Join your peers for the next SEI Houston Chapter Luncheon Technical Session:
“Interpreting Explosion Damage: What Structural Response Reveals About Blast Loading and Failure Mechanisms”

When an explosion occurs, the resulting damage can offer valuable clues about the forces involved—but the evidence is not always straightforward. Using real-world forensic investigations, this presentation examines how structural response and damage patterns can be used to evaluate blast effects, understand failure progression, and reconstruct key aspects of an event.
Case studies will illustrate the interpretation of physical evidence, the distinction between blast- and fire-related damage, and the challenges of drawing reliable conclusions from complex damage patterns. The discussion will highlight practical lessons from forensic engineering investigations and their application to assessing building performance following explosion events.

Speaker: Akansha Khandelwal PE, CFEI
Akansha Khandelwal is a Senior Consultant and Team Leader with Engineering Systems Inc. (ESI). She specializes in forensic structural engineering, fire and explosion investigations, and structural performance assessments following catastrophic events. With more than 15 years of experience, she has investigated building failures, explosion and fire damage, construction incidents, and extreme-weather-related losses. Her work focuses on interpreting structural response and damage patterns to understand failure progression, reconstruct incident events, and evaluate building performance under extreme loading conditions. She is a licensed Professional Engineer in Texas and a Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator.