Open AccessHow design quirks and conditions of use conspire to structural failure: a case study
Author(s) -
Wouter Ost,
Jeroen Van Wittenberghe,
Patrick De Baets
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
sustainable construction and design
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2295-9092
pISSN - 2032-7471
DOI - 10.21825/scad.v1i1.20416
Subject(s) - container (type theory) , preference , work (physics) , computer science , risk analysis (engineering) , business , engineering , economics , microeconomics , mechanical engineering
Sometimes designers introduce a number of quirks in their design, either due to a preference forcertain technologies or practices or under the influence of the policies in the companies they work for. Whilemost of the time these quirks are harmless, sometimes they can, either in themselves or in combinationwith the conditions in which the design is used lead to failure. In this paper a case is discussed in which adesigner used a quirky solution of lengthening an existing design of a 40ft. freight container to 45ft.. Whilethe design in itself was not fundamentally flawed, it proved to be incompatible to the handling equipmentstill in use at most seaports