{"425981":{"#nid":"425981","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Henry McDonald talks about epic failures in first Gebhardt Lecture","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe first Gebhardt Lecture of the 2014-15 academic year gave listeners valuable insight into some of the most dramatic aeronautic disasters of our time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOn Aug. 21, Dr. Henry \u0022Harry\u0022 McDonald, a former director of NASA\u0027s Ames Research Center, spoke candidly about his experience as a forensic engineer investigating the 1991 Titan IV booster rocket explosion and the 2000 crash of a Marine Corps V-22 helicopter. McDonald also spoke about his work investigating the Challenger and Columbia crashes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The investigation teams all came from science and engineering fields, so we knew about the systems involved in these vehicles. But none of us were compromised by having worked on these particular vehicles,\u0022 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022All of us worked collegially because we wanted our findings to withstand future scrutiny.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ae.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/img\/McDonald-slides.pdf\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECheck out this Powerpoint from his Aug. 21 talk.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAn immediate analysis of the 1991 Titan explosion revealed an upper motor case breach and overpressure in the first segment solid rocket. McDonald was a part of a team of scientists and engineers that Lockheed Martin brought in to go beyond these findings to pinpoint the precise reason for failure.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAmong their findings:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe core pressure following ignition was underestimated in region of first-second segment joint;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe design computer code used to make core pressure estimate (BLIMP+) had been incorrectly run;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe propellant grain modulus of elasticity was borderline given initial material specs;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003ELater specs had been tightened by designers but predictions had not been re-run;\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EThe core collapsed at first and second segment joint.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFuture firings of the Titan incorporated the team\u0027s findings and were trouble-free.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMcDonald said the Department of Defense (DoD) was very interested in rehabilitating the engineering flaws that led to the deadly April 2000 crash of the V-22 Osprey.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The Marine Corps loved the specs of this vehicle. They thought it showed tremendous promise, so if we could make it do what it was supposed to do -- and do it safely -- they didn\u0027t care if it took some money. It was worth it,\u0022 McDonald said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ctable width=\u0022250\u0022 border=\u00220\u0022 cellspacing=\u00221\u0022 cellpadding=\u00221\u0022 align=\u0022right\u0022\u003E\u003Ctbody\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003Ctr\u003E\u003Ctd class=\u0022rtecenter\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EHarry McDonald giving the August 21 Gebhardt Lecture: \u0022A Critical Look at some Notable Aerospace Engineering Failures\u0022\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/td\u003E\u003C\/tr\u003E\u003C\/tbody\u003E\u003C\/table\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUltimately, the forensic engineering team brought in by the DoD determined that the accident had been caused by vortex ring state, a concept well-known among rotorcraft engineers but possibly overlooked by some of the fixed wing engineers who designed the V-22.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The V-22 is a hybrid vehicle, so there were airplane and helicopter engineers working on it,\u0022\u0026nbsp;said McDonald. \u0022Engineering failures often occur at the interface of related disciplines, where important information from one field is not fully interpreted by the other.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EA native of Glasgow, Scotland Dr. McDonald holds a B.Sc.(Hons.) and a D.Sc. in aeronautical engineering from the University of Glasgow. He is a member of the NAE, and the UK Royal Academy of Engineering and is a Fellow and Honorary Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and is a Fellow of Royal Aeronautical Society.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EAt United Technologies Research Center, he became a department head and concentrated on what became known as Computational Fluid Dynamics. McDonald held a number of academic posts at Penn State University and Mississippi State before 1996, when he was appointed Center Director at NASA Ames Research.\u0026nbsp; He is currently the chair of Excellence in Computational Engineering at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMark your calendars!\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe next Gebhardt Lecture is\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/ae.gatech.edu\/node\/1473\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThursday, October 9\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u0026nbsp;and will feature Dr. Richard M. Murray from CalTech.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The first Gebhardt Lecture of the 2014-15 academic year gave listeners valuable insight into some of the most dramatic aeronautic disasters of our time."}],"uid":"27456","created_gmt":"2015-07-16 14:40:08","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:08","author":"Britanny Grace","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-08-25T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-08-25T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1239","name":"School of Aerospace Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2082","name":"aerospace engineering"},{"id":"135611","name":"Henry McDonald"},{"id":"408","name":"NASA"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":["communications@ae.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}