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Columbia accident investigation. http://www.caib.us/. foam came off here. foam hit wing here. panel needed to determine: did foam hitting wing destroy wing integrity?. How did accident investigation board address this question?. They needed to determine: size of foam piece
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Columbia accident investigation http://www.caib.us/ foam came off here foam hit wing here panel needed to determine: did foam hitting wing destroy wing integrity?
How did accident investigation board address this question? • They needed to determine: • size of foam piece • density of foam piece • velocity of foam piece • location of impact mass of foam piece acceleration of foam piece upon impact Use to determine force on wing
How to determine foam velocity? • Kinematics: get positions from photos at two different times; velocity = Δx/Δt • large uncertainty because photos taken from far away (17 and 26 miles) by slow cameras (30 frames/s)
Using yields more accurate velocity estimate How to determine foam velocity? • Dynamics: use Newton’s second law • Need to figure out forces on the foam(sophisticated modeling)