failure analysis
The remarkable technical team is what sets Rapperport Associates, Inc. apart. Our group of distinguished scientists and engineers is drawn principally from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. They have impeccable academic credentials and an impressive list of accomplishments. Rapperport Associates, Inc. offers exceptional capability in failure analysis, mechanical engineering design, structural analysis, metallurgy, electrical engineering, accident reconstruction, and fire and explosion investigation.
Selected Cases
Polymer Degradation – Deterioration of Celcon Plastic Water Pipe Fittings:
Our firm was selected as experts for the insurance defense group in Hoechst Celanese Corp. vs. National Union Fire Insurance Company et. al. This matter related to the premature field failure of residential plastic pipe fittings throughout the southern and western regions of the United States and involved losses of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Statue Pedestal Failure at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:
At approximately 9:20 pm on October 6, 2002 two guards observed that the statue of Adam had fallen onto the marble floor and shattered. Tullio Lombardo’s Adam was the most important Renaissance sculpture in the museum’s collection and one of the most important Italian sculptures outside Italy. The sculpture was carved around 1490 for the tomb of Doge Andrea Vendramin in the Church of Santa Maria dei Servi, Venice. The statue was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1936 and stood in the 16th-century Spanish marble Velez Blanco Patio on the main floor of the museum since 1964. The sculpture was one of eight sculptures included in an exhibit that opened in May, 2000. New pedestals were commissioned in preparation for the exhibit. On October 6, 2002 the sculpture pedestal failed and sent Adam crashing onto the marble floor. Our firm was retained to conduct a failure analysis of the incident pedestal. The Art Newspaper article...
Pallet Rack Collapse:
On June 14, 1994 a loaded multi-row pallet rack collapse occurred in Warsaw, Indiana resulting in complete destruction of the rack system – fortunately there were no injuries, however most of the material stored on the rack was destroyed. The pallet rack system was 10 bays (66 feet) high, 228 feet long and 12 racks wide. At issue was whether the rack failure was a result of poor welding or poor design. Actual intact welded joints were retrieved from the wreckage and tested to determine realistic joint stiffness values for input into the finite element model. A buckling analysis was performed to assess the design. It was determined that inadequate cross bracing resulted in an overly flexible structure which failed in buckling upon loading. Analysis of failed shelf bracket welds confirmed that these failures were a result of high loads due to the collapse but that the failure was not precipitated by weld failures. Thus, it was our opinion that the observed weld failures were consequences of the collapse, not initiating events.
Pressure Vessel Explosion:
Our firm performed an analysis of a pressure vessel failure which occurred on July 25, 1998 in which a 222,000 pound steel pressure vessel exploded sending fragments, some in excess of 30,000 pounds, several hundred feet resulting in severe plant damage. A 3,000 lb steel fragment was hurled a quarter mile onto a nearby commuter rail approximately a half an hour after the last commuter train. Miraculously, no one was seriously injured in the explosion.