Tragic Titan sub may have crumbled under ‘micro-buckling’ after multiple dives eroded its exterior, new report claims

Experts have revealed the explanation why the doomed Titan submarine imploded during its expedition to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

OceanGate’s Titan submarine disappeared on June 18, 2023, after it plunged into the ocean to investigate the wreckage of the Titanic.

New reports from researchers at the University of Houston who studied how thin-walled structures can buckle due to small imperfections in the materials, Newsweek reported.

In an article in the Journal of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), research leader and professor of civil and environmental engineering Roberto Ballarini suggested that imperfections in the carbon fiber used to build the Titan submarine’s hull could be responsible for the devastating disaster. implosion.

He further suggested that any damage incurred during the ship’s previous dives could have left it vulnerable to ‘micro-buckling’.

Experts have revealed the explanation why the doomed submarine Titanic imploded during its expedition to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. (Image: Newsweek reporter, Alex Backus)

Expert Roberto Ballarini suggested that imperfections in the carbon fiber used to build the Titan submarine’s hull could be to blame for the devastating implosion

‘Nodding in the simplest explanation: you take a long spaghetti and you push it with two fingers. What’s going to happen? It’s actually going to buckle, it’s going to snap,” Roberto Ballarini.

“That’s what kink is. It’s when you compress something and it deforms significantly because it’s an instability.”

Researchers couldn’t investigate whether micro-buckling was the cause of Titan’s failure, but they looked at vessels with similar shapes and materials.

There are other theories as to why the submarine imploded, including the carbon fiber composite material of the hull.

Small imperfections that can go unnoticed put ships like the Titan at risk of collapsing under intense pressure.

Debris from the Titan submarine, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from a ship

Now that the ship has completely imploded, investigators will likely never be able to determine the exact location of the fault that caused the tragic event.

The Titan submarine lost communications with its support vessel on Sunday, June 18, during a descent into the Titanic wreck, 10,000 feet below the surface.

Days later the rubble was recovered. It was said to have suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’.

Tourists Hamish Harding, 58, Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, French Navy pilot Paul-Henry (PH) Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush all died on the submarine.

The US Coast Guard confirmed the victims’ deaths four days later The investigation into the implosion is still ongoing.

On June 18, the OceanGate submarine was launched into the Atlantic Ocean around 8 a.m. over the site of the Titanic shipwreck.

The five passengers began to descend while Rush piloted the ship. At 9:45 a.m. it lost contact with its mothership, the Polar Prince.

Image showing Titan submarine parts found after ‘catastrophic implosion’

University student Suleman (left), 19, and his father Shahzada Dawood (right) were two of five victims killed instantly when the OceanGate submarine suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’

British explorer Hamish Harding was among those killed in the ‘catastrophic implosion’

French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) was in the submarine with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expedition

It took OceanGate Expeditions eight hours to report the missing submarine to the U.S. Coast Guard after it lost contact.

That led to a massive international response to rescue the five passengers. Ships from around the world began the journey to assist in the search for the missing submarine as the hours and estimated oxygen levels dwindled.

It was also revealed that a US Navy monitoring system picked up a possible noise from the implosion during descent, but search efforts continued.

After the deaths of the five passengers were announced, it was later revealed that debris from the imploded submarine had been found near the site of the Titanic.

The Titan submarine tragedy is about to be made into a movie. The film, titled Salvaged, comes from the mind of one of the key producers behind Black-ish and will cover periods before, during and after the five-day tragedy.

A pair of relatively unknown writers have been attached to pen the story, which serves as part of an upcoming series of docuseries projects from the presiding studio.

Other films in the work include a project based on Seattle’s emerging underground rap scene, and another about various Girl Scouts groups in North America and beyond.

However, Salvaged – as the name suggests – tries to remove all doubts about the tragedy by offering a clear story around the five who died.