ACCIDENT AND CATASTROPHES

Accident and Catastrophes



Accident and Catastrophes

Introduction

In a decade that saw the September 11 attacks followed by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, then the horror of the Virginia Tech shootings, and finally the near-collapse of the financial services industry that initiated a massive global economic downturn from which people are yet to recover. Each of them had to negotiate a stunning variety of images, texts, products, and services addressing the harrowing realities of disaster, crisis, and catastrophe. In this topic, the famous fire accidents that occurred in the US cities will be discussed in the topic. There will be a detailed description of the reasons which led to these accidents in these cities. Then an overview of the accidents and catastrophes that took place in various cities will be highlighted as well. A detailed analysis of these accidents will be carried out in the assignment. Therefore, all the issues and aspects related to accidents and catastrophes and its impact on society will be discussed in detail.

Comparison of Fire Accidents

On October 22, 2009 in Indianapolis, IN, semi tanker carrying liquefied propane lost control on the underpass from I-69 southbound to I-465 eastbound, crashing beneath the east and westbound bridges carrying mainline I-465 traffic. The semi rolled, causing the tractor to catch fire and the propane tanker to explode. As a result of the fire, the steel superstructure was subjected to extreme temperatures; however, the duration of exposure and magnitude of these temperatures was not accurately established. Thus, testing was performed to identify and document any short-term or long-term effects that the fire may have had on the steel superstructure. Three primary tasks were performed as part of the study:

1. Quantify the effects of the fire on the properties of the structural steel.

2. Quantify the effects of the fire on the properties of the high strength (HS) bolts

3. Quantify the effects of the fire on the overall behavior of the bridge.

Immediately after the accident, samples of the structural steel and HS bolts were removed and sent to independent testing laboratories. These results were used to establish any short-term effects the fire had on the structure. To capture any long-term effects, field testing was performed for a period of approximately four months. Weldable resistance strain gages were placed at key locations in an attempt to understand both the response of the bridge to load and to develop the stress-range histograms at critical details. Both controlled load tests, using test trucks of known weight and geometry, and long-term monitoring of random traffic were performed as part of the study. The remaining fatigue life of the instrumented details was estimated using stress-range histograms from the long-term monitoring data. Since all the stress ranges measured were below the CAFL (constant amplitude fatigue limit) for all monitored details, infinite fatigue life is expected at all the monitored locations (Aradau, 2007, 115).

On January 5, 2002 at approximately 10 a.m., a gasoline tanker truck hit the I-65 southbound ...