List Of Engineering Blunders
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List Of Engineering Blunders
This is a list of engineering blunders, i.e., gross errors or mistakes resulting from grave lack of proper consideration, such as stupidity, confusion, carelessness, or culpable ignorance, which resulted in notable incidents. * Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused by a faulty blowout preventer. * Fort Montgomery was sometimes referred to as "Fort Blunder", because the first version of the U.S. Army fort was inadvertently built on the Canadian side of Lake Champlain. *Millennium Bridge, London, nicknamed "Wobbly Bridge"; it took almost two years to fix the engineering error * The NASA Mars Climate Orbiter, launched in 1998, burned up in the Martian atmosphere. A mixup between metric and US Standard measurements in the controlling software caused the spacecraft to miss its intended 140–150 km altitude above Mars during orbit insertion, instead entering the Martian atmosphere at about 57 km. * The NASA Genesis mission was an attempt to sample particles from the solar wind. ...
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Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill was an environmental disaster off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and estimated to be 8 to 31 percent larger in volume than the previous largest, the Ixtoc I oil spill, also in the Gulf of Mexico. Caused in the aftermath of a blowout and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform, the United States federal government estimated the total discharge at . After Efforts to stem the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, several failed efforts to contain the flow, the well was declared sealed on 19 September 2010. Reports in early 2012 indicated that the well site was still leaking. The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill is regarded as one of the largest environmental disasters in world history. A massive response ensued to protect beaches, salt marsh, wetlands and Estuary, estuaries from the spreading oil util ...
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Palace II (building)
Palace II was a tower block built at Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On February 22, 1998, parts of it collapsed, due to engineering error, killing eight people. Another part of its structure collapsed on February 27, 1998, and the remaining parts of the building were demolished on February 28, 1998. Before the building was demolished, researchers found empty piers and evidence of the usage of beach sand on the construction. All families had to move to hotels after the building's fall. They had no time to collect their personal objects in their apartments. Although most of them have not yet received any kind of indemnity from the company responsible for building their homes, the Superior Court of Justice of Brazil announced, on April 9, 2008, the unblocking of 13 million reais (~6.5 million US dollars) earned through the auction of a property of Sérgio Naya, the civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of plannin ...
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Space Accidents And Incidents
This article lists verifiable spaceflight-related accidents and incidents resulting in human death or serious injury. These include incidents during flight or training for crewed space missions and testing, assembly, preparation, or flight of crewed and robotic spacecraft. Not included are accidents or incidents associated with intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests, death or injury to test animals, uncrewed space flights, rocket-powered aircraft projects of World War II, or conspiracy theories about alleged unreported Soviet space accidents. , 19 people have died during spaceflights that crossed, or were intended to cross, the boundary of space as defined by the United States (50 miles above sea level). Astronauts have also died while training for space missions, such as the Apollo 1 launch pad fire that killed an entire crew of three. There have also been some non-astronaut deaths during spaceflight-related activities. As of 2025, more than 188 people have died in ...
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Catastrophic Failure
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, 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. 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 gun, an inadequate headspace, the use of incorrect ammunition, the use of ammunition with an incorrect propellant charge, a partially or fully obstructed barrel, or weakened metal in the barrel o ...
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Engineering Disasters
Engineering disasters often arise from shortcuts in the design process. Engineering is the science and technology used to meet the needs and demands of society. These demands include buildings, aircraft, watercraft, vessels, and computer software. In order to meet society’s demands, the creation of newer technology and infrastructure must be met efficiently and cost-effectively. To accomplish this, managers and engineers need a mutual approach to the specified demand at hand. This can lead to shortcuts in engineering design to reduce costs of construction and fabrication. Occasionally, these shortcuts can lead to unexpected design failures. Overview Failure occurs when a structure or device has been used past the limits of design that inhibits proper function. If a structure is designed to only support a certain amount of Stress (mechanics), stress, Deformation (physics), strain, or loading and the user applies greater amounts, the structure will begin to deform and eventually ...
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