SYNOPSIS

Engineering design philosophies are intended to culminate in constructions that do not fail. But occasionally constructed works do suffer failure. When a failure occurs, a forensic investigation is invariably instituted with the single objective of determining why the failure took place.
Findings from forensic investigations are of great importance to society, so they have to conclude correctly. They would be particularly imperative for the formulation of repairs to damaged facilities, identification of relevant deficiencies in the body of knowledge in engineering design or construction processes that had led to the failures and, finally, apportionment of responsibilities and liabilities in litigations resulting from failure events.
In the talk, 2 failure events are employed to illustrate the importance of satisfying mechanistic fundamentals to validate the concluded cause for the failures.

PROFILE OF SPEAKER  

Ir. Yee graduated in civil engineering from the University of Malaya in 1978 and has over the years worked on projects largely involving heavy plant and building foundations as well as large infrastructures. He had also carried out numerous work on distress evaluations and rehabilitation engineering. In 1994, Ir. Yee set up his own practice, Geo.Consult, to support the construction industry with both expert and specialist advice; in particular on geotechnical engineering aspects. His participation in recent projects of significance are the Kuching Deep Water Port, Shah Alam Expressway, North-South Expressway, Kuantan Port Inner Harbour Development, Kuantan-Kertih Railway and the Rawang-Ipoh Double Tracking Railway. He has authored/co-authored more than a dozen technical papers in local and international conferences and is an expert witness and accredited checker registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia for the design of geotechnical engineering works. Ir. Yee is the Chairman of the Geotechnical Engineering Technical Division of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia for Session 2014/2015.