Engineering Failure & Human Error 6 Marine Engineering b. The Titanic Sinking – Apr. 10, 1912 On Board Saved Save . Lost Passengers. Wom. Child Men Total Wom. Child. Men Total Wom Child Men Total - 1st Class 156 173 329 145 54 199 11 119 130 60% 2nd Class 128 157 285 104 15 119 24 142 166 42% 3rd Class 224 476 710 105 69 174 119 417 536 25% Total 508 816 1,324 354 138 492 154 678 832 37% Crew 23 876 899 20 194 214 3 682 685 24% Total 531 1,692 2,223 374 332 706 157 1,360 1,517 32% Engineering Failure & Human Error Bibliography ‘The Titanic Disaster Hearings’, Tom Kuntz (Pocket 1998) ISBN-10: 0671025538 ISBN-13: 978-0671025533 ‘Titanic: Destination Disaster’, John P. Eaton, Charles A. Haas (W. W. Norton 1996) ISBN-10: 0393315134 ISBN-13: 978-0393315134 'The Titanic Story: Hard Choices, Dangerous Decisions’, Stephen D. Cox (Open Court 1999) ISBN-10: 0812693965 ISBN-13: 978-0812693966 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic http://www.csititanic.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_RMS_Titanic http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9801/Felkins-9801.html 1 Engineering Failure & Human Error The headlines Apr. 16, 1912 RMS Titanic The maiden voyage Engineering Failure & Human Error The age of the big liners At the beginning of the 20th century ocean travel was big business. The demand for fast trans-Atlantic mail and parcel delivery and cheap ‘steerage’ berths for immigrants added to the profits from 1st and 2nd Class luxury accommodation on board. The Cunard liners Lusitania and Mauretania entered service in 1907 and held the ‘Blue Riband’ for the fastest Atlantic crossing. The White Star liners Olympic and Titanic were designed to compete with the Cunard ships. They were appreciably larger but lacked the speed and manoeuvrability of the Cunard vessels. The Cunard ships had steam turbines, quadruple screws and a balanced rudder, and gave marine engineering what the jet engine, 50 years later, gave aeronautical engineering. 2 Engineering Failure & Human Error Just how big was the Titanic? Engineering Failure & Human Error The history of the RMS Olympic & Titanic The White Star company prospered from sailing vessels taking emigrants to Australia, but recognized the potential of the growing Atlantic trade: emigrants leaving Europe, with cargos of sugar, tobacco, cotton and wheat for Europe from the Americas. Harland & Wolff shipyards (Belfast, N. Ireland) undertook design and construction of a series of vessels for White Star: Brittanic, Germanic, Teutonic, Majestic and Oceanic (1890). White Star joined the mercantile empire of American financier John Pierpoint Morgan in 1902, although the ships continued to fly the British flag and employ British officers and crews. Celtic (1901), Cedric (1903), Baltic (1904) and Adriatic (1907) were built for White Star, to be followed by three giant liners: Olympic, Titanic and Gigantic (never built). 3 Engineering Failure & Human Error The building of the RMS Titanic The Harland & Wolff design used riveted steel plate with about 3,000,000 rivets. Engineering Failure & Human Error 1st Class life on board Titanic Oceanic dining saloon Joseph Bruce Ismay White Star Chairman & Managing Director Olympic 1st Class cabin 4 Engineering Failure & Human Error Four weaknesses of the RMS Titanic The rudder The rivets The iceberg The captain Engineering Failure & Human Error What happened? 10 Apr. Titanic leaves Southampton for New York via Cherbourg and Ireland 10-14 Apr. Speed increased to 21.5 knots (40 Km/hr.) as more turbines started 12 Apr. Warnings received of icebergs on the planned route 14 Apr. Water temp. -2C. 23.40 Crow’s nest lookout Fredrick Fleet sights iceberg and reports to bridge. First Officer William Murdoch orders turn to starboard. Ship’s designer, Thomas Andrews, informs Captain that pumps are inadequate 15 Apr. 02.20 Vessel breaks in two and sinks with 1,517 passengers and crew 5 Engineering Failure & Human Error The rescue ships The Cunard steamer Carpathia arrived just after 4am and took 705 survivors on board, but the Leyland steamer, Californian, only arrived after sunrise, although initially closer to the scene Carpathia Californian Lifeboat photographed from the Carpathia Engineering Failure & Human Error Good & bad guys The Boss The American press held Joseph Bruce Ismay, White Star Chairman and Managing Director, responsible for the disaster, perhaps because he survived the sinking The Captain Commodore Edward J. Smith failed to slow the ship after receiving ice warnings and allowed lifeboats to leave partially filled. He was responsible for at least 500 unnecessary deaths. But he ‘went down with his ship’, and this made him a hero for the American press The Board of Trade Regulations written for smaller ships (up to 10,000 gross registered tonnage) required 16 lifeboats, totally inadequate for the 46,329 ton Titanic and the 3,511 maximum complement of passengers and crew 6 Engineering Failure & Human Error Design faults & materials failures The Olympic and the Titanic were the jumbo jets of the commercial liner market. They were based on British experience of cruiser and battleship design, but still incorporated concepts derived from sailing ship design In 1985 the wreck of the Titanic was discovered at a depth of 3,700m, spread over 600m of the sea floor,. Some answers to outstanding questions about the accident then became possible Two theories have been proposed to explain the extreme vulnerability of the Titanic structure on impact with the iceberg : 1. Brittle failure of the ship’s plate due to the impact, the low ambient temperature and the high chevron-notch transition temperature 2. Poor strength of the enormous number of wrought iron rivets used to assemble the sections of the ship by manual riveting. Engineering Failure & Human Error The extent of the impact damage The area of primary damage is buried some 17m beneath the mud and was only accessible by sonar imaging. However a picture was built up showing that the grazing impact with the iceberg had ripped several tears in the hull that extended from the forepeak to the #5 boiler room 7 Engineering Failure & Human Error Composition of Titanic 1” ship’s plate from three independent investigations and compared with a modern standard Engineering Failure & Human Error Toughness of Titanic 1” ship’s plate Mixed fracture at 0C 8 Engineering Failure & Human Error So why blame the rivets? The Olympic sister ship experienced collision damage (1911) in which wrought iron rivets popped out but extensive plate ductility in bending was observed. Rivets recovered from the Titanic contained many silicate stringers and showed signs of corrosion cracking under residual stresses due to the riveting process Engineering Failure & Human Error Some Conclusions 1. Ambition, overconfidence and national pride resulted in a major tragedy 2. The design of the White Star ships was poor compared to that of the Cunard liners 3. The Titanic lacked manoeuvrability and was ill-equipped for an emergency 4. The Titanic Captain was more concerned with his image than with his passengers 9 Engineering Failure & Human Error More Conclusions 1. Government safety regulations had not considered giant liners of this size 2. This gigantic ship was travelling too fast to have avoided the collision 3. Brittle failure of the steel was probably not important, but could have been 4. The rivets were probably the weakest link in the construction of the ship Engineering Failure & Human Error Some Questions 1. How have social norms for mass travel changed over the past 100 years? 2. Are the gigantic Caribbean cruise ships the real successors of the Titanic? 3. What are the major advances in plain carbon steel technology since Titanic? 4. The Captain ‘died like a hero’, but how did he perform before his death? 10 Engineering Failure & Human Error More Questions 1. The ship was considered ‘almost unsinkable’. Why? 2. The lifeboats were sufficient for 1,178. Should we blame the ‘regulations’? 3. Why did welded structures ultimately replace rivets in ship construction? 4. Compare the trans-Atlantic trade in 1912 with the Zim and other freight business. 11