Engineering Failure & Human Error

6 Marine Engineering
a. The Liberty Ships 1939-1945

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Bibliography
Liberty: The Ships That Won the War Peter Elphick (Chatham 2006)
ISBN-10: 1861762763

ISBN-13: 978-1861762764

Liberty Ships: The Ugly Ducklings of World War II John G. Bunker

(Naval Institute 1973)
ISBN-10: 0870213407

ISBN-13: 978-0870213403

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_ship
http://www.usmm.org/shipsunkdamaged.html
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/industrialmobilization/p/l
ibertyships.htm

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Merchant Ship Losses at Sea

Plate fractures (100 ship moving average)

The new Victory ships were less

susceptible to brittle fracture, but
they were also more stream-lined and
fitted with more powerful engines

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Allied Merchant Shipping

Losses vs. Construction
Dec. 1941-June 1944

Engineering Failure & Human Error

The Romantic Image

The John P. Gaines

The esso Manhattan

The Schenectady

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Merchant Shipping
Gross tonnage 1939

Engineering Failure & Human Error

The Liberty Ship

All-welded construction
(UK 1939)

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Modular box construction

Massive U.S. ship yards

Separate
engine & hull
assembly

Engineering Failure & Human Error

U.S. Construction time,

in days (selected yards)
Dec. 1941-Mar. 1944

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Average productivity, manhours per Liberty Ship &
construction time in days
(all US ship yards)

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Man-hours per ship for
various U.S. ship types
produced in new yards

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Were the failures due to
a specific ship yard
trying to cut corners?

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Brittle fracture of a welded hull (Halifax, Canada)

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Brittle Fracture
Notch sensitivity & fracture toughness:
The birth of fracture mechanics
Pioneers of Fracture Mechanics
Griffith (1920) A crack advances if the elastic energy released
by crack growth exceeds the increase in crack surface energy
Orowan (1945) Plastic constraint at a sharp notch raises the
yield strength by a factor of three, and may allow the yield stress
to exceed the fracture strength (notch sensitive materials)
Taylor (1942) By interrupting the welding process at a riveted
plate it is possible to ensure crack-arrest and prevent
catastrophic failure.
Irwin (1958) It is the local stress at the crack tip that
determines whether or not crack growth occurs

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Credit where credit is due

1.

Constance Elam was one of the first women engineers to be educated at

Cambridge University, U.K.

2.

She completed a doctorate on plastic deformation under Geoffrey Taylor

3.

During the war Geoffrey Taylor was seconded to the UK Admiralty

4.

Dr Elam (now Constance Tipper) worked for Taylor on the brittle

fracture problem and demonstrated the notch-brittle transition and weld
sensitivity in ship steels

5.

After the war Taylor was knighted and Tipper became a lecturer in the
Department of Engineering in Cambridge

6.

She was one of the worst lecturers of my undergraduate years

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Stress
concentration
at a notch

m o 1 2 a

Engineering Failure & Human Error

The critical stress intensity
which results in failure is the
Fracture Toughness

K C Y f a

x f x y f y z f z

K
2r

In plane strain (z=0) the fracture toughness is KIC

Engineering Failure & Human Error

The plane strain fracture toughness KIC

corresponds to maximum constraint

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Constance Tippers Chevron Failure Mode

Fracture
of brittle
steel plate

A brittle
fracture
origin

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Ductility is reduced by constraint, strain-rate,
low temperature, impurities & processing defects

K C Y f a
If non-destructive testing resolves defects larger
than a*, then there is a risk of brittle fracture if:

y f K C / Y a *

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Engineering Failure & Human Error

Ashby Maps
Materials selection &
design for optimum
stiffness & resistance
to brittle fracture

Engineering Failure & Human Error

Questions
1.

Mass production started with the Lee Enfield rifle and the Model T Ford.
Were the Liberty ships just a scale-up?

2.

Welded replaced riveted structures. When could adhesives replacw welds?

In what classes of products?

3.

Has the rapid improvement in productivity of the war-time ship yard has
been achieved in some peace-time production lines Which?

4.

How was it possible to solve the problem of crack propagation in Liberty

Ship welded structures without fracture mechanics?

5.

Is it possible that the limited weldability of ships plate could have had
anything to do with the failures?

6.

How are residual stresses usually avoided in welded structures?

7.

What do you know about the qualification and control of the welders?

8.

Chemical processing and electric power plants are commonly welded. Are
there similar problems of brittle failure in these structures?

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