The Importance of Disaster Investigations for Systems Engineers :: Engineers Engineering Systems Essays

The Importance of Disaster Investigations for Systems Engineers- What is a Systems Engineer?In the modern industry engineering arrangements argon becoming more complexby the day. Therefore a need for elite engineers i.e. the SystemsEngineer, capable of applying a wide range of engineering disciplinesto a regeneration of tasks from product target and development fromrequirements analysis to simulation to manufacturing and marketingetc is essential.Such engineers work within a team at the heart of the organisationwhere the design and development of a project is carried out. At thisstage it is of great importance that every aspect of the design isstudied accurately in order to command the final product workseffectively, efficiently and safely. However, although maximum effortis made during the design, it is impossible to produce a result 100%efficient. This unfortunately leads to the occurrence of accidents andin some extreme cases to a disaster. By carrying out investigationsinto t he disasters and their causation, lessons can be learnt andemployed in future designs. This allows the team of engineers toimprove the performance and efficiency of the system whilstmaintaining the maximum safety levels.- Disasters and why they happened?- Air disasters caused due to wrong designThere have been historically countless cases of confusion in handlingthe pother and the gear controls on the DC3 aircraft as they are inclose proximity to each other and of similar shape. This is a problemthat should have been addressed by the system engineers before thefinal go ahead for production was approved considering the importanceof such instruments and their role during the flight of the aircraft.- Challenger disaster caused due to faulty designThis incident saw the destruction of the United States space shuttleChallenger 73 seconds after take-off from the Kennedy Space Centre onJanuary 28, 1986 killing the immaculate shuttle crew.The disaster was caused by the failure of an O-rin g seal in thesolid-fuel rocket on the shuttles right side. The seals faultydesign and the unusually cold weather, which affected the seals square-toed functioning, allowed hot gases to leak through the joint.Flames from inside the booster rocket escaped through the failed sealand enlarged the small hole. The flames then burned through theshuttles outer fuel tank and cut away one of the supports thatattached the booster to the side of the external tank. The boosterbroke loose and collided with the tank, piercing the tanks side.Liquid enthalpy and liquid oxygen fuels from the tank and boostermixed and ignited, causing the shuttle to tear apart.It is quite clear from this example that had the design of the ring