Assignment EEM423 Reliability

Nur Afiqah bte Junizan (130520)

Titanic

The Titanic accident investigations used the best resources of the time however, the inquiries
were conducted long before the wreckage was found, a forensic analysis was applied, and
computer-generated recreation was available. Today, we have a clear picture of exactly how
the Titanic disaster took place from a mechanical perspective

What is the cause of this sink ship?

The sinking of the Titanic has become one of the most well-known disasters in history. Because
of the terrible loss of life and the demise of what everyone believed was an "unsinkable" ship,
people are intrigued and curious about what caused the rapid sinking of the Titanic. Several
theories have developed since the sinking to explain the events that occurred on that fateful
night. This article has presented the most probable theory, which has become dominant as a
result of evidence acquired during several expeditions to the Titanic site.

The failure of the hull steel resulted from brittle fractures caused by the high Sulphur content of
the steel, the low temperature water on the night of the disaster, and the high impact loading
of the collision with the iceberg. When the Titanic hit the iceberg, the hull plates split open and
continued cracking as the water flooded the ship. Low water temperatures and high impact
loading also caused the brittle failure of the rivets used to fasten the hull plates to the ship's
main structure. On impact, the rivets were either sheared off or the heads popped off because
of excessive loading, which opened up riveted seams. Also, the rivets around the perimeter of
the plates elongated due to the stresses applied by the water, which broke the caulking and
provided another inlet for the water.

The rapid sinking of the Titanic was worsened by the poor design of the transverse bulkheads of
the watertight compartments. As water flooded the damaged compartments of the hull, the
ship began to pitch forward, and water in the damaged compartments was able to spill over
into adjacent compartments. Not only did the compartments not control the flooding, but they
also contained the water in the bow, which increased the rate of sinking.

Video:
1.) Titanic Real Story (FULL Documentary) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUD0_Ym77Qw
2.) What Caused Titanic to Sink? -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QRQ5YYk3Cs&t=193s
3.) Sinking of the Titanic (1912) –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0L_2jKEbA4
4.) The Untold Stories of the Titanic's Passengers -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl7NI9X_4SY
Space Challenger

The astronauts’ deaths were due to the loss of Challenger, which was caused by an external
tank explosion: the space shuttle broke apart because gasses in the external fuel tank mixed,
exploded, and tore the space shuttle apart.

The external fuel tank exploded after a rocket booster came loose and ruptured the tank
because hot gasses and flames leaking out of the rocket boosters burned a hole into the
external fuel tank and the piece that held the rocket boosters onto the shuttle. The hot gases
leaking out of the rocket boosters because a seal around the O-ring (a piece of the rocket
boosters) failed.

Why did the primary O-ring fail?

There are three reasons, the first of which was structural. There was a fundamental design flaw
in the joint that engineers had grown accustomed to and had learned to live with. Although the
boosters were not designed to work this way, it was not uncommon for the booster casing to
balloon under the stress of ignition, causing the metal parts of the casing to bend away from
each other, creating gaps through which hot gases could leak. In prior instances, the primary O-
ring would shift out of its groove and form a seal. This process is called extrusion, and the hot
gases escaping is called blow-by.

The more time it takes for extrusion to occur, however, the greater the damage to the O-rings.
This brings us to the most immediate reason for the O-ring failure: the low temperatures at
launch caused the O-rings to harden. On the morning of the launch, the cold weather
lengthened the time of extrusion and hardened the O-ring, which could not form a seal in time.

Finally, the primary O-ring blow-by (the escape of hot gas) occurred because the O-ring
hardened and did not fully seal at the low temperatures, and because the decision was made to
launch in low temperatures, despite the fact that the vehicle was never certified to operate in
temperatures that low. This decision was found to have been made because of ineffective
launch commit criteria.

Video:
1.) National Geographic - The Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster Investigation -
Documentary 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTNXQSSZGGw&t=68s
2.) NASA Challenger disaster what really happened to the Challenger shuttle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0MYgCttccI