INTERESTING: Didn’t anyone think about tructural fatigue from repeated trips?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12228753/Underwater-survival-expert-says-materials-used-Titan-sub-tried-simply-didnt-work.html

Underwater survival expert reveals OceanGate’s biggest ‘red flags’ and says the unconventional combination of materials used to build its doomed Titan sub was NOT innovative because ‘it’s been tried and simply didn’t work’

  •     Rachel Lance, a Duke University biomedical engineer and underwater survival expert, on Thursday said OceanGate was using technology proven not to work
  •     Lance told CNN that the carbon fiber hull was already widely discredited, despite OceanGate’s CEO hyping it as innovative and safe
  •     She said some of the vessel’s design materials ‘were already large red flags to people who have worked in this field’ 

By Harriet Alexander For Dailymail.com
Published: 22:44 EDT, 23 June 2023 | Updated: 03:57 EDT, 24 June 2023 

*** begin quote ***

He also said in 2020 that the hull had ‘showed signs of cyclical fatigue’. 

Carbon fiber is prone to delamination, the process whereby a material fractures into layers while put under pressure.

Cameron said: ‘The way it fails is it delaminates. You have to have a hull, a pressure hull, made out of a contiguous material like steel, or like titanium, which is the proven standard.’

*** end quote *** 

When I first heard about the disastrous failure and that they had been running “tours” since 2021, I immediately wondered how they were dealing with “material fatigue”.   Anyone, who has unbent and recent a paperclip know that suddenly the clip just fails breaking apart.  When dealing with the tremendous pressure (i.e., the weight of the water above you pressing down), the material must flex every time it goes down and back up.  

Surprising it didn’t fail sooner.

Requiescat In Pacem.

—30—

Please leave a Reply