Premature Failure
Castings may also have large residual stresses due to uneven cooling. Residual stress is often a cause of premature failure of critical components, and was one factor in the collapse of the suspension bridge at Silver Bridge in West Virginia, United States in December 1967. The eyebar links were castings which showed high levels of residual stress, which in one eyebar, encouraged crack growth. When the crack reached a critical size, it grew catastrophically, and from that moment, the whole structure started to fail in a chain reaction. Because the structure failed in less than a minute, 46 drivers and passengers in cars on the bridge at the time were killed as the suspended roadway fell into the river below.
Read more about this topic: Residual Stress
Famous quotes containing the words premature and/or failure:
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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