What Does a Forensic Engineer Do?

Investigating Failures & Improving Systems

It’s easy to hear about fatal industrial accidents when there are roughly 5,283 occurring each year. What often goes overlooked is what happens to a business, structure, process, or material after a product randomly explodes or a structure collapses due to corrosion that degrades essential load-bearing walls. When such incidents occur, forensic engineers are called in as “technical detectives” who use a variety of precision tools, equipment, and expertise to decipher what happened and who is at fault.

Unlike design engineers, who may have focused on preventing future failures through theoretical modeling, forensic engineering experts analyze actual, real-world failures in mechanical, structural, electrical, chemical, or human-driven systems. Such experts are frequently brought in as legal consultants during a court case or help insurance companies assign and allocate liability for damages. Where they do help in prevention is ensuring an incident doesn’t happen again.

At Dreiym Engineering, we have provided such forensic engineering support throughout the United States. This article is designed to explain what our experienced team does across the major engineering fields (civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, and industrial) and how these skills contribute to forensic work.

From fire investigations to forensic biomechanics and corrosion science, forensic engineering has broad applications. Teams like ours are crucial in supporting insurance adjusters, facility managers, legal professionals, and other engineers in clarifying which testing, simulations, and live-site investigations are required to gain more insight when something goes wrong, so it doesn’t happen again down the road.

What Exactly is a Forensic Engineer?

To be a forensic engineer, one must be licensed as a professional and able to apply various engineering sciences and investigative methods to determine why a structure, component, or system has suddenly failed. To be clear, forensic engineering is not a “theoretical” practice. It is heavily rooted in the practical application of measurements and tools related to fires, explosions, environmental exposure, or malfunctions. In other words, when a pipe bursts and spreads chemicals across an area, a forensic engineer is often contacted to figure out the who, what, where, why, how, and when.

The National Academy of Forensic Engineers defines the profession as “the application of the art and science of engineering in matters which are in, or may possibly relate to, the jurisprudence system, inclusive of alternative dispute resolution.” That is a fancy way of saying these experts are focused on using science and methodologies recognized by other engineers to determine answers through field inspections, labs, simulations, document reviews, interviews, and on-the-ground investigations.

In many cases, a forensic engineer is used to create better public safety. That is because such engineers must know how things should function, but also how variables like stress, corrosion, human behavior, fatigue, and improper design affect those functions.

There was a famous bridge collapse in Oakland, CA, that is a good example. The disaster occurred during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, resulting in civilian deaths and millions in damages. Forensic civil engineers were brought in to testify at the local, state, and federal levels to figure out what failed, who is at fault, and how it can be prevented in the future.

All kinds of engineering fields sit at the intersection of tech, law, and public safety. Many forensic engineers specialize in one of these fields, such as forensic electrical engineers who focus on arc faults, transformer failures, and electrical fires. There are even forensic corrosion engineers, like our team, who specialize in infrastructure settings by diagnosing cathodic protection issues, rust failures, and the long-term effects of environmental exposure.

The more litigation and system complexity, the greater the need for exceptional, highly trained forensic engineers.

What Do Forensic Engineers Do?

Understanding what a forensic engineer is largely depends on what they typically do in practice. Most of the time, such an expert conducts failure analysis to determine what went wrong, how it happened, and who is responsible. That can range from a collapsed retaining wall next to a public parking lot all the way to a faulty medical device making its way into the open marketplace.

At their core, the responsibilities of a qualified forensic engineer include:

• Collecting and preserving evidence at incident locations and sites
• Conduct non-destructive and destructive testing via approved tests like metallurgical, electrical, or chemical
• Performing required and preventative load, stress, and fatigue analysis
• Reviewing complete blueprints, maintenance logs, and control system data for insights
• Running various testing simulations or using 3D modeling with Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
• Preparing expert witness reports or testifying about processes and findings in court proceedings

The “non-destructive” aspect of testing is crucial. Forensic electrical engineering might use this process to preserve evidence of an overloaded circuit with poor surge protection that leads to a fire. Or how a buried pipeline leak leads to soil pH issues due to failed cathodic protection. There is a lot of cross-disciplinary expertise needed during a forensic investigation. Experts can pull tools and processes from determining ignition points to material analysis to the role human factors played in the incident. Everything has to matter when gathering objective data.

Forensic Engineering Fields: Major Engineering Branches & Their Subfields

The breadth of forensic engineering is just as vast as the types of incidents likely to occur. This industry is multidisciplinary in practice, drawing skills, tools, and tech from all associated fields. You cannot look at a collapsed bridge or contaminated water supply only from the angle of a forensic marine engineer or a forensic human factors engineer specialist. That is why teams are usually composed of experts deep in one field who consult with others equally experienced.

Civil & Structural Engineering

Structure issues tend to be the most visible of forensic engineering. The most famous in the U.S. were the forensic structural engineers called in to discover how the 110-story skyscrapers of the World Trade Center (Twin Towers) fell after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. It is their role to look at structural issues, foundational movement, soil instability, and material fatigue. They use a wide range of tools, from load path tracing to geotechnical analysis, and are hired worldwide as the rapid growth of human construction continues.

Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical forensics is not as visible as structural, but no less critical. When a vehicle fails or consumer products and HVAC systems stop working, a forensic mechanical engineer is called in to figure out the failure in manufacturing or if there were defective components. They use Finite element analysis, stress testing, and 3D reconstruction to evaluate failure analysis, often at the microscopic and macro levels. Those who remember the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 understand mechanical failures.

Electrical Engineering

When a forensic electrical engineer is contacted, it is likely because of an electrical fire, arc flare, power surge, or control system failure. Through electrical testing and load analysis for fault isolation, these experts help determine whether a commercial control panel has failed, whether there will be overheating, or why the lightbulbs in your home keep flickering on and off. Amazon experienced a global AWS cloud service failure due to an electrical surge, causing outages across its systems and impacting over 1,000 companies and millions of users.

Chemical & Environmental Engineering

Anytime there is a chemical release into the environment or a storage tank failure, you need a forensic chemical engineer. They are responsible for determining reaction kinetics, corrosion, and material compatibility, and for ensuring compliance with current regulatory frameworks for air, water, soil, oil, and other pollutants.

Industrial Engineering & Human Factors

This field of forensic engineering solutions looks at how people and processes interact. They study failures in automated equipment, forensic biomechanics, manufacturing systems, human-machine interfaces, and more. The goal is to study procedural audits to improve machine layout and the effectiveness of warning systems for better engineering design and workplace safety.

Materials & Corrosion Engineering

At Dreiym, we focus heavily on corrosion engineering, as many of our clients work in oil and chemical solutions in environments with high salt or variable ground pH levels. We see everything from galvanic corrosion to weld fatigue and coating breakdowns. Our job is to use accelerated aging simulations, chemical testing, and microscopic analysis to ensure proper maintenance and reduce environmental exposure that could be costly to the client.

Marine & Aerospace Engineering

Maritime transport moves over 80% of the global goods traded from country to country. Forensic marine engineers help investigate failures in ships, docks, ballast systems, and offshore rigs. They combine a blend of navigation system breakdown analysis with reliable testing and cross-disciplinary investigations, from fluid dynamics modeling to drone photography.

The list could go on and on. We use forensic engineers in cybersecurity to determine how a company was exposed to ransomware attacks. We rely on forensic petrochemical engineering to ensure oil purity following failures in refining processes. The list of experts who determine why something went wrong is almost as long as the fields themselves. Here is a small example:

• Geotechnical Engineering
• Transportation Engineering
• Water Resources Engineering
• Construction Engineering
• Urban and Regional Planning
• Thermal Engineering
• Fluid Mechanics
• Robotics
• Acoustical Engineering
• Biomechanical Engineering
• Power Systems Engineering
• Telecommunications Engineering
• Signal Processing
• Microelectronics
• Renewable Energy Systems
• Electromagnetic Engineering
• Biochemical and Biomedical Engineering
• Sustainable Engineering
• Operations Research
• Human Factors and Ergonomics
• Supply Chain and Logistics
• Safety Engineering
• Productivity and Process Optimization

How Forensic Engineers Work: Methodologies, Testing & Analysis

With so many different fields of expertise, how a forensic engineer works is just as important as their skill base and education. In most cases, forensic experts start with scene inspections, evidence preservation, testing, modeling, and the compilation of a report used by all stakeholders. The information must withstand scientific scrutiny by other experts and legal cross-examination.

At the incident site, a forensic engineering expert will document conditions (before, during, and after cleanup) using photography, videography, physical samples, and more. They follow a chain-of-custody-like process so that all evidence can be clearly documented.

When that data comes back to the lab (or sometimes in the field), a barrage of industry-accepted testing occurs. That can be FEA for stress analysis or non-destructive testing with ultrasounds and radiography. Some experts rely on BIM (building information modeling) and 3D scanning for structural failures, while others, like our team, use thermal imaging and drone photography for large-scale industrial fire investigations.

It’s important that the testing not only explains why something happened and how it could have occurred, but also outlines what to do in the future so it isn’t repeated. Forensic corrosion engineering might collaborate with materials scientists and chemists to determine why an underground pipe burst, and then recommend cathodic protection to prevent it from happening again.

The final outcome is a peer-reviewed report that legal professionals, judges, political leaders, insurance agents, and even police use to bring closure to an incident.

How Forensic Engineering Is Used

The application of forensic engineering is crucial to our society. To become an expert, people have to go through years of education and training, often pursuing master’s degrees and additional training in specific fields before being considered an authentic “expert” who can withstand peer review.

The reason for that extensive background is simple. Forensic engineers are called in as expert witnesses in courts, insurance investigations, and offer design improvement and quality control recommendations for a wide range of industries.

You cannot have someone claiming to know forensics offering advice on a product liability case or patent dispute if they do not understand the complete technical failures in accessible terms. A strong skill of engineers is conveying engineering solutions and reports to people without the same level of training (i.e., laypeople).

The global engineering services market is rapidly growing because of these in-demand skills. It was valued at $3.4 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $4.7 billion by the end of 2030. More and more executive-level professionals rely on engineers’ skills and understanding, which will only bring in more forensic experts to ensure quality control and post-incident analysis.

Challenges Faced by Forensic Engineers

Forensic engineering solutions do not exist in a bubble. Some challenges come with investigating a PC-instigated house fire or accounting for interwoven variables in a marine incident.

The biggest challenge is the tools being used. The rapid proliferation of AI and automated systems is increasing the complexity of incidents and the tools available for investigation. That is why it is crucial that forensic engineers have training from experienced mentors. Learning to distinguish between a single defect in a tool and a cascade of design oversights, poor maintenance, environmental exposure, and human error is essential to comprehensive and accurate reporting.

Forensic Engineers Do Hard Investigative Work

Attention to detail and knowledge of standards across many industries and disciplines are essential to the training and experience of a forensic electrical engineer or forensic corrosion engineer. Being able to apply scientific precision to reconstruct events and uncover causes ensures the right people or companies are held responsible for incidents that could result in financial damage and loss of human life.

Working with qualified, licensed, and experienced teams, like our forensic experts at Dreiym Engineering, is a good first step. For over 30 years, we have provided consulting and design services for electrical and cathodic systems, often applying our forensic engineering expertise to inform law firms and insurance agencies about the cause of a fire or the root issue in an industrial system.

When you want to identify what went wrong and turn evidential data into actionable insights, you need engineering solutions like Dreiym. The more interconnected disciplines and tools impact the industry, the greater the call for experienced providers who rely on knowledge and not guesswork. Contact us today to receive the specialized forensic engineering needed for electrical, lighting, corrosion, fire, and explosion incidents.

FAQs

When should you contact a forensic engineer?

Whenever there is an accident with structural failures, fires, equipment, or something similar, it’s good to call in a forensic engineer to get to the root of the cause.

What kind of evidence do forensic engineers collect?

This can range from physical evidence such as wiring and corrosion samples to digital data and environmental information. Documentation is often collected in the form of maintenance records, photos, videos, and blueprints.

Do forensic engineers need to testify in court?

It is not required, but firms like Dreiym Engineering specialize in providing reporting and testimony during legal proceedings. That means we look for future team members who can perform such duties.

What advice can you provide to engineers considering a career in forensic engineering?

Start with the fundamentals of your core discipline. Pursue additional licensing and stay current with testing processes and technologies. Learn to communicate your findings so everyone can understand and collaborate with other disciplines. Be detailed and rely on the science. Your instincts will develop over time.