Dennis Turriff

MEA Forensic Engineers & Scientists - Failure Analysis Expert of the Year

Profile

Dr. Dennis Turriff is a senior engineer, and leads MEA Forensic’s Failure Analysis group in Toronto. His background in both materials science and mechanical engineering help him isolate the root cause of failure in a wide variety of incidents involving vehicles, industrial equipment, consumer products, plumbing, fire protection systems and medical devices.

Dennis has a Bachelor’s degree and a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, with a specialization in Materials Science, from the University of Waterloo. His PhD work focused on novel soldering processes and brazing of steel and aluminum automotive alloys. He continues to use the same tools in his case work and to investigate failures of metallic and plastic components.

Identifying the cause of a failure often starts with a close examination of the physical evidence. Dennis uses optical, digital, and scanning electron microscopes to observe minute features on fracture surfaces that can identify overload failures versus progressive failure modes like fatigue and corrosion. Metallurgical analysis and fractography are used regularly to find materials defects. Dennis also relies on his mechanical engineering background if mechanical testing or analysis of forces, stresses, and strains is required for a complete understanding of the circumstances leading to a failure. The end goal of the analysis is to isolate root causes related to use, maintenance, installation, manufacture, or design.

Dennis is registered as a Professional Engineer in Ontario and is a certified fire and explosion investigator. He has testified as an expert in court.