Using Failure Case Studies in Civil Engineering Education

The study of engineering failures can offer students valuable insights into the associated technical, ethical, and professional issues. In many cases, lessons learned from failures have substantially affected civil engineering practice. For the student, study of these cases can help place design and analysis procedures into historical context and reinforce the necessity of lifelong learning. Of course, it would be impossible to add an undergraduate course on failures and lessons learned to an already overcrowded curriculum. A more practical solution is to integrate failure case studies into existing undergraduate courses. In this paper a master plan for the use of failure case studies in an undergraduate civil engineering curriculum is discussed. First, for a selected number of courses, several relevant principles are identified. Examples include drawing correct and complete free body diagrams (statics), compression member buckling (mechanics of materials, structures), shear strength of concrete beams (reinforced concrete design), and connection detailing and behavior (structural steel design). For each of these principles, failure case studies have been identified. They are discussed in some detail within this paper, and resources and references for further development of the case studies are indicated. Some of the cases have been developed and used in courses at the United States Military Academy and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.