Engineering Failures
* school tech1. Find an example of an engineering failure . Provide three different web addresses (URLS) that refer to the disaster.
2. Describe the product that faltered and its intended purpose
2.1. Product Description
- Titan is a manned submersible . It was designed and built by OceanGate, Inc.
- It was designed to carry 5 people on deep sea dives
- It had a payload capacity of 685kg, and a dry weight of 9525kg &NTSB-2024-TITAN
- 100% pre-preg carbon fibre composite construction with titanium endcaps at both ends
- Used a video game controller for steering
2.2. Purpose
- It provided a unique solution for human observation, inspection, and exploration in the deep ocean
- The purpose of the vessel was to carry five passengers to the wreckage of the titanic
3. Explain the part/feature of the product that had failed and the negative impact it had
3.1. What Failed
- The investigation concluded that the failure was a catastrophic implosion of the pressure hull of the submersible under the extreme pressures at depth
- The failure point was probably either:
- The report concludes that the probable failure point was either the adhesive joint at the forward dome or the carbon fiber hull near the forward end of the Titan &USCG-2025-TITAN
- The hull showed evidence of delamination, voids, wrinkles and porosity in the carbon fiber composite, which indicate degradation in the material and bonding over prior dives.
- The implosion would have been instantaneous, meaning the hull failed catastrophically inwards under pressure, destroying the structure
- The design used an oblong shape, which is less ideal under compression than a sphere (which distributes pressure more evenly). this increased stress concentration in certain areas
- Also, the use of dissimilar materials (carbon fiber hull + titanium caps) meant differential thermal expansion, bonding stresses, and material compatibility challenge
- The vessel had not been certified or classed by any recognized third-party regulatory body, and OceanGate reportedly had weak inspection, maintenance, and design oversight practices &TIKKANEN-TITAN-BRITTANICA.
- Investigators characterized the disaster as preventable, attributing primary fault to inadequate design, inspection, and maintenance processes.
3.2. Negative Impacts
- The implosion resulted in instantaneous destruction of the submersible and the loss of all five occupants, including OceanGate’s CEO, Stockton Rush&TIKKANEN-TITAN-BRITTANICA.
- The mission was terminated with human cost and Oceangate's reputation was severely damaged
- The loss undermined public trust in private deep-sea exploration, raised legal liabilities, and led to the suspension of OceanGate’s operations
4. What lessons were learned from this failure? Indicate improvements that have been made on account of the lesson(s) learned.
- Rigorous certification is necessary
- Lesson: Titan was not certified by any recognized third-party classification society.
- Takeaway: Relying solely on internal assessments without independent verification increases the risk of flaws going undetected. (see: eng-notes: Design Process)
- Improvement: Several agencies have called for clearer standards and mandatory certification for manned submersibles
5. Describe an error you made in developing one of your jenga buildings
- The tower collapsed because of imbalance caused by the uneven placement of blocks.
- The uneven placement of blocks shifts the center of gravity, and stability decreases as the center of gravity goes away from the support base(see: sci-notes: stability of structure)
5.1. At what stage in the design process were you when you realized the error
- This error was realized in the prototype stage(see: Design Process: Prototype/Model).
- We were constructing our build and it collapsed
5.2. What improvements did you make in response to the error
- We rebuilt the tower but meticulously ensured proper alignment of blocks.
- After placing each block, we checked to make sure it as properly placed.
6. Bibliography
7. Elsewhere
7.1. References
7.2. In my garden
Notes that link to this note (AKA backlinks).