Structures from first principles!
High above St. Lawrence River, on a hot sunny day in August, 1907, workers were working on the Quebec bridge when suddenly, the sound of twisting metals pierced the air, and the giant cantilever bridge under construction failed, crashing into the river with enormous force, such that people miles away in Quebec City believed an earthquake had hit.
Somewhere in Manhattan, a team of carpenters, welders and labourers were secretly working through the night, retrofitting steel connections under the directive of one of America’s finest Highrise structural designer, in a race to salvage the world’s 7th Tallest building. The skyscraper was meant to be a structural masterpiece but instead was poised to become one of the greatest engineering disasters of all time. Hurricane season was approaching and even a moderate storm would put the lives of over 200k people at risk
Just as there are dangers with the use of software in engineering, it is equally important that we also note that there are also dangers with non-automation. In this article, we’ll look at the circumstances in which the virgin galactic plane crashed in 2014 and if there are lessons that can be learnt.
![[Opinion] Choice of Structural form for a Monopitch Roof](https://structurescentre.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/featured-image-for-post-330x288.jpg)
You’re faced with the design of a steel truss for a monopitch roof spanning 18.35m. The roof is invariably enclosed hence is considered predominantly subjected to gravity loads, which scheme would you choose or consider more appropriate and why?
At the backdrop of any structural failure are lessons to be learnt, but do engineers actually learn anything?… Find out!
Approximately 50 years ago, the west gate bridge in Melbourne, Australia collapsed under construction killing over 30 people in what is now widely regarded as Australia’s worst construction accidents ever
At approximately 22 minutes past 6:00 pm on 21st of August 2009, a train was travelling across the viaduct, when the train driver suddenly noticed a portion of the viaduct had begun to collapse
Some failures are caused by the most stealthy human factors: corruption and greed. This situation is even worse in the third-world countries where the use of sub-standard materials, faulty construction and cutting corners around standard specifications is highly prevalent.
The second willow island, West Virginia cooling tower collapsed while still under construction on April 27, 1978, killing all 51 workers. It is regarded as the deadliest construction accident in the whole of US history.
Five years into the night of 18 January 1978, when the Civic Center had been exposed to its heaviest snow load since construction – heavy, but still only half of the design load. At 4:19 that morning, with the arena empty, the 1270t space frame collapsed in its entirety (see post cover mage). What was most disturbing, though, was that just six hours ago, more than 5,000 people were sitting below, watching a basketball game.