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A catastrophic failure is a sudden and total failure of some system from which recovery is impossible. Catastrophic failures often lead to cascading systems failure
Cascading failure

A cascading failure is a failure in a system of interconnected parts in which the failure of a part can trigger the failure of successive parts....
.

The term is most commonly used for structural failures, but has often been extended to many other disciplines where total and irrecoverable loss occurs. Such failures are investigated using the methods of forensic engineering
Forensic engineering

Forensics engineering is the investigation of material science, product , structures or components that fail or do not operate/function as intended, causing personal injury or damage to property....
, which aims to isolate the cause or causes of failure.








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A catastrophic failure is a sudden and total failure of some system from which recovery is impossible. Catastrophic failures often lead to cascading systems failure
Cascading failure

A cascading failure is a failure in a system of interconnected parts in which the failure of a part can trigger the failure of successive parts....
.

The term is most commonly used for structural failures, but has often been extended to many other disciplines where total and irrecoverable loss occurs. Such failures are investigated using the methods of forensic engineering
Forensic engineering

Forensics engineering is the investigation of material science, product , structures or components that fail or do not operate/function as intended, causing personal injury or damage to property....
, which aims to isolate the cause or causes of failure.

Structural failure

Examples of catastrophic failure of engineered structures include:

  • The Tay Rail Bridge disaster of 1879, where the center half mile of the bridge was completely destroyed while a train was crossing in a storm. The bridge was badly designed and its replacement was built as a separate structure upstream of the old.
  • The collapse of Galloping Gertie (the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge) of 1940, where the main deck of the road bridge was totally destroyed by dynamic oscillations in a 40 mph wind.
  • The Banqiao Dam
    Banqiao Dam

    The Banqiao Reservoir Dam and Shimantan Reservoir Dam are among 62 dams in Zhumadian Prefecture of China's Henan Province that failed catastrophically or were intentionally destroyed in 1975 during Typhoon Nina ....
     failure of 1975 and other dam failures April 27, 1987.
  • The Hyatt Regency walkway collapse
    Hyatt Regency walkway collapse

    The Hyatt Regency hotel walkway collapse was a major disaster that occurred on July 17, 1981 in Kansas City, Missouri, Missouri, United States, killing 114 people and injuring more than 200 others during a tea dance....
     of 1981, where a suspended walkway in a hotel lobby collapsed completely, killing many people on the structure and those below.
  • The Space Shuttle Challenger
    STS-51-L

    STS-51-L was the twenty-fifth flight of the American Space Shuttle program, which marked the first time a civilian had flown aboard the Space Shuttle....
     of 1986, in which an O-ring of the rocket booster failed, and the entire structure was lost,
  • The Space Shuttle Columbia
    STS-107

    STS-107 was a space shuttle mission by NASA using the Space Shuttle Columbia, launched January 16, 2003. This was a multi-disciplinary microgravity and Earth science research mission with a multitude of international scientific investigations conducted continuously during 16 days in orbit....
     of 2003, where damage to a wing caused at take-off caused total loss on re-entry
  • The total collapse of the multi-span I-35W Mississippi River Bridge on August 1, 2007


Computer failure

The term catastrophic failure is occasionally used in computer software to indicate an unexpected error from which the system cannot meaningfully recover.

See also

  • List of bridge disasters
    List of bridge disasters

    Bridge failuresRgs is a list of bridge failures including failures during construction. This list may be sorted by any field....
  • Seismic performance
    Seismic performance

    Earthquake or seismic performance is an execution of a building's or structure's ability to sustain their due functions, such as its safety and serviceability, at and after a particular earthquake exposure....
  • Structural failure
    Structural failure

    Structural failure refers to loss of the Structural load-carrying capacity of a component or member within a Architectural structure or of the structure itself....
  • Structural collapse