Engineering Standards For Forensic Application

Engineering Standards for Forensic Application presents the technologies and law precedents for the application of engineering standards to forensic opinions, discussing Fundamentals, Disciplines, Engineering Standards, The Basics and the Future of Forensics. The book explores the engineering standard and how it is used by experts to give opinions that are introduced into evidence, and how they are assumed to be the best evidence known on the topic at hand. Final sections include coverage of NFL Brain Injuries and the Flint Water Crisis. Examples of the use of engineering standards are shown and discussed throughout the work. Addresses a wide variety of forensic engineering areas, including relevant law Provides a new approach of study that includes the work of both engineers and litigators Contains contributions from over 40 experts, offering the reader examples of general forensic methods that are based on reliable engineering practice

This book serves as an introductory text to the forensic civil engineering discipline and provides guidelines for carrying out the practice in an effective (and ethical) manner.

Sponsored by the Forensic Engineering Practice Committee of the Technical Council on Forensic Engineering of ASCE. This report provides the fundamentals of developing a practice that includes forensic engineering. Within the broad field of civil engineering, forensic engineering involves the investigation of performance, difficulties, or failures of buildings, structures, pipelines, foundations, airplanes, manufacturing equipment, vehicles, bridges, flood control facilities, and other engineered products. This report covers five general topics important to the practice of forensic engineering. "Qualifications" addresses commonly accepted education and experience requirements for forensic engineers. Various aspects of federal and state law are cited with an expanded section on admissibility. and disqualifications are discussed. "Investigations" shows the typical aspects of physically carrying out a forensic investigation, such as the handling of evidence for subsequent courtroom presentation. "Ethics" fulfills a professional charge to promulgate guidelines for ethical behavior of the forensic engineer. "Legal" gives a brief overview of the court system as it applies to the construction industry, including the role of the forensic engineer as an expert witness. "Business" describes the nontechnical management side of forensic engineering practices; the marketing of forensic engineering services within an acceptable ethical scheme is encouraged.

Forensic Engineering Investigation is a compendium of the investigative methodologies used by engineers and scientific investigators to evaluate some of the more common types of failures and catastrophic events. In essence, the book provides analyses and methods for determining how an entity was damaged and when that damage may have legal consequen

Forensic engineers often specialize in a particular area such as structures, fires, or accident reconstruction. However, the nature of the work often requires broad knowledge in the interrelated areas of physics, chemistry, biomechanics, and engineering. Covering cases as varied as assessment of workplace accidents to the investigation of Halliburton in the BP oil spill, Forensic Engineering Fundamentals is a comprehensive introduction to the many diverse facets of the field that forensic engineers must be familiar with in their practice. Topics include The role of the forensic engineer Structures, structural distress, and the importance of standards and codes The failure of appliances—the cause of many water- or fire-related losses Slips, trips, and falls of pedestrians and the accessibility of walking surfaces Industrial incidents involving loss of equipment, injury and loss of life, as well as OSHA and MSHA regulations Standard accident reconstruction involving vehicles Electrical incidents and lightning and the effect of electrical energy on the human body Analysis of fires with an emphasis on thermodynamics, testing, and simulation Carbon monoxide incidents and common fire suppression and warning systems, as well as the various NFPA codes Probability and uncertainty, with some basic calculations available to the forensic engineer Applicable standards and protocols that have developed over the years to protect life and property Offering readers real-world experience drawn from the authors’ 25 years of experience, this volume assists newcomers to the field in understanding the engineering basics underlying the cases they will encounter in their practice. It also serves as a reliable reference for those confronted with issues outside their area of expertise.

Forensic engineering is generally defined as the application of engineering principles and methodology to answer questions of fact that may have legal ramifications. This new book provides an introduction to the science, methodology, and engineering principles involved in the diagnosis of some common types of accidents and failures, such as fires, explosions, automobile accidents, storm damage, industrial accidents, slips and falls, arson, water pipe damage and more. Each chapter stands alone and can be read without reference to the others. The chapters have been written so that non-technical professionals can easily digest the information and immediately apply it. The book will also be useful to technical professionals who are unfamiliar with particular investigative methodology or technical points of interest. Introduction to Forensic Engineering will benefit lawyers, insurance investigators, engineers, and other professionals who must handle investigative and legal aspects of accidents or failures.

A comprehensive resource that builds a bridge between engineering disciplines and the building sciences and trades, Forensic Engineering: Damage Assessments for Residential and Commercial Structures provides an extensive look into the world of forensic engineering. With a focus on investigations associated with insurance industry claims, the book describes methodologies for performing insurance-related investigations including the causation and origin of damage to residential and commercial structures and/or unhealthy interior environments and adverse effects on the occupants of these structures. Edited by an industry expert with more than 30 years of experience, and authors with more than 100 years of experience in the field, the book takes the technical aspects of engineering and scientific principles and applies them to real-world issues in a non-technical manner. It provides readers with the experiences, investigation methodologies, and investigation protocols used in, and derived from completing thousands of forensic engineering investigations. It begins with providing a baseline methodology for completing forensic investigations and closes with advice on testifying as an expert witness. Much of what must be known in this field is not learned in school, but is based upon experience since recognizing the cause of a building system failure requires a blending of skills from the white collar and blue collar worlds. Such knowledge can be vital since failures (e.g., water entry) often result from construction activities completed out of sequence.. This book details proven methodologies based on over 7,000 field investigations, methodologies which can be followed by both professionals and laymen alike.

This proceedings contains 82 papers presented at the 5th ASCE Forensic Engineering Congress, held in Washington, D.C., November 11 14, 2009. The conference was sponsored by the ASCE Technical Council on Forensic Engineering whose mission is to develop practices and procedures to reduce the number of failures, to disseminate information on failures, and to provide guidelines for conducting failure investigations and for ethical conduct. Forensic Engineering 2009: Pathology of the Built Environment includes papers that examine case studies, investigation approach and methodology, expert witnessing, ethics, standard of care, non-destructive evaluation, and education in forensic engineering. This book will be valuable to engineers, professionals, researchers, educators, and students involved in forensic engineering.