Weblinks

The web has become an invaluable resource in providing easy access to official reports and documents. A selection of relevant websites are listed below: The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are the Government agency charged with investigating accidents and disasters. Reports of inquiries an accidents can be obtained by ordering through their website. A very useful source of reviews of the safe design of specific products and their role in accidents is available from the Department for Business Enterprise & regulatory Reform, which has taken over responsibilities from the now-defunct Department of Trade & Industry.

All important judgements and decisions from the High Court and higher courts are freely available on the open government websites, especially on the court service website which also provides court diaries, forms and case lists.

The Ministry of Justice website provides much useful information on the work of the department, such as managing the court system, appointment of the judiciary, legal aid and reviews of legislation. The site provides vital links to other government websites, such as Parliament and the House of Lords, where the stages of new legislation are listed, for example. The Ministry of Justice has taken over many of the responsibilities of the now-defunct Department of Constitutional Affairs

Tay Bridge Disaster

For more details and images from the disaster, visit the Dundee Library website and do a search for 'Tay Bridge'.

Challenger Disaster

For more details about the Challenger Disaster visit the NASA website. The report of the Rogers Commission set up by President Reagan also provides details of the accident. An Internet search using the search term "rogers commission" will also be useful.

Concorde Disaster

Reports (preliminary, first and second interim and final) are to be found on the French BEA (Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses) website. All the reports are in both French and English. The definitive text is, however, in French.

The BBC and Open University are not responsible for the content of external websites.

Books

A selection of books is listed below on the topic of Forensic Engineering, as well as specific disasters, such as the Tay Bridge:

Bignell V and Fortune J: Understanding Systems Failures, Manchester University Press, Manchester (1984)

Brown, S (Ed): Forensic Engineering, 1st Press, Texas (1995)

Carper K L: Forensic Engineering, CRC Press, Florida (1989)

Fagan M J: Finite Element Analysis, Theory and Practice, Longman, Harlow (1992)

Feynman R P: "What do you care what other people think?", Norton, New York (1988)

Hertzberg R W: Deformation and Fracture Mechanics of Engineering Materials, 4th edition, John Wiley, New York, (1996)

Himmelfarb, D: A Guide to Product Failures and Accidents, Technomic Publishing (1985)

Jones, D R H (ed): Failure Case Studies, Elsevier, Oxford (1996)

Jones D R H: Materials Failure Analysis: Case Studies and Design Implications, Pergamon, London (1993)

Zukas J A: Impact Dynamics, John Wiley, New York, (1982)

Peter R Lewis: Beautiful Railway bridge of the Silvery Tay: reinvestigating the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879, Tempus (2004)

Peter R Lewis: Disaster on the Dee: Robert Stephenson's nemesis of 1847, Tempus (2007)

Peter Rhys Lewis, Ken Reynolds and Colin Gagg: Forensic Materials Engineering: Case Studies, CRC Press (2004)

Meyers M A: Dynamic Behavior of Materials, John Wiley, New York, (1994)

Noon R: Introduction to Forensic Engineering, CRC Press, Florida (1992)

Noon R: Engineering Analysis of Fires and Explosions, CRC Press, Florida (1995)

Peterson: Stress Concentration Factors, Wiley Interscience, New York (1978)

Petroski, H: To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design, St Martins Press, New York (1984)

Prebble, J: The High Girders, Penguin, London (first published 1955)

Sanders M S and McCormick E J: Human Factors in Engineering and Design, McGraw-Hill, London (7th edn 1992)

Stewart, S: Air Disasters, Arrow, London (1986)

Swinfen, D: The Fall of the Tay Bridge, Mercat Press, Edinburgh

Verhoeven J D: ASM Metals Handbook, 9th Edition, Volume 10 Materials Characterisation, ASM, Materials Park, Ohio, (1986), pp 490-515

Versteeg H K and Malalasekera W: An Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics, The Finite Volume Method, Longman, Harlow (1995)

Walker P M B (Ed): Chambers Materials Science and Technology Dictionary, Chambers, Edinburgh (1993)

Wulpi D J: Understanding How Components Fail, American Society for Metals, Ohio (1985)

Young W C: Roark’s Formulas for Stress and Strain, McGraw-Hill, New York (6th edn 1989)

Content last updated: 03/04/2002