The main objective of this project is to research structural failures. Various components of each failure such as the causes, technical lessons and the consequences were included in the research. The forensics and legal ramifications of each failure will also analyzed in detail. To supplement the explanations for the structural failures, diagrams and CAD models will be designed. The five structural failures that the group will analyze are: Hyatt Regency collapse, Johnstown flood, De Havilland Comet crashes, Rana Plaza collapse, and the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
We chose these case studies as they represent a wide cross-section of failures, including dams, ships and planes. More specifically, we chose these individual cases for a variety of reasons, ranging from the display of a specific concept to more personal reasons (See the FAQ for more information).
We as a group are learning quite a bit from this project, much of which we can apply in our own future careers. The connections for structural, civil and architectural engineers should be self-apparent, but, for others, this project is still valuable. It instills in us a sense of responsibility and ethics and humbles us to our weaknesses; after all, if these engineers can make mistakes, surely we can as well.
Over the course of this project, we have run into several major challenges. The most difficult was/is understanding technical material. Some of this we will learn in future courses, but other information is highly specific to a particular field. Thus, we may uncover concepts that we would never learn about in our standard courses.
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