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Give an ethical analysis of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Examine the problem from an ethical perspective....

Give an ethical analysis of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Examine the problem from an ethical perspective. Describe whether the various people and organizations involved behaved ethically or not and why you believe that is the case. Suggest what could or should have been done differently and explain why. Please back it up with relevant facts and ideas.

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  • The collapse of TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE in 1940 created some serious ethical issues at the time and especially for the engineers.This was one of the most dramatic bridge collapse in history,fortunately with no life loss and little of property loss other than the bridge itself.The collapse took place less than a year after its completion of construction of the bridge.
  • out of this incident a serious issue was illuminated for the engineering professionals.specifically at what point are the professions theoretical and experiential knowledge insufficient to justify moving forward with a specific project or design scheme?
  • Furthermore in the precence of weak experimental knowledge ,is there a practicable way of supplement the experiental knowledge so as to move the project forward?
  • The etical issues raised by the TACOMA NARROWS BRIDGE was "errors or failures" an acceptable price for human progress in all instances? ARE they really acceptable where there is a serious risk to life and/or of great financial loss??
  • THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL KNOWLEDGE:
  • THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE:
  • This is the applied physics learned in school i.e. F=ma,
  • Bernoullis equation .In engineering practice there is no uncertinity about the correctness of these therotical derived relationships .Engineers can confidently employ this knowledge in design activites and know that it will lead to a proper result.
  • Experiential Knowledge. This is the body of knowledge the engineering profession has acquired by, one might say, trial-anderror. Over hundreds, if not thousands, of years engineers and their craftsmen-predecessors have tried different materials, designs and construction techniques on projects and learned what combinations produce the best result. This body of knowledge is passed from generation to generation of engineers through handbooks, codes and similar professional resources. Sewer lines should slope 1/4 inch per foot; the location of seismic zones and their associated loads; velocities in water pipes should not exceed 10 feet per second; restrooms should be designed for 10 air changes per hour; and so forth. This knowledge can be comfortably employed by engineers if it has an appropriate record of successful application in the past.
  • THE TACOMA NARROWS DESIGN DILEMMA.
  • The dilemma posed in design of the Tacoma Narrows bridge was that a theoretical analysis was used as the basis for a design decision (to use the 8-feet deep solid girders) when there was inadequate recognized theory upon which to rely in design of the bridge. In the absence of adequate theoretical knowledge, then, the design should have been controlled by adequate experiential knowledge. But here again, the experiential knowledge was
  • inadequate. No suspension bridge of such length and slender proportions had ever been designed. Indeed, comparable suspension bridges that had been successfully designed and constructed up to that time had used only deep truss girders for roadway support. There was no experiential knowledge basis for the Tacoma Narrows proposal to use shallower solid I-beam girders. Did this mean the more “elegant” solution (8-feet deep Ibeam roadway support girders) needed to be abandoned? Not necessarily. Absent adequate theoretical knowledge, if there is a practicable way to supplement experiential knowledge it may be possible and reasonable to move the technology forward.
  • A LINGERING ETHICAL QUESTION: There have been suggestions in the literature that the engineers who proposed the solid girder design to the federal Public Works Administration and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation may have been motivated to some degree by an interest in obtaining the design contract. Clearly competition for engineering contracts is a healthy thing, but care must be taken to not propose designs the
  • healthy thing, but care must be taken to not propose designs that cannot be delivered safely and with a reasonable expectation that they will be completed on-time and on-budget. There are more than just a few examples of architecturally exciting buildings that were proposed to owners by architects that turned out to be disastrously over budget and which presented many expensive engineering and construction challenges.
  • So what are the ethical lessons we learned from the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse? This may be a way to summarize:
    • If the theoretical knowledge base underlying a design is weak or incomplete, it must be supplemented by an adequate base of experiential knowledge.
  • If the experiential knowledge base is weak or incomplete it must be expanded until it is adequate. A principal way of practicably doing this is through appropriate modeling. In the example of the Tacoma Narrows bridge, the modeling that might have prevented the collapse was wind tunnel model testing.
    • In competing for engineering contracts, do not propose designs that are not ipso facto supported by an adequate and complete theoretical and experimental knowledge based.

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