Fury 325 closed due to fractured support

Unless you have access to B&M’s inspection requirements for Fury 325, and proof those requirements were not met, blaming maintenance for this incident is ignorant and irresponsible. That a structural failure like this occurred is not an automatic indication that maintenance was not being done properly. Design, construction, and/or material issues could have contributed to this just as much as anything else. Until (if) a report detailing the cause of the failure is released, no one without detailed knowledge of the ride and its operations should be blaming anyone.

Bakeman31092:

Maintenance has a list of things they are supposed to maintain, and most of the high frequency checks (daily) center around the mechanical systems: the trains, lift system, brakes, drive motors, etc. The actual ride structure is probably more of a monthly thing, at best.

You are mostly correct, but the structure should be checked much more frequently. You may not get hands-on every day, high areas like this get inspected with binoculars or more recently drones. You'll generally have a team on a large ride like this with someone doing trains and someone else doing structure. You can't check every weld and every support every day, but the entire area should have a general inspection with specific sections focused on each day so it's not too long between all of it getting a close look. The minimum schedule is generally from the manufacturer, but parks will focus more intensely on an area if the feel it's needed.

0g:
Yes, but you can fault the GM if they were sending people home early and not fully inspecting the rides per manufacturer’s guidelines. I don’t know if that may or may not be the case in this situation.

True, but we have no evidence of that. There's one bitter poster that's mad that the park closes early when it rains assuming that they send maintenance people home, too. I've never known that to be the case anywhere. Rides have a maintenance schedule that needs to be completed regardless of weather.

sirloindude:

Supports shouldn’t be failing that quickly.

They really shouldn't fail, at all, if designed properly* (designing to the proper forces and designing to fatigue life limit). That is, you design the structure/support/whatever to basically millions of cycles and use the reduced material strength through all that fatigue in the analysis to ensure it does not fail throughout the life of the structure.

*But you also have to rely on the crews doing the foundations, erection and the fabrication of those components in the stackup properly and with no flaws. Of course, you design with FOS's for a reason and try to control what you can, but, sometimes things happen.

kpjb:

You are mostly correct, but the structure should be checked much more frequently.

What standard or manual are you referencing when you state the structure should be inspected more frequently than on a monthly (or any other) basis?

I have made two assumptions in my above posts:

1) the claim that the crack was there for a week is valid. I have not done anything to check.

2) A visual inspection of the entire length of track is part of the daily inspection.

If either of these assumptions are wrong, then maintenance certainly doesn’t deserve any blame.

Hey Everyone,

While I have not read all the replies above, I do have some input that may help.

We all come from different backgrounds. In the real world, I'm a welding engineer / metallurgist / nuclear dude (in descending order).

First, a crack like this can either initiate in the weld or base material. Given the location of the crack, we can't tell with the video or photo. Given the branch connection, it does look like the crack may be in the area of the toe of the branch weld. But once again, we can't tell without further examination.

Second, these structures (this is probably fabricated/welded to AWS D1.1 structural code) are designed so all welds are stronger than the base material (excluding any preexisting discontinuities or defects). I've actually seen two separate instances where a crack in a subsea pipeline started in the base material, propagated, and was stopped by the girth weld. Pretty cool!

It's likely that the park will want to get this branch connection sent out an examined. Once examined via macro/micro examination, It'll be simple for the metallurgist to distinguish the cracking mechanism (fatigue, SCC, DDC, lamellar tearing, etc) in addition to if the failure mode was inter or intragranular.

While I can't tell, this may be a fatigue crack. Please note that while many fatigue cracks do show an indication before they fail, but some don't. Charts are available to estimate the number of cycles to failure, given stress/strain and crack/discontinuity size. So, if this crack propagated to the point of failure, without any type of specific testing (MPT, LPT, UT, RT), I would not be surprised. If this is a failure in the base material, BM is typically not inspected once it leaves the mill. Welds are a different story.....

What we'll see here is one of two things. Either the base material is cut with an oxy acetylene torch or plasma torch on both sides and a 'blank' is welded into the girth potions. Another option is to have the entire branch connection fabricated off site and bolted back in place. They'll also need to run a 2G girth weld at the bottom. Additionally, I would not be surprised if a few stiffeners are added to the vertical portion right above the branch connection.

I've heard that a photo might exist prior to the failure, but once again, have not gone through the entire thread. If this crack has been visually 'active' for some time, it's hard for me to think that somebody did not stop operations. I doubt this happened, but it could. I know that the crews are trained to call operations if something sounds out of the ordinary.

Story time....... When I worked at Cedar Point (long time ago), I used to occasionally work at a ride near Raptor's Cobra Roll. When working 'Ponies' one day, I noticed that the Cobra Roll was sounding funny. Called ParkOps right away, and they stated that I was about caller number 10 in regards to the issue, and it was due to a welding repair that was performed the night before. So, it's likely to be in the employees' character to call in an issue like this.

I've also saw an entire section of Demon Drop be welded in overnight and opened the next morning. Really gives you a new respect to how these parks take maintenance seriously and do what they can to keep the rides in top shape.

I could go on a bit more, but that's good, for now.

-Ryan

eChameleon:

The only B&M I can think of that got such a treatment was Hulk at IOA

Nemesis at Alton Towers is currently mid-way through a complete track replacement

Wildcat_Four:

If this is a failure in the base material, BM is typically not inspected once it leaves the mill.

However, in all seriousness, I appreciate the detailed explanation of "all the things" from both you and Steve, and from Bakeman31092 in the thread about the Schwarzkopf failures. It's discussions like this that keep me coming back, even when all I can contribute is a graphic about poop.

I remember watching a video about coaster inspection and maintenance at an amusement park, and the park in that video had people checking every inch of track on every ride every morning. On inverting coasters, they had a little mechanical bubble looking vehicle that would run the whole track and look for issues. I also actually saw KD running on of those on Dominator. The area where this crack is would unlikely be seen by anyone performing those checks though.

That 325 video gave me the willies though. This could have been catastrophic.

My husband said, “good engineering though if it’s still running with that huge crack”, and I had to laugh before saying, “yeah, CoasterBuzzers said the same. It’s made by probably the best coaster firm on the planet, B&M, so it’s not as surprising as it would be if it were like…Intamin”. He’s not into this stuff like me, but he knew exactly who I meant and chuckled a bit.

Out of curiosity, can anyone think of another coaster experiencing this kind of failure? I can't. Given how many cycles B&M's have and how many they have out there, things do happen, and we tend to learn quite a bit from them. Look at all the changes that came out of the Ohio State Fair Accident a few years ago. I can imagine this will be a learning experience as well.

In line with our Bunk’s husband, I often wonder how over-engineered some things are. My conclusion is that they just have to be. In other words, is every girder on the bridge necessary? Does the dam actually have to be that thick? Would it be possible to remove steel coaster supports every so often and still be confident that the track will stand and operate without a collapse?
I’m sure engineer types here have an answer, and maybe I’m being stupid, but I have to assume that structural strength isn’t planned to be at the barest minimum just in order to pass and that there’s some sort of fail safe built in to avoid calamity in case a support for a ride is compromised.

RCMAC:

Would it be possible to remove steel coaster supports every so often and still be confident that the track will stand and operate without a collapse?

It worked in RCT any time I built something under a coaster.

Walt S:
Out of curiosity, can anyone think of another coaster experiencing this kind of failure?

I remember the year Geauga Lake debuted Serial Thriller (1998) it was down for a long chunk of the summer when there was a Vekoma SLC "recall" of sorts when there were hairline cracks discovered on T2 at Kentucky Kingdom. I also remember when the ride reopened toward the end of the season it would close midday for "maintenance checks". A quick search found this from URC.com on August 8, 1998: Link

VEKOMA INTERNATIONAL RECALLS TWENTY ONE COASTERS

Last month Vekoma International sent out a notice asking park operators to suspend operation of it's model of roller coaster known as the "Suspended Looping Coaster" or "SLC". The recall was prompted after a hairline crack was found in one of the models at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.

The manufactuer has asked all parks who have this type of coaster to close the ride and inspect it for what is being called a "design variance." According to the report, operators should throughly inspect the track, trains and supports for possibly hairline cracks.

Premier Parks which operate several Vekoma SLC's at it's various theme parks, choose to shut down the rides as a precautionay measure. As of today, most of the SLC's have reopened, but the individual parks are performing daily inspections of the rides. Riverside park another park operated by Premier is performing inspections several times a day.

The flaw found in the Kentucky Kingdom ride may be unique to that particular ride, but Vekoma decided to take no chances by ordering all of the parks to peform the inspection. If cracks eventually are found in other installations it may suggest that there is a design flaw with the type of coaster in general. So far there have not been any other reports of any other cracks found.

I also had to chuckle at this one:

WILL COASTER FANS PAY $7...OR IS THAT TOO MUCH?

Recently the New York New York Hotel and Casino raised the price to ride the Manhattan Express to seven dollars per ride. The increase now makes the Manhattan Express the most expensive rollercoaster ride in the country.

Barry Wellington:

Nemesis at Alton Towers is currently mid-way through a complete track replacement

Just looked into this. The red "vines" on the track is such an odd choice, but that's neither here nor there.

I think this will end up falling into the category of "freak occurrence." But RCMAC makes a good point... how over built are the rides? The video shows some travel, but how often would that have to occur for the track rails or spine to fail? Given the sparse supports on most modern B&M's, and the way many already wiggle, I would imagine the answer is an awful lot.

That's pure speculation, but we don't really know the limitations in this instance.

Well, the ride can plainly operate (for a while) without that support doing much of anything. I suspect, however - and I think this was suggested already (but maybe over in the Grona Lund thread) that stresses are being transferred to the track or other supports in a way that would be a problem in the long term.

I'm sure the rides are overbuilt by quite a margin.

Off the top of my head, I would imagine that the ride forces are given to the structural folks by the design team and they work to fully loaded mass/forces, with respect to worst case loading that needs to be taken by the support/structure. Structural will come up with the support layout and run the analysis, applying additional margins with respect to loading, seismic, thermal and material properties (S-N curves and such). Most certainly taking in account welded joints as part of that design. Then as long as maximum stress doesn't not exceed "X", they consider it OK. I'm sure it's quite an easy/quick exercise for them, as they work with the same steel and such, so they prob plug and chug in the software to make sure they don't exceed some stress value on the material. If so, they beef up the pipe gauge or modify the design itself until they are under the limits.

It's basically how we do it in aerospace, however, we have mass limitations so we we work to pretty slim margins. We do take in account material properties at temperature. For example, we will test and use the material properties at worst case thermal conditions in our analysis, so we know how brittle or elastic a material might be, and use those worst case properties in vibe/shock simulations to ensure stresses are within the window we need. It gets really fun dealing with composites and adhesives at temperatures nobody has data for (-200F, for example).

RCMAC:

In line with our Bunk’s husband, I often wonder how over-engineered some things are. My conclusion is that they just have to be. In other words, is every girder on the bridge necessary? Does the dam actually have to be that thick? Would it be possible to remove steel coaster supports every so often and still be confident that the track will stand and operate without a collapse?
I’m sure engineer types here have an answer, and maybe I’m being stupid, but I have to assume that structural strength isn’t planned to be at the barest minimum just in order to pass and that there’s some sort of fail safe built in to avoid calamity in case a support for a ride is compromised.

Typical modern buildings are designed such that the probability of failure is acceptably low (but not zero) using Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD). For instance, known dead loads (e.g., the self-weight of the structure, the weight of interior finishes, the weight of bookshelves in libraries) are multiplied by a load factor of 1.2 before being compared to member capacities. Live loads (e.g., the weight of people and furniture) are multiplied by a load factor of 1.6. Member capacities (i.e., the strength of beams, columns, etc.) are multiplied by resistance factors typically between 0.75 and 0.9, depending on the material and failure mode being considered. Why? Because we don't know exactly what the loads/demands and capacities are going to be. There is variability we can't define but have to account for with statistics.

The formulas used to calculate member capacities have also been statistically calibrated to generate a (roughly) minimum capacity. Structures also have to be sufficiently ductile (i.e., not brittle) so loads can be redistributed as needed to prevent progressive collapse (where one member failure results in the progressive failure of other members). So, yes, based on building code requirements, the members in a structure are necessary, but in reality, the structure is purposefully stronger than we assume.

When I've got a bit more time I'll look through the model texts most US building codes on based on and see what they say about amusement park structures.

There's a guy on PointBuzz that wants to tell you about critical thinking. 😆

Seriously though, are there standards bodies that set these standards? I saw some preliminary suggestion that the collapse of the Miami condo may have had something to do with extraordinary amounts of extra weight on the pool deck.

But that's obviously different than a coaster load, which is about as predictable as it gets.

Damn you for piquing my interest and making me go read that thread.