Instructors
John F. Duntemann, PE, SE Wiss Janney Elstner, Associates, USA
Laurent Rus, Ing PE, Dipl EPFL, MSc, Singular Structures Engineering, Spain
Svein Erik Jakobsen, (Norway)
Matias Valenzuela (Chile)

Date: September 23, 2024
Location: CFIA, San José, Costa Rica
Colegio Federado de Ingenieros y Arquitectos

Background to the Workshop:
Failures of structures occur in all parts of the world as the result of design errors, construction defects, abuse or misuse, lack of maintenance, aging and deterioration, as well as environmental effects such as wind, flood, snow, earthquakes and, of course, human error. They can result in heavy financial losses to all involved, catastrophic human costs, expensive delays and repairs, as well as other repercussions, including to the responsible parties.

“Welcome” effects of these unfortunate events include better understanding of the origins and causes of structural failures, lessons learned from them, and more effective mitigation of their occurrence through changes in codes, standards and practices.

In several countries the investigation of the causes of failures, responsibilities and resolution of the consequent claims have created an active, demanding and rewarding field of professional practice–often referred to as Forensic Structural Engineering–with well‐defined technical and legal procedures.

IABSE Working Group 8 on Forensic Structural Engineering was formed in 2011. It aims to examine failures, improve the professional practice of forensic structural engineering, facilitate the dissemination failure information, and ultimately to enhance the mitigation of failures by improved structural design and construction practices throughout the world. This course was designed and the lecturers selected with those aims in mind.

Objectives:
The primary objective of the workshop is to provide understanding of the origins, causes and consequences of failures, the lessons learned from them, and thereby to improve design practices and elevate the standard‐of‐care – all to mitigate errors that may lead to failures and liabilities of engineers. Secondary objectives are brief introductions to the “first steps” after a failure and an outline of the forensic investigation process “after the dust settled”.

Target audience:
The workshop is aimed at a range of structural engineers: young, mid‐career and experienced who want to acquire better understanding of failures towards improving their design, inspection, construction, administrative and other project‐related practices to avoid pitfalls that may lead to failures. It is also informative to those wanting to acquire a working knowledge of, and embark on, the challenging and rewarding professional practice of forensic structural engineering.

The workshop will address:

• The understanding of structural failures, their origins, causes and consequences.
• The first steps after a failure, and the investigation process
• Cases, causes and lessons learned from failures in buildings, bridges, other permanent structures, and temporary structures in construction.
• Using the lessons learned for mitigating failures by meeting the standard‐of‐care, recognizing opportunities of catching design errors and construction defects, and affecting changes in codes & practices.
• Mitigating engineers’ liability and keeping out of trouble.

The workshop will close with a “working session” in which the attendees will debate the reports, causes, responsibilities and lessons from selected cases of actual failures – the reports will have been sent to registrants for review ahead of the workshop.

Reference material:
Each attendee will receive a bound volume of documents that will include PDFs of over 400 PowerPoint slides of the speakers’ presentations, and reprints of several journal articles for references.

Speakers:

John F. Duntemann, P.E., S.E., is a Senior Principal at Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. in Northbrook, Illinois, USA. He is a licensed structural engineer with over 35 years of experience. He is primarily engaged in the analysis and rehabilitation of existing structures, and specializes in the assessment of structural distress and serviceability problems. He has published and lectured extensively on the performance of structures, structural failures, the rehabilitation of structures, and design codes and standards. He is a member of IABSE and past Chair of Task Group 5.1 (formerly Working Group 8) Forensic Engineering and serves on the Outstanding Structure Award (OStrA) Committee. He is also a member of the American Society of Engineers (ASCE) Standard Committee for Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures (ASCE 7) and a contributing author to the Forensic Structural Engineering Handbook, 2nd edition, published by McGraw-Hill.

Laurent Rus, Ing PE, Dipl EPFL, MSc, earned his Civil Engineering Diploma from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland) in 1995, followed by a Master of Science in Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Materials from the University of California, Berkeley (USA) in 1998. As CEO at Singular Structures Engineering, he combines private practice in bridge structural engineering with a devoted knowledge sharing work at IABSE (International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering) based in Switzerland. He is an IABSE Fellow, member of the Editorial Board of the Structural Engineering International (SEI) Journal, Vice-Chair of the Task Group (TG) 5.1 on Forensic Structural Engineering, and recently appointed member of the IABSE Academy for the development of Existing Structure Assessment and Forensic Structural Engineering Curricula.

Svein Erik Jakobsen, is a fellow IABSE member with 40 years experience in design of marine structures and bridges in the Norwegian consulting company Aas-Jakobsen. His reference projects involve all kinds of bridges both domestic and internationally, his marine structures being mainly floating structures and concrete platforms.

Matias A. Valenzuela, is Vice President of IABSE and chair of IABSE Chile. P.E. with 17 years experience in design and construction of transport infrastructure focus on cable supported bridges and heritage structures in the Ministry of Public Works of Chile and Consultant companies. Currently, full professor and Head of Civil Construction engineering at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile.His reference research projects involve performance indicators applied on infrastructures, BMS, BIM and damage due to climate change.

Acknowledgements: This will be the seventh Forensic Structural Engineering Workshop presented in conjunction with the annual IABSE Congress or Symposium. The previous workshops were presented in New Delhi, New York, Nantes, Vancouver, Stockholm, and Geneva. This workshop was envisioned and developed by Dr. Robert Ratay, the first chair of the IABSE Task Group 5.1, Forensic Structural Engineering (formerly Working Group 8).