Understanding the complexities of structural failures, investigation and the restoration process
Structures can fail due to various factors: overloading, caused by climactic events, material deterioration, or issues during design, construction, or maintenance, is a common cause.
In this video we explore the complexities of investigating structural failures, outline the steps involved and discuss subsequent actions. Our experts provide valuable insights into the role of forensic engineers in ensuring the safety and integrity of our built environment.
Hello, and thank you for joining us today.
My name is Paul Gullekson, I’m with CEP forensic, a forensic engineering firm. Today we’re in our Ottawa office, actually our new Ottawa office, and specifically we’re in our clean lab space. Joining us today are Charly Massaad and Paul Steneker.
Hey guys. Thanks for being here. These two are structural engineers, so our discussion today is going to be on structural engineering. Let’s jump right into it with what I think is a pretty big question: what is forensic structural engineering?
Paul Steneker:
That is a big question. So why don’t we peel that back one level and say, what is a structural engineer? And we’ll do a quick brief description on it. A structural engineer’s role, really, is to help design the houses that we live in, and the buildings that we work in, and the roads and the bridges that we use to get between them. And they’ll use some pretty complicated math and some science to try to figure out how to effectively and efficiently implement those buildings. A structural forensic engineer gets involved when those things start to behave unexpectedly, and we have some potential failures occurring.
Paul Gullekson:
Okay. Why don’t we unpack that piece a little bit more? How do structures fail? And what kind of investigations are you guys seeing?
Paul Steneker:
There’s a pretty wide variety of reasons why a structure might fail, but fundamentally, it comes down to when the load exceeds the capacity of the structure. It could be from climactic events such as snow load and wind load, which is something that we’ve been seeing in the Ottawa area more frequently. It could be something like deterioration of materials. Materials do fail over time, and I think one of the biggest reasons that we don’t quite acknowledge is that building things is actually really complicated. You can have failures all along the process, whether that’s in the design phase or the construction phase, or even the handoff and implementation and maintenance phase. So, we do end up having to do a deep dive analysis on a lot of these different causes.
Paul Gullekson:
A lot of different factors to consider for sure. Okay. Why don’t we go over to Charlie. Can you walk us through your investigative process?
Charly Massaad:
The first step would always be receiving the mandate and reviewing the information that’s available. This will allow us to have a general idea of what the file is and be better equipped and have the right tools to do the inspection. While doing the inspection, the first thing that comes to mind is safety. So, we check if there are any dangers. If the structure is unstable, then we can recommend temporary shoring before we carry on with the inspection. After that we document the damage in order to determine the extent. We also take a lot of measurements that could be used in the future if there’s any repair drawings needed.
Paul Gullekson:
One type of loss that I always find quite interesting is when there’s a large collapse. Could be an agricultural building or a barn, for example, or something else. And I think it’s often related to snow. Can you kind of walk us through a snow loading analysis?
Charly Massaad:
That’s a very good topic because often snow loading failures involve a lot of forensic engineering. The first step would be to estimate or to have a general idea about what the actual load was when the structure failed. That can be done during the inspection or through reviewing weather data. After that we check the code that was applicable at the time of construction of the, let’s say for example, a roof structure, we check what it should have been designed to resist. Then we can compare the two values and make a judgement to know if the actual load exceeded what it was designed for. After that, during the inspection, we can also highlight the weak spots in the structure. And we might also notice if there’s any faulty workmanship. And this way we can determine the cause of the failure.
Paul Gullekson:
Interesting. Now, I’m thinking a lot of our viewers may have a claim in front of them that could include a structurally damaged building. So, after you’ve determined what happened, what’s next? Knock it down and start over?
Charly Massaad:
No, no, no, that’s not how it’s supposed to be handled. And to give you a brief explanation about it, we as forensic engineers, deal with a lot of damaged structures, of course. What we try to do is during the analysis, we really try to see if it is repairable, because if it’s repairable and if it’s more efficient and feasible to repair it, why knock it down? We can just repair it. And in some other cases when we can make a judgement that, okay, the extent of the damage is too broad and it can’t be repaired, then we can recommend the complete replacement.
Paul Gullekson:
So when you start to move into the design phase, that’s kind of going back to your structural engineering roots and combining forensics and design. Now you’re working with our drafting team. I presume you work with the contractors, maybe walk us through that.
Charly Massaad:
In the design phase, what we do is, and this is basically the step after the analysis, we work on the design of the drawings. We recommend the repairs. And these drawings will allow the contractor to obtain construction permits. After that we can work closely with the contractor to ensure that the project goes on smoothly and all the repairs are done according to the standards.
Paul Gullekson:
Great. Can we go back to Paul? Can you take us through a specific example related to this?
Paul Steneker:
One of the most common examples that we encounter is when we collaborate with our fire team on buildings that have been damaged by a significant fire. And so, either we come in before their inspections and start to analyse the building to see if it is safe for an investigation, or we might come in after the investigation and start to determine what is the extent of damage. You know, what exactly has to be replaced, what exactly has to be rebuilt. And then we usually fall into a repair phase of the building. Like Charly had mentioned, we’ll start to make plans for what that repair looks like and submit them for the authority having jurisdiction.
Paul Gullekson:
Excellent. I think that’s a great example as CEP Forensic is a multidisciplinary forensic engineering firm, and the collaboration between the fire team and the civil team is a really great example of that, among many others.
I think that’s all the time we have today. I appreciate you joining us today and thank you guys for walking us through the structural engineering world. Join us for our next video. If you have any questions related to this video, don’t hesitate to reach out. You can get a hold of us through our website at cep-experts.ca. Have a good day.
If you have any questions on structural failures or with respect to structural forensic investigations in general, don’t hesitate to reach out.