As engineered products age, they fail. Such failures need to be explored and explained. This seminar gives participants the benchmark for assessing the damage endured by existing structures and how to identify potential failures.
Participants will learn the fundamentals necessary to understand and appreciate methods of investigating engineering failures. The seminar will provide an overview of potential sources and causes of engineering failures and the basis for prevention of failure. A wide range of procedures for investigating engineering failures will be described with a view to understanding product liability. Fundamental principles will be demonstrated through real world case studies.
General knowledge of science and/or engineering fundamentals. The course provides participants with an understanding of scientific and engineering investigation methods and tools to assess potential sources, causes, and solutions for prevention of failure due to natural accidents, fire, high and low speed impacts, design defects, improper selection of materials, manufacturing defects, improper service conditions, inadequate maintenance, and human error.
- Introduction to Forensic Engineering
- Root Cause Failure Analysis Methods
- Product Liability Law Fundamentals
- Accident Investigation and Failure Analysis Framework
- Materials Engineering Fundamentals/Materials Selection in Mechanical Design
- General Procedures for Failure Analysis
- Forensic Engineering Toolbox
- Case Studies in Failure of Manufactured Products
- Workplace Accidents
- Criminal Cases
- The Engineer as an Expert Witness
- Development of forensic engineering investigative knowledge to complement design engineering skills.
- Understanding the difference between engineering and legal questions associated with product liability.
- Illustration of fundamental principles using world case studies lead by course instructor.
- Knowledge of how to identify potential failures in design and operation of engineered structures.
This course is directed towards engineers of all disciplines, including practitioners in the legal profession and in the insurance industry who are concerned with product performance, product liability, and engineering claims.
University of Toronto
Dr. Doug D. Perovic, P.Eng., is a Professor and Past Chairman of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto. He has given undergraduate, graduate, and professional development courses covering a wide range of topics, including mechanical behaviour, materials engineering and design, materials characterization, forensic engineering, and failure analysis and materials in manufacturing. He developed and teaches the only university-level course on Forensic Engineering in Canada. He has led many forensic engineering investigations and provided expert witness testimony in Canadian and US Courts concerning topics such as mechanical and electronic equipment failures, biomedical device failures, environmental degradation, improper materials selection and design, vehicular collisions, and fire investigations.
Dr. Perovic often serves as a voice of the profession in the media on high profile cases. Dr. Perovic is a licensed professional engineer in Ontario, Celestica Chair in Materials for Microelectronics, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.