Articles

How design quirks and conditions of use conspire to structural failure: a case study

Authors
  • Wouter Ost
  • Jeroen Van Wittenberghe
  • Patrick De Baets

Abstract

Sometimes designers introduce a number of quirks in their design, either due to a preference forcertain technologies or practices or under the influence of the policies in the companies they work for. Whilemost of the time these quirks are harmless, sometimes they can, either in themselves or in combinationwith the conditions in which the design is used lead to failure. In this paper a case is discussed in which adesigner used a quirky solution of lengthening an existing design of a 40ft. freight container to 45ft.. Whilethe design in itself was not fundamentally flawed, it proved to be incompatible to the handling equipmentstill in use at most seaports

How to Cite:

Ost, W., Van Wittenberghe, J. & De Baets, P., (2010) “How design quirks and conditions of use conspire to structural failure: a case study”, International Journal of Sustainable Construction and Design 1(1), 144-150. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/scad.v1i1.20416

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Published on
05 Nov 2010
Peer Reviewed