A catastrophic failure is a sudden and total
failure from which recovery is impossible. Catastrophic failures often lead to
cascading systems failure. The term is most commonly used for
structural failures
Structural integrity and failure is an aspect of engineering that deals with the ability of a structure to support a designed structural load (weight, force, etc.) without breaking and includes the study of past structural failures in order to ...
, but has often been extended to many other disciplines in which total and irrecoverable loss occurs, such as a
head crash occurrence on a
hard disk drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
. Such failures are investigated using the methods of
forensic engineering
Forensic engineering has been defined as ''"the investigation of failures - ranging from serviceability to catastrophic - which may lead to legal activity, including both civil and criminal".'' It includes the investigation of materials, produc ...
, which aims to isolate the cause or causes of failure.
For example, catastrophic failure can be observed in
steam turbine rotor failure, which can occur due to peak stress on the rotor; stress concentration increases up to a point at which it is excessive, leading ultimately to the failure of the disc.
In firearms, catastrophic failure usually refers to a rupture or disintegration of the barrel or receiver of the gun when firing it. Some possible causes of this are an
out-of-battery
Out-of-battery refers to the status of a firearm before the action has returned to the normal firing position.
Description
The term originates from artillery, referring to a gun that fires before it has been pulled back.
In artillery guns, "out o ...
gun, an inadequate
headspace
Headspace may refer to:
*Headspace (company), an online healthcare company specializing in meditation
*Headspace (organisation), an Australian non-profit organization for youth mental health
*Headspace or ullage, the unfilled space in a container
...
, the use of incorrect ammunition, the use of ammunition with an incorrect
propellant
A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the e ...
charge,
a partially or fully obstructed barrel,
or weakened metal in the barrel or receiver. A failure of this type, known colloquially as a "kaboom", or "kB" failure, can pose a threat not only to the user(s) but even many bystanders.
In chemical engineering,
thermal runaway
Thermal runaway describes a process that is accelerated by increased temperature, in turn releasing energy that further increases temperature. Thermal runaway occurs in situations where an increase in temperature changes the conditions in a way t ...
can cause catastrophic failure.
Examples
Examples of catastrophic failure of engineered structures include:
* The
Tay Rail Bridge disaster
The Tay Bridge disaster occurred during a violent storm on Sunday 28 December 1879, when the first Tay Rail Bridge collapsed as a North British Railway (NBR) passenger train on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line from Burntisland bound for its final ...
of 1879, where the center of the bridge was completely destroyed while a train was crossing in a storm. The bridge was badly designed and its replacement was built as a separate structure upstream of the old.
* The failure of the
South Fork Dam
The South Fork Dam was an earthenwork dam forming Lake Conemaugh (formerly Western Reservoir, also known as the Old Reservoir and Three Mile Dam, a misnomer), an artificial body of water near South Fork, Pennsylvania, United States. On May 31, 1 ...
in 1889 released 4.8 billion US gallons (18 billion litres) of water and killed over 2,200 people (popularly known as the
Johnstown Flood
The Johnstown Flood (locally, the Great Flood of 1889) occurred on Friday, May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam, located on the south fork of the Little Conemaugh River, upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylv ...
).
* The collapse of the
St. Francis Dam
The St. Francis Dam was a concrete gravity dam located in San Francisquito Canyon in Los Angeles County, California, United States, built from 1924 to 1926 to serve Los Angeles's growing water needs. It catastrophically failed in 1928 due to a d ...
in 1928 released 12.4 billion US gallons (47 billion litres) of water, resulting in a death toll of nearly 600 people.
* The collapse of the first
Tacoma Narrows Bridge of 1940, where the main deck of the road bridge was totally destroyed by dynamic oscillations in a wind.
* The
De Havilland Comet disasters of 1954, later determined to be structural failures due to
metal fatigue
In materials science, fatigue is the initiation and propagation of cracks in a material due to cyclic loading. Once a fatigue crack has initiated, it grows a small amount with each loading cycle, typically producing striations on some parts o ...
that had not been anticipated at the corners of square windows used by the Comet 1.
* The 62
Banqiao Dam
The Banqiao Reservoir Dam () is a dam on the River Ru (), a tributary of the Hong River in Zhumadian City, Henan province, China. The Banqiao dam and Shimantan Reservoir Dam () are among 62 dams in Zhumadian that failed catastrophically in 1975 ...
s failure event in China in 1975, due to
Typhoon Nina. Approximately 86,000 people died from flooding and another 145,000 died from subsequent diseases, a total of 231,000 deaths.
* The
Hyatt Regency walkway collapse
On July 17, 1981, the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, suffered the structural collapse of two overhead walkways. Loaded with partygoers, the concrete and glass platforms cascaded down, crashing onto a tea dance in the lobby, killi ...
of 1981, where a suspended walkway in a hotel lobby in
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...
, collapsed completely, killing over 100 people on and below the structure.
* The
Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster of 1986, in which an O-ring of a rocket booster failed, causing the external fuel tank to break up and making the shuttle veer off course, subjecting it to aerodynamic forces beyond design tolerances; the entire crew and vehicle were lost.
* The
nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...
at the
Chernobyl power plant, which
exploded in 1986 causing the release of a substantial amount of
radioactive
Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consid ...
materials.
* The collapse of the
Warsaw radio mast
The Warsaw Radio Mast (Polish: ''Maszt radiowy w Konstantynowie'') was a radio mast located near Gąbin, Poland, and the world's tallest structure at from 1974 until its collapse on 8 August 1991. Designed by Jan Polak, and one of the ...
of 1991, which had up to that point held the title of
world's tallest structure
The world's tallest human-made structure is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (of the United Arab Emirates). The building gained the official title of "tallest building in the world" and the tallest self-supported structure at its opening on Januar ...
.
* The
Sampoong Department Store collapse of 1995, which happened due to structural weaknesses, killed 502 people and injured 937.
* The
terrorist attacks
The following is a list of terrorist incidents that have not been carried out by a state or its forces (see state terrorism and state-sponsored terrorism). Assassinations are listed at List of assassinated people.
Definitions of terrori ...
and subsequent fire at the
World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
on September 11, 2001, weakened the floor
joist
A joist is a horizontal structural member used in framing to span an open space, often between beams that subsequently transfer loads to vertical members. When incorporated into a floor framing system, joists serve to provide stiffness to the s ...
s to the point of catastrophic failure.
* The
Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster of 2003, where damage to a wing during launch resulted in total loss upon re-entry.
* The collapse of the multi-span
I-35W Mississippi River bridge
The I-35W Mississippi River bridge (officially known as Bridge 9340) was an eight-lane, steel truss arch bridge that carried Interstate 35W across the Mississippi River one-half mile (875 m) downstream from the Saint Anthony Falls in Minneap ...
on August 1, 2007.
* The collapse of the
Olivos-Tezonco Mexico City Metro overpass of 2021, which had structurally weakened over the years.
See also
*
Dragon King Theory
*
List of bridge disasters
This is a list of bridge failures.
Before 1800
1800–1899
1900–1949
1950–1999
2000–present
Bridge disasters in fiction
*Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005 novel): the fictional Brockdale Bridge, by the Death Eaters (r ...
*
Seismic performance
Seismic analysis is a subset of structural analysis and is the calculation of the response of a building (or nonbuilding) structure to earthquakes. It is part of the process of structural design, earthquake engineering or structural assessment ...
*
Structural collapse
Structural integrity and failure is an aspect of engineering that deals with the ability of a structure to support a designed structural load (weight, force, etc.) without breaking and includes the study of past structural failures in order to ...
*
Structural failure
Structural integrity and failure is an aspect of engineering that deals with the ability of a structure to support a designed structural load (weight, force, etc.) without breaking and includes the study of past structural failures in order to ...
*
Resonance disaster
*
Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth
A global catastrophic risk or a doomsday scenario is a hypothetical future event that could damage human well-being on a global scale, even endangering or destroying modern civilization. An event that could cause human extinction or permanen ...
References
*
*
{{Reflist
Building engineering
Civil engineering
Failure