Electrical Failure Analysis
By Forensic Engineering Firm, McDowell Owens
• Post-Fire Electrical Analysis
• Equipment Failure Investigation
• Equipment & System Testing
In our “wired” world, nearly any fire or explosion will impact electrical systems or devices. The important question is: Was an electrical system’s failure the cause of an incident? Or did the fire impair the electrical system?
In many cases, electrical systems and components are not only involved with the causes of fire, but often result in property loss and/or personal injury or even death. What happened? Why?
Whether at the incident site or from our state-of-the-art laboratories or both, McDowell Owens’ engineers conduct an array of electrical tests to get to the answers, including those involving:
- High-voltage networks
- Vehicle electrical systems
- Electrical systems in heavy industrial equipment
- Basic electrical appliances
- Lightning strike analysis
- Circuit breakers and computer equipment
In addition, our electrical experts address equipment overloads, component or circuitry failures and lightning-related failures that result in personal injury or fire. Post-fire analysis often is combined with tests conducted in our Kingwood (Houston) laboratory, which houses a three-phase, 480-volt, 200-amp system with the capability of full-scale testing of any single or three-phase system up to 2,000 amps.
Testing includes:
- Circuit breakers and trip relays including Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters (GFCIs) and switch gears
- Current over-load tests simulating power surges to determine location, type and cause of failure as well as temperature limits and points of degradation
- Micro-circuit analysis including computer boards, circuit boards, chips and other specialty equipment
- Motor testing of single and three-phase motors to determine and analyze performance and output for proper operation
When you need the expertise of forensic engineers to investigate an electrical failure, contact McDowell Owens at (281) 358-2876 or complete our contact form.