Forensic Engineering Analysis - The Legal, The Mechanics and The Reality

Some of our more challenging work has been to create accurate simulations of systems that have gone bad or have broken in service and where the objective is not necessarily to solve a design problem but to demonstrate, in a realistic manner, how such a thing could have happened and prove it beyond a reasonable doubt to a lay audience, aka, forensic engineering for the legal profession.  We enjoy this type of work since it allows to put on our “teaching hats” and develop the simulation to not only tell a story but in such a manner that it can’t be easily torn apart by the opposing counsel.  Over the years we have simulated falling power lines, exploding pressure vessels, vehicle crashes, fatigue and fracture failures, leaky pipes in apartment buildings and high-pressure steam pipes gone bad after being buried and put in service.  Well, enough words, down below are some project imagens and a video showing some of the action.