'Fracture predictive technology' models cracks in Macondo riser

摘要

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used technology developed for automobile crash testing to investigate the broken riser pipe of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident. Tomasz Wierzbicki, professor and director of the MIT Impact and Crashworthiness Lab believes that these simulations might help identify stronger or more flexible pipe materials that would minimize the impact of a future large-scale accident. Wierzbicki has developed a technique called 'fracture predictive technology' (FPT) through his work in car-crash safety testing. FPT combines physical experiments with computer simulations to predict the strength and behavior of materials under severe impacts.