McColskey, J.
, McCowan, C.
and Santoyo, R.
(2002),
Failure Analysis of the WWVB Tower, NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
(Accessed January 13, 2025)
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Failure Analysis of the WWVB Tower
Published
Author(s)
, ,
Abstract
A failure analysis was conducted on the collapse of the NIST WWVB tower. The analysis included mechanical testing, chemical analysis, and metallographic examination of the failed part. We ascertained that the underlying reason for the collapse was fatigue failure due to poor engineering design and improper specifications on the insulator pin. Based on our findings, we recommend new pins be fabricated using recommended engineering practices with particular attention paid to details such as tolerances, radii, material choice, and heat treatment procedures.Citation
NIST Interagency/Internal Report (NISTIR) - 6619
Report Number
6619
NIST Pub Series
Pub Type
NIST Pubs
Keywords
antenna, fatigue, fracture, insulator pin, support pin, tower
Citation
Issues
If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.
Created August 1, 2002, Updated October 16, 2008