“FORENSIC

ENGINEERING OF
CONCRETE
STRUCTURES”
_ Rohit Madke(48)
FORENSIC: • Forensic:
• Scientific tests or techniques
used in the investigation of
crimes and evidence such as
poison etc.
• Forensic engineering:
• Forensic engineering includes
the investigation of the physical
or technical causes of accidents
and failures, quality analysis,
failure analysis and root cause
analysis.
Quality
• Quality Assurance:
assurance: • It is defined by ISO 9000:2000&14000 as
“providing confidence that requirements
will be met”.
• Quality assurance includes quality control.
Quality assurance in construction
activities guides the
• Use of correct structural design,
specifications
• Proper materials ensuring that the
quality of workmanship
• Finally, maintaining the structure after
the construction is complete through
periodic assessments for maintenance
and repairs.
 Now a days , combined FEQA
program is developed to take Quality
FEQA: Assurance to another level.
FEQA:
Means : “Forensic Engineering /
Quality Assurance”
In this both the aspects are considered.

*Combining these FEQA program ;it

not only examine procedures for
providing top quality constructions &
repairs ;

*But also also look at the cause of

failure improve their operations and
increase Service life.
Forensic • The forensic engineer is a specialist who
Engineer: applies the knowledge and skills of
engineering.
Must possess:
• PROFESSIONAL LICENCE
• PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION
• PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
• FIELDS OF EXPERTISE:
eg:
accident/ investigation;
construction/reconstruction;
Safety Standards/Regulations;
Product Safety Evaluation;
Building Codes, etc.
INVESTIGATION:
This involves
*Quality inspections
*collecting evidence
*measurements
*developing models
exemplar products
And
*performing
experiments.
ANALYSIS:
*Failure mode effect analysis:
(FMEA)
)
*Fault tree analysis (FTA) :

analytical approach: When • also known as “cause-and-effect

considering possible failures in
a design – like safety, cost,
performance, quality and
reliability.
analysis”
• Failure analysis in which an
undesired state of a system is
analyzed.
“FORENSIC
ENGINEERING IN
STRUCTURAL • In the pursuit of novelty(quality) and
DESIGN AND innovation(new techniques)
CONSTRUCTION” - even basic principles of sound structural
design and good construction practice are
often violated, leading to failures.
CAUSES OF FAILURES :
* Ignorance, carelessness, negligence
* Forgetfulness, errors, mistakes
* Reliance upon others without sufficient
control
* Underestimation of influences
* Insufficient knowledge
* Objectively unknown situations
(unimagined?)
* Others
• Type of errors in design/planning

• In damaged structures, the types of errors in design

and planning are as follows:
• Conceptual errors
• Structural analysis
• Drawings and specifications
• Work planning and preparation
• Combinations
• Physical evidence
• Physical evidence includes, but is not limited to, the
following:
• Condition of site
• Condition of work environment
• Condition of machinery and equipment
• Condition of materials
• Permits to Work, Safe Work Procedures
• Supervisors’ and signalmen’s forms
 • Failure need not always mean that a structure
collapses.
• It can make a structure deficient or
TYPES OF FAILURES:
• dysfunctional in usage.
• It may even cause secondary adverse effects.
• (a) Safety failure-
Injury, death, or even risk to people.
• (b) Functional failure – Compromise of
intended usage.
• (c) Ancillary failure –
Adverse affect on schedules, cost, or use.
Recommendations:
• Win or lose, and whether root causes for the
accident can be found or not, the investigator
• should come up with improvements to the
safety management system
Forensic engineering of fire-damaged structures:
• Even after a severe fire, structures are often capable of being
repaired rather than demolished.
The effect of fire on concrete structures:
• For temperatures up to 300°C, the residual compressive strength
of structural quality concrete is not significantly reduced
• while for temperatures greater than 500°C the residual strength
may be reduced to only a small fraction of its original value.
• The effect of high temperature is more critical on prestressing
steel than on reinforcing steel.
• The assessment process determine the following:
• · Depth of damage (spalling) or loss in strength of the concrete.
• · Loss in strength of steel reinforcement or embedded structural
steel elements.
• · Damage or distress to the structure from movement, settlement
or imposed loads.
View of the interior of fire-damaged reinforced
concrete structure :
Methodologies of assessment:
• The assessment can follow the two methodologies:
1.) Test the fire damaged concrete to directly assess the concrete quality. Typically
involving:
• · Visual inspection and hammer soundings.
• · Nondestructive testing.
• · Coring, sampling and subsequent laboratory testing.
2.) Estimate the fire severity so as to deduce temperature profiles and hence to
calculate the
• residual strength of the concrete and the reinforcement. Typically involving:
• · Evaluation of fire severity – This can be performed based on debris examination or
• applying numerical evaluation methods, such as computational fluid dynamics.
• · Determination of temperature profiles
• This may be performed by applying numerical methods or simpler calculation
techniques.
• · Assessment of residual strength of the concrete.
NON DESTRUCTIVE TESTING TECHNIQUES:
“We learn more
from buildings
that fall down
than from
buildings that
stand up.”
 As engineering professionals, or as
individuals in every day life, it is important
to learn from your mistakes and the
mistakes of others, and to not repeat them.
REFERENCES:
• Wikipedia
• ASCE online journals.
• Forensic Engineering investigations
• Forensic materials
• Concrete technology – M S Shetty.
THANK YOU.