The Titanic disaster revisited

The main aspect of the ‘Titanic’ that appears unsinkable is interest in her demise. More than 100 years after the event, fresh evidence still keeps being unearthed that allows a more detailed consideration of the causes and effects of her sinking. ‘Titanic’ sank because she hit an iceberg at speed, but questions remain about the relatively short time between impact and final sinking, which prevented rescue of more passengers and crew by other ships. Photographs of ‘Titanic’ leaving Belfast for her maiden voyage have sparked a re-think of the role of the bunker fire on the events of the night of 14 April 1912. The metallurgical aspects of this re-investigation will be covered here.

Martin Strangwood gained his MA and PhD from Cambridge and spent three years at UKAEA, Harwell before joining the School of Metallurgy and Materials at the University of Birmingham. His research interests lie in the optimization of properties via composition and processing for materials from viscoelastic polymers to Ni-base alloys but concentrating on steels. He has a broad range of interests, which has covered sports, aerospace and maritime applications, which have provided projects for a number of the ~100 PhDs and masters that he has supervised. Now in an honorary position at Birmingham, he continues to research steels at Warwick University with a special interest in hydrogen interactions with steels.