Does anyone know someone, or is someone who does failure analysis investigations? Say a bridge falls, or building and they use a certain type of welding inspector to review the destruction correct? Any insight would be cool to hear about.
Failure analysis would not be the responsibility, or area of expertise, of an inspector. Depending upon the extent, there would be an organizing authority bringing together the combined efforts of possibly a variety of disciplines.
Hello Jordan, if I am reading your post correctly you are looking for a company that investigates incidents and is capable of making a determination of the reason(s) that may have led up to the failure(s). There is a company in the town where I am located that does this sort of work. They often mock-up a given scenario and make it happen again to determine the contributing factors associated with the failure or reasons for the results of the failure. The companys name is: Western Fire Center Inc. their number is 360-423-1400. If nothing else maybe they can direct you to someone who can answer your questions if they can't. Good luck and best regards, Allan
Just a foot note to add here. They did an investigation of a train tressel failure for Weyerhaeuser many years ago to determine the reason for the failure, the results however are not public knowledge as they were used in court for litigation purposes. On a similar note they were also the recipients of a section of wide-flange from the World Trade Center and did some work on it, I don't have any further information as to the extent or intent of that project, but likely it is a part of litigation issues as well. Or, possibly failure analysis and or preventative measures.This is just to give you some background on them and some of the things they do. Regards, Allan
If its a company you are looking for to perform this sort of thing a quick google search will yield hundreds. And I would differ in that it is not inspection at all. You could conceivably be bringing together such diverse disciplines as design engineering analysis, metallography, microscopy, fractography, chemical analysis, fracture mechanics, fatigue analysis, and perhaps a hundred others not even occurring to me.
Jordan, I am trying to get my head round this. Are you saying you are heading up a failure investigation for your company on something like a bridge or building failure or are you are heading off back to school with this as a hypothetical school project?
JS 55 has given you the best answer. You can end up with so many experts from different fields.
On the type of failures you mentioned there is sure to be litigation. I don't know how this is done in the USA but we have in the UK guidelines from the Institute of Structural Engineers on this entitled Expert evidence- A Guide for Expert Witnesses and their Clients.
I am sure you must have the same thing in the USA.
Henry, as you are the number 1 man on this forum for tracking down information perhaps you can assist this young man.
Hi Jordan, I believe JR (Hey John!) has given you a link that looks a lot like many other links for the type of investigative folks you're interested in picking their brains, and hopefully they may educate you further regarding some of the nuances of failure analysis...
Js55 is spot on in writing what you actually need to do... Al has testified in some cases over the years so, you might want to PM and ask him for some insight also.
I'll just add these few also for you... The first one (The most informative of the bunch) gives you a preliminary description of what, Who and Why there are Failure Analysis Services and Forensic Engineering firms:
This one is rated A+ @ the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and is also very informative... The link under this one is a listing of Structural Engineering Expert Witnesses and Consultants:
I believe this should suffice Jordan... I hope these can answer some of your questions. These may be of interest to some of our own experts also. Hint - hint!
I do like this statement: "In short, serving as an expert can be very interesting and educational and enjoyable. But it won't make you rich."
WOW yea a lot of great information here. Thanks guys. Yea im just interested in getting into the field, I have some ways to go, but was looking into more information regarding this. Thank you all much for the information.
Thank you Nantong...
