Failures in Marine Environments and Microanalysis Techniques for Failure Investigation

8 Failures in Marine Environments and Microanalysis Techniques for Failure Investigation 

Failures of systems, equipment, or components functioning in marine environments can have catastrophic effects. Nonetheless, before ships sink or lie dead in the water, a process usually occurs that causes the systems, equipment, or components to break down. The failure mechanism may be mechanical, electrical, chemical, or thermal [22]. 

A mechanical failure, for example, could occur as the result of an impact between a ship and another moving vessel or a stationery object. An electrical failure could occur as the result of internal partial discharges that degraded the insulation of a ship s propulsion motor. A chemical failure could occur as the result of corrosion of poorly protected parts/components on an offshore wind turbine. Finally, a thermal failure could be the result of heat generated by current flowing in an electrical conductor, causing insulation degradation. 

Modern vessels contain many polymeric parts or components, such as pressure seals and electrical insulation, and some of these are critical to the vessel operation. There are a number of microanalysis techniques that are useful in failure investigations involving polymers. The commonly used microanalysis techniques are described in the following subsections [22]. 

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Chapter 5 is devoted to transportation systems failures. Some of the topics covered in the chapter are mechanical failure-related aviation accidents, vehicle failure classifications, rail defects and weld failures, rail and road tanker failure modes and failure consequences, ship failures and their consequences, and failures in marine environments and microanalysis techniques for failure investigation. Chapter 6 presents a total of 11 mathematical models for performing various types of reliability analysis of transportation systems. 

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