The sport of bungee jumping has become very popular
worldwide over the past decade. The author was recently
commissioned to investigate a fatal accident, which
occurred during a bungee jump. As a result of this
investigation, it has emerged that the
equipment used for
bungee jumping has evolved in an empirical way, using a
mixture of braided rubber cords originally intended for
aeronautical applications, and ancillary equipment designed
for climbing protection. The fatal accident is presented as
a detailed case study, in which the load/extension
characteristics of the bungee rope and the end attachment
webbing are measured, and used as the critical inputs to an
energy-based
analysis of the complete jumping process. It
is shown that the bungee rope was unable to absorb all the
potential energy of the falling jumper, with the result
that the jumper broke away from the bottom end of the rope.
The paper also discusses the urgent need for a quantitative
code for the design and use of bungee jumping equipment,
based on rigorous materials engineering analysis