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CIEG 467 – Engineering for Disasters. Spring 2008. Thanks to Dr. Sue McNeil. Outline. Motivation Class Organization Projects So what is a disaster? Learning from Failures (Chajes). Motivation for a course in “Disaster Engineering”.
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CIEG 467 – Engineering for Disasters Spring 2008 Thanks to Dr. Sue McNeil
Outline • Motivation • Class Organization • Projects • So what is a disaster? • Learning from Failures (Chajes)
Motivation for a course in “Disaster Engineering” http://www.itsdocs.fhwa.dot.gov/JPODOCS/REPTS_TE/13775_files/image004.jpg http://geopubs.wr.usgs.gov/circular/c1242/images/fireball.jpg
Source: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/reports/billionz.html#narrative
Terrorist Attacks on US Interests • 1983: Beirut Embassy and Barracks, 257 lives • 1988: PanAm 103, Lockerbie, 270 lives • 1993: World Trade Center, NY, 6 lives • 1996: Saudi Arabia housing towers • 1998: US Embassies, Kenya and Tanzania • 1999: Oklahoma City Federal Building, 168 lives • 2000: US Cole, Yemen, 17 lives • 2001: World Trade Center and Pentagon, 3000+ lives Source: Hall, CREATE
Class Organization • Projects centered around disaster types • Work on 2 phases of disasters – mitigation and recovery • Work in teams • Research oriented • Engineering will be largely intuitive • Review schedule and syllabus • http://www.ce.udel.edu/courses/CIEG467_disaster/
Projects • Seismic Event in New York City • Terrorist event in Baltimore railroad tunnel • Hurricane at Rehoboth Beach
Preparedness Mitigation Disaster Response Recovery
Preparedness • Development of standard operating procedures • Departmental annexes • Checklists • Annual training exercise • Pre-deployment of resources • Mitigation • Retrofit earthquake prone structures • Floodproof critical facilities • Response • Floodfighting • Evacuation • Recovery • Short term recovery • Long term recovery
MITIGATION • ACTIONS TAKEN PRIOR TO THE NEXT DISASTER THAT ARE INTENDED TO REDUCE FUTURE LOSSES • LONGER-TERM STRATEGIES • SHOULD BE IMPLEMENTED EVEN DURING RECOVERY
Mitigation Steps • Define/determine the hazard • Assess risk or vulnerability • Determine what to do – mitigation • Use our projects as examples • Seismic event NYC • Terrorist event Baltimore • Hurricane Rehoboth Beach
Some terms • Emergency/ disaster – events with a significant impact on people and property • Emergency management – process of dealing with hazardous events • Natural vs manmade • Other terms – hazard, resilience, vulnerability, impact, vulnerable populations, collective behavior, failure, protection, criticality, mitigation, preparedness, evacuation, recovery, interoperability, reliability, redundancy….
Wildfires Hurricanes Tornadoes Typhoon/ Tsunami Volcano Blasts Building fires Terrorist attacks (premeditated, politically motivated) Bio-terror Chemical attacks Disasters…
What constitutes a disaster? • Small group discussion (15 min) • Identify someone to facilitate the discussion, someone to take notes and someone to report back to the class • Make a list of disasters (specific disasters) • What do these disasters have in common? • What role did civil engineers have in disasters? • How do you distinguish among mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery
Learning from Failure:Case Studies in Forensic Engineering Prepared by: Prof. Michael J. Chajes, Acting Dean, College of Engineering
“We learn more from buildings that fall down than from buildings that stand up.”
In fact, it is often easier to learn from failures rather than from successes. Silver River Bridge - 1967
The evaluation of engineering failures: Mianus River Bridge - 1983 Hartford Civic Center - 1978 Forensic Engineering
Early engineering was all done using experience. Roman Aqueduct in Nimes, France Little math and science, incremental advances, learning from failures.
Modern engineering uses extensive math and science. However, there is always some level of uncertainty, and thus some small probability of failure.
“The risks that engineered structures pose to human life, and environments pose to society, often conflict with the risks to the economy that striving for absolute and perfect safety would bring.” from To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design by Henry Petroski
Causes of Engineering Failures • Unknown phenomena • Extreme events • Design flaws • Combinations of the above
Failures due to: Unknown Phenomena Can you name one?
Failures due to:Extreme Events Can you name one?
Failures due to:Design Flaw Can you name one?
Northeast Blackout of 2003 • August 14, 2003 power grid failure
Lesson to be Learned • As engineering professionals, or as individuals in every day life, it is important to learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others, and to not repeat them. • As engineering professionals it’s also important to learn how we can help prevent the kind of destruction we discussed today