The Tacoma Narrows Disaster Quantitative Reconstruction of an Aeroelastic Instability with TFD Mapping and Jericho Comparison Logic

This work reconstructs the Tacoma Narrows disaster as an aeroelastic instability with mode switching (vertical oscillation → torsional oscillation), self-reinforcing feedback, and effectively negative damping. The core mechanism is not a naive “simple resonance” in the sense of a forced single frequency, but a coupled wind-structure system in which the wind field amplifies the structural response and the structural response in turn modifies the wind field. The study is structured as an audit-ready model version: data basis, assumptions, equations, scenario logic, claim register, and visualizations are documented explicitly. In addition, a Jericho comparison is formulated—not as an identification of the events, but as a structural-mechanical instability analogy (excitation → mode coupling → pre-damage/threshold behavior → failure). A TFD-compatible mapping layer is provided as an optional additional hypothesis, but it becomes scientifically strong only if it yields its own measurable additional predictions. This version provides a reproducible, publication-ready reconstruction with consolidated data, mechanism analysis, Jericho comparison logic, claim register, and 6 technical figures + 1 summary figure (TikZ/PGFPlots), without hidden fits.