Briefing: Activities by IABSE WG8 (Forensic Structural Engineering)

A working group on forensic engineering (WG8) was established within the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) in 2011. This working group aims to mitigate structural failures and improve forensic engineering practices. To accomplish this goal, several activities were organised such as an international survey among 48 countries to compare forensic engineering practices. Furthermore, several interesting forensic engineering sessions were organised at IABSE conferences with various presentations. Moreover, a pre-conference short course focusing on various types of failures and the process of forensic investigation was well received. It appears that there is great interest in forensic structural engineering both from practitioners and from researchers. This briefing article describes the activities of WG8 in detail.