Assessment task 1: Case Study Description

Assessment task 1: Case Study Description

• Intent:

For students to predict and avoid failures due to human factors, design flaws, materials failure and extreme conditions.

• Task:

Engineering failures are categorised depending on the level and size of impact:

1. Large and localised
2. Medium and localised
3. Small and localised
4. Large and widespread
5. Medium and widespread
6. Small and widespread

Students identify and describe two engineering failures from different categories that occurred previously. For each failure, students set the boundaries, identify stakeholders, define the inherent risk, describe in detail the causal chain, and explore if the case studies affected or were affected by Indigenous communities.

• Length: 2700 to 3000 words
• Objectives:
• Incorporate the values of culture and history of Indigenous communities in risk analysis studies and the development of risk management plans.
• Identify stakeholders, boundaries and uncertainties in engineering projects and systems
• Introduction:
• Engineers have an important role in society. They are responsible for designing, building or creating something based on a specification or guideline to meet a particular need. What they develop must function without failure, for its intended lifetime. Engineers are responsible for ensuring that the product of their work meets its intended purpose and level of performance, and avoiding failure, especially a catastrophic failure that can result in loss of life and damage to property and environment.[unique_solution]
• Engineering is about managing risks. It is technically impossible to remove risk altogether and lowering risk commonly involves a substantial cost. Engineering as a profession progresses through both its successes and its failures. As a profession, we need to learn from failures. By analysing failures, engineers can learn what not to do, and how to reduce the chance of failure. This may seem paradoxical but is widely accepted. Failure often can spur on innovation.
• In engineering, it is important to review failures, and mistakes. It is harder to learn from success, but you should always learn from failures. This is not the best practice in some engineering projects where the failure results in human and property damage; however, when a failure occurs it is very important to analyse it and learn from it. Failures have elements in common. The lessons that we learn from them can help to predict and avoid failures. A skill that all professional engineers need is the ability to predict and avoid failures no matter what their scale or magnitude from small or localised to large or widespread. Factors such as human error, decisions to reduce project duration or cost and failure to comply with existing laws, regulations, codes and standards have historically led to failures. Engineering failures are typically the result of:

1. Human factors – both ‘ethical’ and accidental failure;
2. Design flaws – typically a result of unprofessional or unethical behaviour;
3. Materials failure; and
4. Extreme conditions.

• Engineering failures can be categorised based on the size of the impacted region, and the level of impact on the region.

Size of impact:

1. Localised – this type of failure will only have an impact on the immediate area where the incident occurs;
2. Widespread – although the causing incident was localised it has effects distributed over a large geographical area.

                Level of impact:

1. Small – Minor injuries and property damage, may not result in loss of life;
2. Medium – Some loss of life, multiple serious injuries, or serious property damage;
3. Large – Catastrophic failure, with extensive loss of life, and severe irreparable property damage.

• By analysing past failures, engineers can prevent future failures, both minor and catastrophic. It is often the catastrophic failure that receives professional and public attention, but as you will discover, catastrophic failures are comprised of multiple smaller errors in design, communication and/or judgement. Engineering is a constantly evolving discipline due to both advances in technology and the integration of lessons learnt through failures into laws, standards, work practices and technology.
• Instructions:
• Select a topic from below according to your interest, knowledge, background, and experience:
• Domino effect risk analysis: Domino effects is referred to a chain of accidents in which a primary accident starting in a unit spreads to adjacent units, causing secondary accidents the total consequence of which could be much more severe than the primary event.
• Natechs risk assessment: Natechs are referred to technological accidents such as release of hazardous materials, fires or explosions in industrial plants which are triggered by natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes. Compared to normal technological accidents, which are a matter of random failures or human error, natechs usually give rise to more catastrophic consequences since the likelihood of simultaneous damage to hazardous units and domino effects is much higher.
• Risk-based land use planning: Land use planning (LUP) as an effective and crucial safety measure has widely been employed by safety experts and decision makers to mitigate off-site risks posed by major accidents. Accordingly, the concept of LUP in industrial plants has traditionally been considered from two perspectives:

1. land developments around existing industrial plants considering potential off-site risks posed by major accidents.
2. development of existing industrial plants considering nearby land developments and the level of additional off-site risks the land developments would be exposed to

• Cost-effective allocation of safety measures in industrial plants.
• Human error risk assessment in engineering systems.
• Security risk analysis: This area involves estimating access and harm caused due to war, terrorism, riot, crime (vandalism, theft, etc.), and misappropriation of information (national security information, intellectual property, etc.).
• Environmental risk analysis: This field involves estimating losses due to noise, contamination, and pollution in the ecosystem (water, land, air, and atmosphere) and in space (space debris).
• Find two case studies relevant to your topic. For example, you can find real case studies here csb.gov, by going to “investigations” tab where you can find final reports for industrial accidents.
• For each case study:
• Set a boundary of investigation
• Analyse the stakeholders
• Define the inherent risk
• Describe in detail the causal chain (i.e. show causality from the root cause(s) to the failure event) and provide a causal diagram for each failure.
• Explore if the case studies affected or were affected by Indigenous communities
• All content must be written without any grammatical error and should be fully referenced. You need to have in-text referencing and include a list of references at the end of report.