The intensive and long-lasting seismic shaking during the 2011 great east Japan earthquake left enormous amounts of scars on the ground surfaces and inflicted damage to private houses, buildings and constructed infrastructure. Many of the ground failures were associated with subsurface soil liquefaction. Forensic field investigations were conducted at one of the illustrative sites with the help of field penetration tests. The site is a road embankment over a reclaimed soil deposit located at the foot of a steep cliff along the coast of Hitachinaka city. Road pavements were broken, subsided from portion to portion and failed to perform their traffic-bearing function. Upheavals were observed on the ground surface further from the foot of the road embankment, over which liquefied subsurface soil erupted, and a nearby seafood factory was damaged. It was evident from depth-wise profiles of penetration tests that slip failures had taken place involving part of the road embankment underlain by the liquefied, loose, reclaimed soil deposit. The effect of a soft reclaimed soil deposit bounded by a stiff steep cliff and an underlying stiff mudstone layer at the site is discussed.

Construction equipment and operations generate ground vibrations that can affect adjacent and remote structures, and vibration effects range from disturbance of working conditions for sensitive devices and processes to reduction of structure serviceability and durability. Forensic engineering analysis of construction vibrations includes assessment of construction dynamic sources and their energy; soil contribution to wave propagation and soil deformations; evaluation of different structural responses to ground vibrations such as direct vibration effects on structures, resonant structural vibrations, resonant soil layer vibrations and dynamic settlement; condition surveys of structures that are imperative and contain complete information on structural responses and damage from vibration excitations; mitigation measures to prevent vibration effects; calculation of ground vibrations before construction; and appropriate assessment of measured vibrations. Detrimental soil vibrations and structural damage from construction sources can be prevented.

One of the most common complaints about buildings is water leakage through the building envelope. A well-planned investigation can efficiently uncover the root causes of water leaks, a critical step in designing effective repairs. Defining the problem and understanding the ultimate deliverable are necessary to performing an effective investigation. Keeping the owner and occupants informed throughout the process is important during investigations that can take weeks or months, depending on the extent of problems and number of buildings involved. In litigation situations, coordination with other parties is also required. Visual surveys are an important first step in establishing locations for detailed testing. Water penetration testing, in accordance with industry standards, is a useful tool in diagnosing causes of leaks. Investigative openings show as-built construction, condition of building components and leakage paths. Synthesising and reporting the data from a large-scale investigation can involve spreadsheets, graphical displays on building drawings and sketches showing precise leak paths.

Over 100 buildings were examined which had damage or indications of distress due to an unusual accumulation of snow in north-eastern USA during the winter of 2010–2011. Approximately 40 of those buildings had a partial or total collapse. Records of the amount of snow that accumulated on roofs in the region were collected and compared to snow-load requirements in building codes over the past few decades. Buildings were evaluated and causes for distress identified, as well as emergency actions that needed to be taken when appropriate, mitigation strategies and repair concepts and repair documents when necessary. This paper explores the snow loading environment of the 2011 winter in north-east USA, describes three case studies with financial costs due to roof deflection, and provides recommendations for designers, building owners and occupants on how to minimise such collateral costs under similar circumstances.

Forensic engineering is a critical and unique discipline in the engineering field. However, courses on forensic engineering are not widely offered and a complete forensic engineering curriculum is almost non-existent in the USA. Most existing forensic engineering courses are offered in a failure analysis studio format, where investigation techniques are taught, or as part of a forensic practice lecture series where information about case studies is disseminated along with discussions on ethics and jurisprudential issues. Conventional wisdom suggests that due to the specialised nature of forensic engineering it should be offered in a postgraduate curriculum. However, citing lessons learned from other forensic-related disciplines, this paper recommends that forensic engineering develop a broader base that includes system engineering, inverse problem-solving and research methodology, and should be better integrated into a college curriculum that can include both graduate and undergraduate studies.