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The roll-on-roll-off passenger ferry MV ESTONIA sank during the night of 28 September 1994 in the Baltic Sea. In October 2000, divers recovered two palm-sized test pieces from the front bulkhead of the wreck. The investigators analysed these specimens to determine whether there were any indications of deliberate blasting. Since the wreck had been submerged for almost six years, it was clear that chemical traces would not be present on the surfaces of the test pieces. Therefore, the investigators performed comparative tests on shipbuilding steel to find a microstructural criterion that exclusively characterises a blast. The shipyard Jos. L. Meyer, Germany, had built the ESTONIA and supplied shipbuilding steel plates similar to that used for building the vessel in 1979/1980. The comparative tests comprised mechanical tests, shot peening tests and blasting tests using different explosives. Testing demonstrated that blasting always formed twinned ferrite grains in the microstructure over the whole cross-section of each of the 8 mm thick comparative plates. Although one of the original test pieces of the ESTONIA showed deformation twins, this was only confined up to 0.4 mm underneath the surfaces and not spread over the whole cross-section. Comparative shot peening tests produced the very same pattern of subsurface deformation twins. Therefore, the twins detected in the microsection of the test pieces of the ESTONIA wreck traced back to the shot peening process performed by the shipyard in 1979/1980 and not to a deliberate blast.
End of November 2005 strong south-west wind and heavy snowfall were predominant in the region Münsterland, north-western part of Germany. This led to accretion of a considerable quantity of wet snow to overhead electrical lines in form of snow rolls on the conductors. Eighty-two transmission towers failed catastrophically, most of them by buckling, however some by brittle fracture. As a consequence nearly 250,000 people have been cut off from electrical power supply for several days with major media attention.
This paper describes the forensic analysis in order to investigate the failure cause. Therefore extensive materials investigations, mechanical testing of original components and specimens thereof, estimations for the real wind and snow loads and their combinations, structural analyses as well as detailed evaluations on the basis of previous investigations, literature and regulations were conducted. It was revealed that some of the examined components were manufactured from Thomas steel which was partially in embrittled condition. The investigated towers fulfilled the design codes valid at the time of erection. However the present line loads of the wet snow rolls on the conductors exceeded by far the ones given in the design codes valid at that time.
The load case leading to failure was reconstructed by the derived positions of loads mainly caused by unequal and asymmetric distribution of snow rolls on left and right electrical system. The loads and corresponding stresses acting on the structure before failure were estimated. By comparison with the fracture forces from mechanical testing of original members of the collapsed tower the component that primarily failed was localised. The primary fracture occurred on a diagonal member under tension made of Thomas steel which was weakened by embrittlement. The failure cause was a combination of heavy weather conditions (storm, approx. 0 °C and wet snowfall leading to heavy snow rolls on conductors), asymmetric loading conditions and the usage of Thomas steel which was partially embrittled. Finally, recommendations for avoiding future failures are given.