In a taped interview with Dr. John H. Smith of the Metallurgy Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, Dr. Smith discusses how failure analysis in the field often impacts Engineering Standards. Using slides Dr. Smith discusses and illustrates two specific cases where this has happened. The first of these cases involved the failure of an oil storage tank that was relocated from Cleveland to Pittsburgh. The other case involved the failure of a compressed natural gas trailer tube in Litchfield, Kentucky. In each of these cases, compliance with existing construction and/or building codes failed to prevent failures that ultimately resulted in serious consequences. More . . .

Editor's Note: This bi-monthly series of articles on root cause failure analysis is from our good friends at the Reliability Center.