ABSTRACT
Aithough engineers, architects, and builders have studied failures of constructed facilities for centuries, vigorous interest in the subject has developed over the past two decades, especially in the United States. One of the reasons is the rash of spectacular collapses chat occurred in the late i970s acd early 1980s. Evidence of this expanded interest is seen in the following activities:
In 1982 the Architecti~re and Engineering Performance Information Center (AEPIG) was formed [Vannoy 19831. In 1982 the Committee on Forensic Engineering (CFE) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) was formed. In 1984 the CFE became a technical council of ASCE. Today there are eight committees of the Technical Council of Forensic Engineering (TCFE), addressing a broad scope of failure issues. In 1982 the National Academy of Forensic Engineers (NAFE) of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) was formed. TFodaj7 the M F E has over 250 members and publishes a journal (see Section 1.4.1). Since 1984 the ASCE has sponsored nationwide short courses on forensic engineering, Video-and aitdiotapes for professional education have been produced on various topics in civil forensic engineerifig.
