Need Help Researching For Design Flaws That Caused Major Disasters

[crystalrae]

I am doing a training session at the place I work. I want to stress the effects of poor drawing habits and what can happen when drawings are done perfectly (or as close as they can get). Does anyone know of a place I can look for imformation that tells about mistakes on a drawing and the results of those mistakes - buildings collapsing - machinery going crazy. Even if any one out there has some stories that they've seen in as a result of poor drawing habits I would like to hear those. I just need something to back me up when I train on not making stupid mistakes and checking work. Anything would help - thanks!

 

[butelja]

They Hyatt Regency skyway collapse in Kansas City is a good example. The failure was actually caused by a field change in structural connection details that was OK'd by the engineer of record without careful analysis. Another interesting fact is that the original detail, as designed and shown on the drawings, met adequate strength in the design calculations but was not a configuration that could be fabricated readily.

There is good background information on the tragedy at:

http://www.kcstar.com/projects/hyatt/

 

[tigrek]

http://www.gsbca.gsa.gov/appeals/w132540.txt

... the blame for discrepancies on the ... field verifying dimensions. Id. According to ... the
alleged defective construction drawings. Id., Exhibit ...

If a touring map had to be prepared and addroved for each tourist, there would certainly crop up all combinations of mistakes with all possible causes including habits. It is a pity that made and stamped housing or hospital plans are not to be purchased just like city plans for tourists. The ultimate excuse: originality and tastes - as if every hundred bad hospital were a masterpiece of originality and good taste.

The same goes for family housing. Every pipe and every cable has to be redrawn for each next ugly building. The paperwork is staggering. The waiting time for approvals indefensible. No wonder a house with several hundred different simple materials costs much more than an auto with thousands of different complicated components.

 

[3DDon]

There is a web site that has bad designs, but I don't think that it covers major disasters, only simple stuff. However, it's still a great site.

The address is

http://www.baddesigns.com

Don Shoebridge
Sr. Product Developement Engineer

http://www.geocities.com/donshoebridge

 

[Rich2001]

Here is a good book to look at for engineering disasters

http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/Booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?sourceid=38876305&ean=9780679734161

To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design

 

[Rich2001]

Here is a website with links about engineering disasters

http://dol1.eng.sunysb.edu/disaster/

There are many example of engineering disasters out there.
Read about the History of the Iron Ring

http://engsoc.queensu.ca/tradition/ring/

 

[knobhead]

Oh my, there must be hundreds.
The Hubble telescope is one; the mirror was something like 5mm oversize, but this was such a big error everyone assumed they'd misread the drawing..
And then there's that Mars probe that disappeared cos the engineers were using different units.

Then there are the mistakes that happen all the time: getting first and third angle projections muddled up, tolerance build up, rounding errors, (the old 1+1=3 riddle: round off 1.4+1.4=2.8), double dimensioning, random datuming...

A couple of personal stories: I work for a subcontractor making jet engine components. One client is renowned here for their unbelieveabley bad drawings. I had a drawing for a turbine wheel, the outline of which I was drawing up in CAD at nominal size from the customers drawing. When I got to the end, the profile didn't join up with where I'd started. The clients drawing was literally impossible to make.
Another drawig mixed and matched projections, which resulted in us making the mirror image of the part required!