Forensic Engineering-The Key for Revamping Existing Structures

Besides the traditional field of forensic engineering, “The investigation of failures-ranging from serviceability to catastrophic-which may lead to legal activity both civil and criminal” the necessity of revamping and reusing existing structures opens up a new and extremely challenging field of activities for forensic engineers. Determining structural properties, defining mechanical transfer functions, and assessing the structural capabilities can be done only successfully when using well-known and throughout the community of forensic engineers established investigation strategies. This paper will exemplify the adoption of forensic engineering procedures for this purpose, such as extensive material testing, identification of load paths, sensitivity analyses, investigation of the real load-patterns, etc., by referring to two recently accomplished projects: the retrofitting of the roof of the Olympic Complex in Munich, a more than 50-year-old cable-grid structure, and the revamping of the pre-stressed concrete structure of Munich’s City Centre Tunnel.