Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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On September 9, 2010, a pipeline exploded in a residential neighborhood in San Bruno, California, killing 8 people and causing huge amounts of destruction. This video explores fracture mechanics - the main tool engineers use to predict and prevent this type of failure.
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Chapters:
00:00 - The San Bruno Pipeline Explosion
01:44 - Why Cracks are Dangerous
03:21 - The Stress Intensity Factor
06:32 - Fracture Toughness
08:41 - Bridge Analysis
09:44 - More Advanced Fracture Mechanics Methods
10:50 - Crack Growth and Paris' Law
13:20 - The Damage Tolerance Approach
15:25 - Fracture Mechanics in the Pipeline Industry
16:36 - What Happened at San Bruno?
19:14 - SendCutSend
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Attribution:
Aerial imagery from the USDA National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP), distributed by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Satellite imagery from the Sentinel-2 satellite
3d models:
"Burned-out Cars" (skfb.ly/6QTEM) by Renafox is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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"Free Burned Police Cars" (skfb.ly/6STL6) by Renafox is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).