The document outlines the materials used in constructing the Titanic and analyzes the causes of its sinking. It notes that the Titanic was constructed using thousands of mild steel plates and over 2 million steel and wrought iron rivets. The failure of the wrought iron rivets in sealing the hull plates, along with design flaws of the watertight compartments, caused the ship to sink after colliding with an iceberg. Tests showed the wrought iron rivets were more brittle than steel rivets, and likely fractured on impact due to the low temperature of the water. Had it been constructed using modern steels, the Titanic may not have sunk as quickly.

2. OUTLINE
INTRODUCTION
MATERIAL USED IN MANUFACTURING
FAILURE OF HULLS AND RIVETS
DESIGN FLAWS
THE SINKING
COMPOSITIONS OF MATERIAL
CONCLUSION

3. INTRODUCTION
o Titanic was built between 1911 and 1912 and began its journey on
10 April 1912 .
o Two days later at mid night around 11.40 it struck an ice berg which
damaged the hulls of the six compartments ahead.
o These compartments got flooded which as a result caused the
sinking of the ship , but the actual failure that caused the ship to
sink was the material failure of the rivets being used in the sealing
of the hull plates.
o The ship sinked about in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

4. MATERIAL USED IN MANUFACTURE
 Titanic was constructed of :-
 “Thousands of one inch-thick mild steel plates”
 “Two million steel and wrought iron rivets and equipped
with the latest technology”.
 It was made up of low grade metals that were more brittle.

5. • Titanic's hull was triple riveted with using mild steel rivets,
and double riveted using wrought iron, in the central
length of the ship where maximum stress was assumed to
be located .
• Where as the use of wrought iron and mild steel rivets
instead of steel rivets caused the titanic disaster to take
place .
• The steel rivets have good strength as compared to
wrought iron.
• Titanic had experienced a great forcefull impact which
caused the six compartments of it to be opened to sea
where the used wrought iron rivets failed.

6. • When the Titanic collided with the iceberg, the
hull steel and the wrought iron rivets failed
because of brittle fracture.
• The causes of brittle fracture include low
temperature, high impact loading, and high
sulphur content. The water temperature was
below freezing, the Titanic was travelling at a
high speed on impact with the iceberg, and the
hull steel contained high levels of sulphur.
• The typical high-quality ship steels mainly used
are ductile an deform but never break like the
wrought iron.
THE FAILURE OF THE
HULLS
AND THE RIVETS.

7. • There was CHARPY IMPACT TEST
conducted on a specimen of the hull steel
of titanic to find out the brittleness of it.
• The wrought iron was found to be very
brittle as compared to the steel specimen .

8. • The wrought iron rivets that fastened the hull plates
to the Titanic's main structure also failed because of
brittle fracture from the high impact loading of the
collision with the iceberg and the low temperature
water on the night of the disaster.
• With the ship travelling at nearly 25 mph, the contact
with the iceberg was probably a series of impacts that
caused the rivets to fail either in shear or by
elongation.
• . Normally, the rivets would have deformed before
failing because of their ductility, but with water
temperatures below freezing, the rivets had become
extremely brittle.

9. DESIGN FLAWS….
• Along with the material failures, poor
design of the watertight compartments in
the Titanic's lower section was a factor in
the disaster.
• The lower section of the Titanic was
divided into sixteen major watertight
compartments, after the collision with the
iceberg, the hull portion of six of these
sixteen compartments was damaged.

10. • The watertight compartments contributed
to the disaster by keeping the flood waters
in the bow of the ship. If there had been
no compartments at all, the incoming
water would have spread out, and the
Titanic would have remained horizontal.
• Eventually, the ship would have sunk, but
she would have remained afloat for
another six hours before foundering.

12. THE SINKING

13. EXACT REASON FOR SINKING

16. TIMELINE OF THE SINKING OF THE
TITANIC [GANNON, 1995].
• 11:35 p.m. Lookouts spot the iceberg 1/4 mile
ahead.
• 11:40 The Titanic sideswipes the iceberg, damaging
nearly 300 feet of the hull.
• Midnight Watertight compartments are filling; water
begins to spill over the tops of the transverse
bulkheads.
• 1:20 a.m. The bow pitches; water floods through
anchor-chain holes.
• 2:00 The bow continues to submerge; propellers
lift out of the water.

17. • 2:10 The Titanic tilts 45 degrees or more;
the upper structure steel disintegrates.
• 2:12 The stern raises up out of the water;
the bow, filling with water, grows heavier.
• 2:18 Weighing 16,000 tons, the bow rips
loose; the stern rises to almost vertical.
• 2:20 The stern slips beneath the surface.
• 2:29 Coasting at about 13 mph, the bow
strikes the ocean floor.
• 2:56 Falling at about 4 mph, the stern strikes
the ocean floor.

18. COMPOSITION OF
MATERIALS
Table I. The Composition of Steels from the Titanic, a Lock Gate, and ASTM A36 Steel
C Mn P S Si Cu O N MnS: Ratio
Titanic Hull Plate 0.21 0.47 0.045 0.069 0.017 0.024 0.013 0.0035 6.8:1
Lock Gate* 0.25 0.52 0.01 0.03 0.02 — 0.018 0.0035 17.3:1
ASTM A36 0.20 0.55 0.012 0.037 0.007 0.01 0.079 0.0032 14.9:1

19. • NICKEL (Ni)
• As the properties of nickel say that when added
to steel increases its toughness even at low
temperatures .
• As nickel was missing in the materials being
used in the manufacturing of Titanic , due to low
temperature in the surroundings the materials
failed .
• And hence the use of Nickel would had made the
ship to float for longer period.

20. WAS TITANIC'S STEEL TO BLAME FOR
HER DEMISE?
• Many combining factors led to the magnitude of
Titanic's disaster at sea, including lack of lifeboats,
flaws in the design of the ship and negligence of
the crew.
• One factor that we can accurately evaluate with
today’s technology is the quality of steel that was
used for the Titanic, and if any shortcuts were taken
during construction that may have contributed to
the disastrous event.

21. • All three million of Titanic's rivets were driven
by hand.
• Wrought iron is an Iron Alloy with a very
low carbon (0.1 to 0.25%) content in
contrast to cast iron (2.1% to 4%), and has
fibrous inclusions, known as slag up to
2% by weight.

23. • If it would had been 2012 instead of 1912 about a
Century after, then the failure of material wouldn’t
had took place with the use of Modern steels.
• Even the techniques of riveting the hull plates would
had been replaced by new techniques of Welding .
• The materials being used would also had been
replaced by new composite materials , which would
had satisfy the properties required.
If it would had been 2012
instead of
1912

24. CONCLUSION…..
• The steel used in constructing the Titanic was
probably the best plain carbon ship plate
available in the period of 1909 to 1911, but it
would not be acceptable at the present time for
any construction purposes and particularly not
for ship construction.
• Whether a ship constructed of modern steel
would have suffered as much damage as
the Titanic .