structural failure
Load-bearing breakdown
Structural failure is the collapse or breakdown of a building, bridge, or other load-bearing construction when it can no longer support the forces acting on it.
The term applies to partial failures like cracked beams or buckled supports, not just total collapse: The engineers identified structural failure in three of the support columns.
Extended to other systems, it describes fundamental breakdowns in organization or design: The scandal revealed structural failure throughout the regulatory system.
- bucklingBending from compression
- fractureSplit in hard material
- stress fractureMicroscopic bone crack from overuse
- design flawsInherent structural weaknesses
- weak pointExploitable flaw or vulnerability
collapse · failure · crumble · give way · overloading · weight limit · load bearing · crack · brittleness · cave in · safety factor · structurelessness · deformation · material fatigue · break · implosion · bending · foundation
- engineeringengineers, civil engineering, engineering, electrical engineering, blueprint
- breakingbreaking, cracking, fracturing, rupturing, shattering
- damagebreakage, break, crack, fracture, dent
- infrastructure failuresbridge collapse, potholes, dam breach, power outage, water main breaks
- breakdownsbreakdown, nervous breakdown, mental breakdown, failure, emotional collapse
- 9/11World Trade Center, Twin Towers, Ground Zero, September 11, Pentagon
structure, structural, structures, restructure, unstructured, restructuring, substructure, restructured, restructures