News & Analysis
/
Article

Tragic submersible explosion provides a valuable lesson on stress-strain mechanics

MAR 07, 2025
Students simulate underwater stress-strain dynamics with easily accessible materials
Hannah Daniel Headshot.jpg
Media Relations Specialist
Tragic submersible explosion provides a valuable lesson on stress-strain mechanics internal name

Tragic submersible explosion provides a valuable lesson on stress-strain mechanics lead image

The Titan submersible, which imploded underwater on its way down to explore the Titanic wreckage, serves as a tragic lesson and an impactful case study.

In June 2023, the Titan began its descent to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to view the wreck of the Titanic. Unfortunately, the submersible never reached its destination, as the craft likely imploded due to the intense pressure of the ocean.

DiLisi et al. developed a lesson plan for students to introduce how objects change dimensions under stress using the story of the Titan as an example.

“Over the past several years, my colleagues and I have explored how a forensics-style re-examination of significant historical events can be used as a motivation to introduce fundamental concepts to students in introductory physics and engineering courses,” said author Gregory DiLisi.

In the classroom experiment, students create gelatin cylinders with different concentrations and stiffnesses, and then they stack weights on them and measure the compression of the cylinders.

“Using our case study approach, students explore how homemade materials deform in response to simple applied compressive loads, then visualize these responses by constructing stress-strain plots,” DiLisi said.

The lesson was run with undergraduate students enrolled in an interdisciplinary science course, and DiLisi believes that the students responded favorably due to how the subject matter connected to real-world events.

“They were glad to see current events brought into the classroom, they were extremely curious to try to solve some aspects of the Titan mystery, in their own minds, by doing some sort of hands-on investigation, and they were enthusiastic to see faculty members engaged in real-time research of their own,” he said.

Source: “The Implosion of the Titan Submersible: A Stress-Strain Experiment,” by Gregory A. DiLisi, Steven J. Eppell, and Richard A. Rarick, The Physics Teacher (2025). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0178277 .

More Science
/
Article
Using an iterative approach based on ocean data combined with typhoon trajectory inversion methods significantly improves accuracy over existing methods.
/
Article
Characterizing calcium diffusion during the basic spherification method will optimize the production of beverage pearls.
AAS
/
Article
When a gas cloud collapses to form a star cluster, how many objects form, and what are their masses? Research published today provides answers about the low-mass end of the star and brown dwarf formation process.
AAS
/
Article
A late-night total eclipse of the Moon highlights the coming week, and never mind that this is a minimoon. Sirius holds the meridian at nightfall, just as the Winter Triangle tips to balance on its brightest point.