Sudden structural failures can be triggered by earthquakes, storms, or other natural causes. A rare few are caused by bombs. Others, like the recent collapse of a condominium in Florida, seem to have no clear cause.

Piecing together what really happened after a collapse may take months, and it will involve engineers.

Engineers are trained to respond to failure in productive ways. They often work with multidisciplinary teams. They are experienced in sharing technical information. Engineers have the essential ability to apply math and science to a problem. That's why engineers are called on to help discover what happened when a structure fails.

A lot can change in the lifetime of a structure, particularly when it is intended to last 60, 80, or 100 years. Quality of maintenance, pattern of use, and even changing climate can create problems that could lead to catastrophic failure.

Safeguards exist to identify those kinds of problems, but they don’t always catch things in time to prevent a collapse. When calamity strikes, it’s important to determine what went wrong.

Failure analysis engineering is a unique field that specializes in determining the causes of failure. These engineers review evidence, examine and test materials, build models, and run computer simulations. They often start out as mechanical, civil, or materials engineers, but can come from any engineering discipline.

Engineers are trained to look for answers to questions like:

• “Why did this happen?”
• “Could it happen again?”
• “How could it be prevented?”

Engineers use failure analysis not only to understand tragedies, but also to prevent them. During the design process, engineers typically build prototypes – models or trial versions that can be tested. By observing and analyzing how those prototypes fail, engineers can improve the design before the final structure is even built.

That means a better, safer world for everyone.

Learn more about how engineers analyze different kinds of system failure in this interview with Dr. Catherine Corrgian. Catherine is the president and CEO of Exponent, a multi-disciplinary engineering and scientific consulting firm that brings together more than 90 different disciplines to solve engineering, science, regulatory, and business issues facing their clients.