From the engineer’s point of view, the cause of the destruction of the aquarium could be an external influence.
Photo: REUTERS
To date, the official version of the destruction of the giant aquarium “AquaDom” in Berlin has turned into material fatigue. However, in an interview with the newspaper Der Spiegel, the plastic engineer Christian Bonten admitted that he did not believe in this version.
“You can only speak of ‘fatigue’ when the object is constantly moving from one side to the other. However, in the aquarium, the acrylic glass was statically charged, without movement,” Bonten said.
The expert also questioned the version of thermal damage. According to him, the inhabitants of the aquarium would have reacted to the heat before they reacted to the acrylic, but this was not the case.
From the engineer’s point of view, the cause of the destruction of the aquarium could be an external influence.
“This doesn’t necessarily mean someone hit the aquarium hard with a hammer, but it could have been an accident,” says Bonten. Material failure. Since acrylic glass is very brittle, cracks propagate spontaneously.
According to the expert, what happened was an “emotional defeat” for him, but it did not weaken his faith in plastic:
“Acrylic glass has been used since the 1930s. Despite its brittleness, it is very strong and remains hard for decades.”
