Site Investigation & Inspection

Site investigation and inspection are vital processes in fields such as construction, engineering, and environmental science. They involve systematic assessments of physical locations to gather essential information for planning, design, compliance, and safety purposes.

Site investigations can be conducted independently or complementarily as part of a forensic investigation. In failure of large systems or facilities, it is oftentimes beneficial to engage an expert to have an overview of the failure, establish the initiating site of failure and identify the relevant equipment/components for detailed laboratory analysis, if required.

Quite often, the ultimate component that failed may not be the part which provides the evidence on the root cause of the failure. For example, laboratory examination of a fractured shaft provided by the client may only lead to identification of the failure mechanism – for instance, fatigue – but not the cause. The root cause may instead be due to pre-existing damage or failures in other associated components such as the gear assembly or bearings, which a site investigation would have helped to identify.

Depending on the complexity and scope of the case, a site investigation alone is sometimes sufficient to establish the initiating site/component, mechanism and cause of the failure. However, this may be supplemented with detailed analysis of representative samples in our in-house laboratory, if deemed critical to the investigation.

Our Expertise:

We have a unique advantage in providing holistic forensic engineering and site investigation services as our experts have extensive experience in condition assessment and failure analysis work. This gives us the expertise to approach site investigations with a macro-perspective (i.e. pipeline, structural and process systems, stress distribution, etc) and a micro-perspective (i.e. materials, welding or corrosion related damage, etc), and thus the capability to establish the root cause of failure accurately and comprehensively.