Why did Titanic sink?

191April 14 At about 23: 40, the Titanic collided with an iceberg, which caused the starboard bow to rupture to the middle of the ship and flooded five watertight compartments. At about 2: 20 the next morning, the Titanic broke in two and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at 3,700 meters. Of the 2,224 crew members and passengers, more than 1500 people were killed, of which only 333 bodies were recovered.

Cause of the accident:

After the wreckage of the Titanic reappeared, the scientific investigation team collected metal samples for analysis and found the important details that led to the sinking of the Titanic: shipbuilding engineers only considered increasing the strength of steel, but did not think of increasing its toughness.

By comparing the metal fragments of the wreckage with the current shipbuilding steel, it is found that the current shipbuilding steel can bend into a V-shape when it is hit by the water temperature at the sinking site of the Titanic, while the steel on the wreckage will break quickly due to insufficient toughness.

The cold brittleness of steel is found, that is, at the temperature of -40℃~0℃, the mechanical behavior of steel changes from toughness to brittleness, leading to catastrophic brittle fracture. The steel made by modern technology will become brittle only at -70℃~-60℃.

But we can't blame the engineers at that time, because no one knew at that time that in order to increase the strength of steel, adding a lot of sulfide into steelmaking raw materials would greatly increase the brittleness of steel and lead to the tragedy of Titanic sinking.

A team of marine forensic experts analyzed the rivets on the salvaged Titanic hull, and found that the rivets fixing the hull steel plate contained unusually many glass slag particles, which made the rivets very fragile and easy to break. This analysis shows that under the impact of the iceberg, the rivet may have broken, leading to the disintegration of the hull, and finally the Titanic was buried at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

According to a new study by Tim Mardin, a British historian, an unusual optical phenomenon-a mirage-is the reason why the Titanic crashed into an iceberg and failed to get rescue from nearby ships.

1992, a survey by the British government showed that the sinking of the Titanic might be related to superrefraction, but it was not until Mardin studied the weather records, the testimonies of survivors and the long-forgotten log books that this possibility was explored.

Mardin found that that night, the atmospheric conditions in the sea area were prone to hyperrefraction, and the light was abnormally bent, thus forming a mirage. This phenomenon was also recorded by several ships in the nearby waters at that time.

Mardin said that a mirage prevented the observation deck on the Titanic from finding icebergs in time, and also prevented the cargo ship "California" from recognizing the Titanic and communicating with ocean liners.

Extended data:

Death situation:

Due to the chaotic scene after the disaster, improper document management, and mixed opinions from later generations, the statistical data of passengers and victims of Titanic have been in doubt.

At present, it is generally believed that the number of victims may be between 1490- 1635, and the most reliable data is published by the British Trade Commission: at the time of the disaster, the Titanic was carrying 2,224 people, of which 7 10 was still alive, and 15 14 was unfortunately killed.