Mechanical Electrical Engineer Expert Witness

EDUCATION:

M.S., Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, 1972
B.E. Mechanical Engineering, University of Madras, 1970
Completed courses and exams towards Ph D in Engineering at UCLA, 1975 Specializing in Electrical, Nuclear and Earthquake(ad-hoc) Engineering

SPECIALIZATION:

Failure and Root-Cause Analysis
System Evaluation
Accident Evaluation
Operations & Maintenance
Safety & Hazard analyses
Design Reviews and Verification
Forensic Engineering

WORK HISTORY:

Expert’s own LLC – President/Partner, ’87- Present
EQE Incorporated – Associate ’85- ’87
Los Alamos Technical Associates, Inc (LATA) -Senior Staff Engineer ’82- ’85
Engineering Decision Analysis Company (EDAC) -Project Manager 78- 82
Wyle Laboratories – Supervising Engineer ’76- ’78
ANCO Engineers, Inc. – Project Engineer ’71- ’76
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) – Research Assistant ’70- ’74

PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES and COMMITTEES:

Registered Professional Engineer (PE), California; Certified Plant Engineer (CPE)
Fellow–National Academy of Forensic Engineers (NAFE) and board Certified Diplomate in Forensic Engineering by NAFE.
Committee member — NAFE Publications & Incident Evaluation and Co-Chairman of Presentation/Seminars. Served in IEEE Test Lab Accreditation (SC2/WG 2.6); IEEE-Std-323 and 344 (reviewer of other Standards such as 101), Panel of ASME-EEP-11 (Effects of Vibration on Electronic Packaging) at the Winter Annual Meeting, California, 1986, Electrical Section of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and as an assistant to an Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Project Manager, edited/reviewed and contributed to many research reports in the areas of plant equipment performance & qualification including Equipment Qualification (Design/Performance Verification/Validation), Aging of Materials in Harsh and Mild environment, and Radiation.
Member –American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), Association for Facilities Engineers (AFE), National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) , Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and others. Who’s Who in California, West & USA, and Leading US Business Executive.

EXPERIENCE:

Expert has over 45 years of multi-disciplinary engineering experience in mechanical, electrical, maintenance, systems, and plant engineering fields. Applying his education and experience, he has analyzed and solved complex problems in the real world. He has been involved in failure analyses and engineering evaluation projects at the rate of 200 in the recent years and has completed over 1000 in the last five years. He has published and presented over 35 articles in professional journals and conferences. In addition, he has presented/conducted numerous workshops for the Fire Departments and Task Forces in California and other states.
Expert has served as an Engineering Expert in incident and accident investigations- cause(s) determinations. He has performed numerous failure-cause analyses and has testified as an Expert in electrical and mechanical engineering fields. Examples of failure analyses projects include but not limited to: auto electrical systems, coffee-makers, computer and peripheral systems, control-panels, electric motors, electrical heaters (fixed, portable), electrical panels and panel-boards, electrical wiring systems, gas appliances (water, space), halogen lamps, instant water heaters, microwaves, ovens, refrigerators, sauna-heaters, electro-plating systems, stereos, toaster-ovens, toasters, vacuums, dust collection systems, control systems, CNC, and oil/hydraulic machines; failures and explosions in Natural and LP gas systems. Has investigated and testified in incidents/accidents of electrical system and sub-subsystems, failure analysis and water flood/leaks. He has performed failure analysis of mechanical systems (pumps, RO and Softeners, Gas-Train/Distribution) and components (hoses, filters, fittings, tanks/cylinders, valves).
He has conducted 1000s of field inspections, examinations, and tests of mechanical and electrical equipment that were located within the origin. The failure analyses and root-cause determination projects were supported by analytical and laboratory experiments. His experience includes analytical (computer) modeling of fire-scenes using FPETOOL, Hazard I, CFAST and FDS (NBS-NIST Developed programs) and has testified in court. He has used other analytical analysis in combination with physical tests including finite element analysis (modeling) for mechanical accidents/evaluations.

Selected PUBLICATIONS, PRESENTATIONS, SEMINARS/WORKSHOPS:

Available on full CV