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Structural integrity was an engineering term used to describe something's natural or artificial ability to withstand outside physical forces, such as the hull of a starship. Structural integrity power was one way to assist with maintaining structural integrity.

While standard architecture uses supports and bulkheads to make constructs stronger or more durable, the fantastic stresses presented by combat, warp fields and spatial phenomena have caused engineers in the Federation and other spacefaring species to use force fields to hold the shape of a construction together. This was referred to as a structural integrity field.

In 2063, Data informed Captain Jean-Luc Picard that the structural integrity of the Phoenix was intact, even after the attack by the Borg sphere. Later, Geordi La Forge informed Zefram Cochrane that the structural integrity of the Phoenix was holding as the ship prepared to go to warp speed. (Star Trek: First Contact)

In 2151, Malcolm Reed and Trip Tucker repolarized the gravity plating of Enterprise NX-01 to absorb the plasma recoil, caused by overloading the newly integrated phase cannons, and shunt the energy to structural integrity. (ENT: "Silent Enemy")

In 2152, Travis Mayweather polarized the hull plating of Enterprise to strengthen the structural integrity before entering a neutronic wavefront. (ENT: "The Catwalk")

The stress of a Romulan tractor beam caused sub-microscopic deformations in the structural integrity, especially the nose section and aft thrusters of the Type 15 shuttlepod Onizuka. (TNG: "The Mind's Eye")

In 2369, Geordi La Forge planned to run a structural integrity scan of a conduit located in cargo bay 4 aboard the USS Enterprise-D, but had to report to sickbay due to an issue with his VISOR. Data stated that he would run the scan instead, and had just started it when La Forge returned from sickbay, having been abducted without his knowledge by the solanogen-based lifeforms. (TNG: "Schisms")

The same year the tractor beam of Deep Space 9 was able to stabilize the structural integrity of Tosk's ship. (DS9: "Captive Pursuit")

In 2372, the USS Voyager's structural integrity began to weaken after the shuttlecraft Cochrane went to transwarp and Voyager was unable to sustain warp 9.97 to capture it. (VOY: "Threshold")

In 2374, during an encounter with a group of Omega molecules, Captain Kathryn Janeway ordered Chakotay to increase the structural integrity of a shuttlecraft in order to properly dispose of the molecules. (VOY: "The Omega Directive")

Failures of structural integrity[]

Hull stress[]

Hull stress was a condition where, on a starship, space station or other installation, the hull encounters a form of stress. This could be caused from a form of pressure pulling against the ship, such as an object pulling against another. Hull stress, if critical enough, can lead to a buckling and eventually a hull breach.

When the USS Voyager was caught in a quantum singularity in 2371, they found what they thought to be another ship caught further in the singularity. When Voyager attempted to lock on the ship with a tractor beam, the singularity started to pull the ship in. The ship was put into full reverse impulse, but with the tractor beam still on, this caused hull stress. (VOY: "Parallax")

Microfractures[]

Microfractures were microscopic cracks in the hull of a starship that, while invisible in the naked eye, could widen over time if something aggravated it and cause more drastic problems. The term also has a medical context.

The structural integrity of a material was diminished when microfractures were present. This could have dangerous, even deadly, consequences when the deterioration occurred in a ship's hull or other structure which provided containment, shelter, or life support, or in a living tissue. However, under certain conditions, a limited amount of microfracturing could be tolerable. (VOY: "Extreme Risk")

Some microfractures could be sealed by an engineering team, yielding a temporary or permanent repair. Other microfractures required the rebuilding or replacement of the structure. (ENT: "Desert Crossing"; VOY: "Caretaker", "Extreme Risk")

Causes[]

While approaching a second Sphere in the Expanse, Enterprise suffered microfractures on its hull due to gravitational anomalies (ENT: "Exile")

Microfractures could result from torsional stress damage or from weakening of stress-bearing material by some environmental condition. (TNG: "Rascals")

The Caretaker's displacement wave which transported the USS Voyager from the Badlands to the Delta Quadrant caused several microfractures to the ship's warp core. (VOY: "Caretaker")

Duranium alloys could be vulnerable to certain silicon-based parasites, which consumed the material. The weakened duranium could microfracture under stresses that normally would be within tolerances. (VOY: "The Disease")

Theta radiation could degrade hull materials, yielding microfractures when stress levels were normal. (VOY: "Extreme Risk")

Gravimetric distortions created violent stresses that caused damage beginning with microfractures and ultimately yielding total structural failures, if not mitigated by escaping the distortion. (ENT: "Exile"; VOY: "The Fight")

Proton bursts caused great stress on a ship's hull, leading to over 630 microfractures. (VOY: "Deadlock")

High warp core pressure, near critical levels, could microfracture the dilithium matrix. (VOY: "Twisted")

Microfractures could occur in warp nacelles, accumulating over time until maintenance became necessary. (VOY: "Nightingale")

A physical injury to a living being could damage the skeleton with microfractures. (VOY: "Repression")

Effects[]

Microfractures left un-repaired could widen to become full hull breaches. (VOY: "Deadlock")

EPS conduits could experience power drains if microfractures were present as the energy escaped from damaged conduits. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")

In 2369, the shuttlecraft Fermi was destroyed when an energy anomaly caused molecular deterioration and microfractures in the bulkhead. (TNG: "Rascals") A plasma conduit aboard the Tyrus VIIA station exploded, due to an undetected microfracture. (TNG: "The Quality of Life")

In 2375, Varro saboteurs aboard the Varro generational ship destabilized the warp reaction when their synthetic parasites caused microfractures. (VOY: "The Disease")

Prevention[]

A vessel's structural integrity field could provide enough reinforcement to prevent microfractures or to preserve integrity when microfractures were already present. (VOY: "Extreme Risk")

Twenty-second century hull plating was some protection against hull stresses which could cause microfractures, as was trellium. (ENT: "Anomaly (ENT)", "Exile")

Compensation for a microfractured dilithium matrix was possible, in order to avoid warp engine problems. (VOY: "Twisted")

A metallurgical scan was one way to discover microfractures. (TNG: "Phantasms")

Hull breach[]

USS Enterprise-B hull breach

The USS Enterprise-B's extensively breached hull

Hull breach warning

A hull breach warning

The term hull breach or hull rupture refers to the failure of structural integrity where the shell surrounding said pressurized environment breaks, stresses or develops a gap for any reason. In space-faring vessels, this is usually catastrophic. The pressure of a contained atmosphere forcing its way outward in an explosive decompression can cause further damage to the area, and also have the added effect of endangering or killing any lifeform present. Since the pressure is internally generated, Lieutenant Commander Data stated to Commander William T. Riker in 2364 that being "blown out" was probably a more accurate term than being "sucked out." (TNG: "The Naked Now"; VOY: "Deadlock")

The decompression Data described was caused by an opened hatch, not an actual hull breach, but the effect is essentially the same.

Most hull breach dangers are from pressurized material contained within a vacuum, or lower pressure, environment. However, it is just as possible that the pressurized vessel could be surrounded by high pressure gases or even liquid, causing an implosion, forcing the surrounding environment into a vessel. The USS Defiant experienced such breaches in 2372 when trapped in the atmosphere of a gas giant. (DS9: "Starship Down")

Vessels of spacefaring civilizations and cultures, such as the Federation Starfleet, protect themselves against the extreme stresses of both pressure and vacuum, as well as the added dangers of impacts, warp drive stress, weapon damage, energy phenomena and anomalies, by implementing a structural integrity field. This force field is designed to occupy the same space as the ship's hull, effectively giving them hundreds of times the ability to hold its shape. Force fields are also used to automatically contain the atmosphere, and repel external forces, should the hull be breached. (TNG: "Disaster"; Star Trek Generations; Star Trek Nemesis) Prior to the development of these technologies, emergency bulkheads and polarized hull plating were used to contain and avoid breaches (ENT: "Damage")

Notable hull breaches[]

Hull temperature[]

The hull temperature was the temperature experienced on a starship's hull when exposed to extreme heat. It was one of many factors taken into account for establishing starship design parameters.

As Enterprise NX-01 approached a hypergiant in 2154, the ship could only get as close as about twenty thousand kilometers out, before the hull temperature approached 1,100 degrees. During this mission, they encountered a Vissian starship, which had a hull constructed with trinesium and allowed it to withstand temperatures up to 18,000°. (ENT: "Cogenitor")

As the USS Enterprise pursued a Denevan ship heading into the Denevan sun in 2267, Spock began noting the ship's outer hull temperature on approach beginning at 480°, before announcing the temperature was at 1,000° and rising, and that they were getting too close. (TOS: "Operation -- Annihilate!")

The following year, when the Enterprise was hijacked by the Kelvans and forced to travel across the galactic barrier, as they made contact with the object, Montgomery Scott warned that the outside hull temperatures had risen to over 2,000°. (TOS: "By Any Other Name")

In 2364, Geordi La Forge attempted to cajole a cloaked and hostile Echo Papa 607 unit out of hiding, while it and the USS Enterprise-D were in orbit of the planet Minos, by entering the ship's battle section into the planet's atmosphere. In doing so, Lian T'Su initially warned that the hull temperature was at 1000° and rising, prompting La Forge to request emergency power to the deflectors. When the hull temperature reached 2,500°, Worf warned that the ship's deflectors were nearing overload. After the hull temperature reached 3,000°, Worf warned that they were about to lose number four deflector, and at 3,300°, the same deflector became inoperative. (TNG: "The Arsenal of Freedom")

Later that year, the Enterprise responded to a distress call from the Ornaran freighter Sanction, which had lost helm control and began losing orbit. Upon arrival, Worf observed that the freighter's hull temperature was passing 3,000°, some moments later, the freighter began to disintegrate as its' hull temperature approached critical. (TNG: "Symbiosis")

In Doctor Beverly Crusher's attempt to shake a pursuing Borg type 03 by hiding by a nearby sun, she requested that Taitt and Barnaby bring the metaphasic shielding program online so that they could enter the sun's corona. Prior to initializing the program, the Enterprise's hull temperature was at 12,000°, and the radiation level was near 10,000 rads. After activating the program, the ship's hull temperature dropped to a more tolerable 7,000°. (TNG: "Descent, Part II")

When USS Voyager's outer hull temperature reached 9,000°, the ship's hull began to buckle. (VOY: "Scientific Method")

External link[]

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