoing, or established in the distant future. They can occur in the vicinity or worldwide. Commonly showed catastrophes in disaster or doomsday films include natural disasters, accidents like plane crashes, a skyscraper on fire or global illness epidemic, criminally plots such as terrorist conspiracies, bombs on the plane, and catastrophe that includes aliens, zombies or monsters attack, apocalyptic like the end of the world. These films often focus on the development, the tragedy itself, and from time to time the aftershock. It usually is from

    Read More

  • Accident Causation Theory

    2003 Words  | 5 Pages

    Salmon, P. M., Cornelissen, M., & Trotter, M. J. (2012). Systems-based accident analysis methods: A comparison of Accimap, HFACS, and STAMP. Safety Science, 50(4), 1158-1170.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Incident/Accident Investigation

    1354 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the past, the term "accident" was often used when referring to an unplanned, unwanted event. To many "accident" suggests an event that was random, and could not have been prevented. Since nearly all work site fatalities, injuries, and illnesses are preventable, OSHA suggests using the term "incident" investigation. An incident usually refers to an unexpected event that did not cause injury or damage this time but had the potential. "Near miss" or "dangerous occurrence" are also terms for an event that could have caused harm but did not.

    Read More

More about The Importance of Disaster Investigations for Systems Engineers

Open Document