Crashes Investigation Unit

It is common for crash investigators to undertake reconstruction of the aircraft wreckage, and this can be exceptionaUy useful in estabhshing the seat of an explosion, if that is what in fact took place. The National Transportation Safety Board in the United States and the United Kingdom Air Accident Investigation Branch have both done some exceptionaUy fine work of this type. 

Chemists are not alone. The Mars Climate Orbiter crashed into Mars in September 1999 following a confusion in programming of software that modeled forces in English units instead of the metric units that were expected by the thruster controllers and other programs. This incident is related in the delightfully titled NASA document Mars Climate Orbiter Mishap Investigation Report. (Stephenson 1999) The mishap cost around 125,000,000. 

When investigating the results of FEM simulation, five failure modes were observed, namely sliding, rocking, head/bead joints opening, cracking in units, and crashing of wall. Failure mode in concrete masonry walls per Li et al. (2005) were observed as those in stone masonry walls per Demir (2012). 

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