Human Error in Engineering - Essay Example

The third failure in materials can be identified as corrosion fatigue which occurs in metals like iron most of the time. These failures have importance because avoiding them can reduce cost, manpower effort and energy.

Human Error in Engineering
One of the common mistakes made in engineering work is employing material like iron in instances where there is a chance of corrosion. If engineered iron is used in structures that come in contact with water, then within years metal corrosion can take place and structures like buildings and bridges can collapse. However, in such cases, the Swiss Cheese Model comes into play as it is used to gauge risk analysis in relevant engineering constructions. With this model, we can understand that corrosion in metal passing through corresponding holes in the layers of defenses can cause active and latent failures.

Analysis
One of the failures which can be identified in Delatte’s reading is the stress corrosion in relevance to bridge collapse. If this failure is focused on then it can be characterized through one of the methods described by Brosnan which is incompetence. According to (Brosnan 34 )“ The correctness of engineering calculations represents only one part of the large scope of potential human error in construction work”. It means the engineering experts are misunderstanding the engineering principles and characteristics of systems and materials in the case of building structures. Read More