Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation
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Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation
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Re: Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation
#2It is so rare to get in-depth FEA reports like what you’ve linked us here. Here’s what Boeing states in the report:
“ There is still detail design work that will need to be completed. However, both the C4 and C11 configurations come close to an acceptable conceptual design. A small test program would be needed to address some of the outstanding questions. Additional modeling and optimization are also needed at the detail design level. The inclusion of portals, motor attachments, tanks and other peripherals would need to be included in a final analysis. More work needs to be done to define thermal load and cure shrinkage for both the composite cylinder and for the bonded joint. This composite structure is much thicker than most of the structure currently being produced. Thermal strains may play a significant role in the design of the structure. The time required for fabrication and the extended time that the material will be at elevated temperature during cure and bonding needs to be examined. These topics were mostly avoided during the first part of the design cycle. This report describes a conceptual design and a preliminary feasibility study. The design is feasible, but will require additional work in the areas of manufacturing, cure kinetics, material allowable, assembly, and dimensional tolerance.”
In summary - even if Oceangate developed a robust design, they’d still need to manufacture the submarine. It appears they never built enough test articles to develop a baseline for robustness, because they never did destructive testing at depth with actual hardware they never knew their margins and were never able to validate their models to reality.
Re: Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation
#3The first days live stream (as linked) is pretty interesting. It's 9 hours, of 9 days - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avp_-wN3ekA&list=PLgOje37c-b...
The last message "dropped two wts" was normal and just slowing the descent - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avp_-wN3ekA&t=29460s
CNN puts it as - "dropped two wts" - the Titan’s text to its mother ship read, referring to weights the submersible could shed in hopes of returning to the surface.
If you open "transcript" you can "Control+F" anything you might want to hear, but it's all pretty interesting.
Re: Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation
#4It's interesting to note how an animation was developed in the course of this investigation. I know the Chemical Safety Board does similar animations for industrial accidents. [1]
Re: Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation
#5I just saw a news headline that the estate of the oceanographer who died on the Titan is suing the company for $50M. How exactly is this possible? Who are they suing? I didn't think there even was an OceanGate company in existence any more: their founder is dead, and no one in their right mind would ride on one of their subs any more, so what assets do they even have to sue for? They weren't some big tech company with billions in assets; they were some crappy little start-up trying to build a business by selling cheap submersible rides to rich people, and from what I remember, didn't exactly have solid financials at the time and certainly no extra money in the bank to sue for. And IIRC the business didn't have any kind of liability insurance, so what is the point of a big wrongful-death lawsuit against a defunct company with no assets?
Re: Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation
#6It is so rare to get in-depth FEA reports like what you’ve linked us here. Here’s what Boeing states in the report: “ There is still detail design work that will need to be completed. However, both the C4 and C11 configurations come close to an acceptable conceptual design. A small test program would be needed to address some of the outstanding questions. Additional modeling and optimization are also needed at the de…
>>> they never knew their margins and were never able to validate their models to reality
The fact they knew this and went ahead anyways and took six people to their graves with them is absolutely terrifying.
Re: Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation
#7It is so rare to get in-depth FEA reports like what you’ve linked us here. Here’s what Boeing states in the report: “ There is still detail design work that will need to be completed. However, both the C4 and C11 configurations come close to an acceptable conceptual design. A small test program would be needed to address some of the outstanding questions. Additional modeling and optimization are also needed at the de…
>>> they never knew their margins and were never able to validate their models to reality The fact they knew this and went ahead anyways and took six people to their graves with them is absolutely terrifying.
"At some point, safety is just pure waste."
-- Stockton Rush, OceanGate CEO.
The guy sounds like the epitome of the sociopathic CEO. Smartest guy in the room, knows better than all the trained, experienced engineers who urged caution. Too bad his passengers listened to him.
Re: Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation
#8I just saw a news headline that the estate of the oceanographer who died on the Titan is suing the company for $50M. How exactly is this possible? Who are they suing? I didn't think there even was an OceanGate company in existence any more: their founder is dead, and no one in their right mind would ride on one of their subs any more, so what assets do they even have to sue for? They weren't some big tech company wit…
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Re: Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation
#9It is so rare to get in-depth FEA reports like what you’ve linked us here. Here’s what Boeing states in the report: “ There is still detail design work that will need to be completed. However, both the C4 and C11 configurations come close to an acceptable conceptual design. A small test program would be needed to address some of the outstanding questions. Additional modeling and optimization are also needed at the de…
Well they did actually get to invalidate their model.
Re: Titan Submersible Marine Board of Investigation
#10I just saw a news headline that the estate of the oceanographer who died on the Titan is suing the company for $50M. How exactly is this possible? Who are they suing? I didn't think there even was an OceanGate company in existence any more: their founder is dead, and no one in their right mind would ride on one of their subs any more, so what assets do they even have to sue for? They weren't some big tech company wit…
Perhaps the employees. Anybody working on it knew there wasn’t enough testing, so they could be held personally liable.