Forensic Engineering

Mission Statement/Objectives

By sharing knowledge of technical, human and organizational causes of failures and of investigation methods and techniques, the task group intends to:

-mitigate new structural failures

-enhance the improvement of forensic practices

-rise the interest of (younger) engineers from over the world for forensic structural engineering

-have fun in collaboration between international experts

Scope & Limitation

Forensic Structural Engineering is the professional practice of determining the cause or causes of failure of a constructed facility and of laying out the technical bases for identifying the parties responsible for that failure (Ratay, 2009). Failure of a structure can be defined as a state or condition in which the structure cannot observably or measurably fulfil some or any of its intended functions during its use. Examples are cracks, unacceptable vibrations and deflections until full collapse.

Forensic Structural Engineering is not limited to any building material or type of structure.

The task group will focus on the exchange of knowledge about causes of structural failures and of forensic investigation methods and techniques within the field of Forensic Structural Engineering.

Expected Project Output:

1. Report on forensic practices in various countries, based on international survey. Conference paper and journal paper have been published (2023, 2024).

2. Members have delivered lectures for IABSE Academy on Forensic Structural Engineering (2024).

3. Pre conference workshops in New Delhi 2023 was organized, for Costa Rica 2024 a workshop is scheduled.

4. SED on forensic engineering cases and lessons learn was published in 2023.

5. Special issue forensic engineering in SEI is prepared for August 2024.

6. Various ways of forensic investigation processes are listed and if needed a new protocol will be drafted.

7. The possibilities of new technologies (like AI) for forensic structural engineering are explored.

Start Date: September 19, 2022
Target Date of Completion: September 19, 2026

If you are interested in joining Task Group 5.1, please contact the Chair, Karel Terwel, K.C.Terwel@tudelft.nl

Video Link (K.Terwel, L.Rus)

Chair
Karel Terwel, Netherlands

Vice Chair
Laurent Rus, Spain

Members

John Duntemann, U.S.A.

Leigh Appleyard, Australia
Eric Brehm, Germany
Bruno Godart, France
Robert Hertle, Germany
Joseph Jimenez Elizondo, Costa Rica
Josh Kardon, United States
Anssi Laaksonen, Finland
Fabrizio Palmisano, Italy
David Peraza, USA
Gianluca Ranzi, Australia

Adele Scamponi, USA

Alastair Soane, United Kingdom
Harshavardhan Subbarao, India
Matias Valenzuela, Chile

Zhi Zhang, USA

Svein Erik Jakobsen, Norway

Marting Hohberg, Switzerland