Examples of Failures

Unplanned Failures

• Challenger
• Falling Water
• Hyatt Regency
• Tacoma Narrows
• Titanic

 

Beneficial Natural Failures

egg shells seeds (e.g. walnuts) pollen leaf-branch connections lizard tails bee stingers shark teeth snake shedding skin deer antlers

...the dense collagen network of the chorioamnion membrane surrounding a fetus is designed to eventually fail.  Early failure in this structure is responsible for one-third of all premature births (Oyen et al., 2005). [6]

 

Engineered Failures

plowing fields mining knapping and thermal fracturing of stones splitting wood shaping diamonds peeling an apple perforated sheets of stamps (checks, crackers, sidewalks, roads) bottle caps or pop-tops on cans fuses (electrical fuses, thermomechanical fuses in sprinkler systems) crumple zones in car bodies guardrails road signs The Detonators wood glue on musical instruments thermo exams

References

1. Egg image from Americal Egg Board web site.
2. Stamp image from USPS web site.
3. Bottle cap image from Dr. Pepper web site.
4. Other images from [1].
5. Road crack article from: Mechanical Engineering, May 1998, pp. 12-13.

6. Lighting Up the Mechanome, by Matthew Lang, The Bridge, Volume 37, Number 4 - Winter 2007