Assessment of Damage to Structures and Equipment Resulting from Explosion, Fire, and Heat Events

Matthew Edel, PE, CFEI

Mr. Edel is a member of BakerRisk’s Protective Structures Group. His work focuses on impulsive and conventional loading of structures for industrial and government applications. This has primarily included analysis and design of new and existing buildings, blast-resistant upgrade designs, hazard containment enclosures, and federal building and airport evaluations and site planning. He has performed siting studies for various petrochemical plants to determine the response of structural components and systems to blast loads.

Dan Benac, PE, CFEI, ASM Fellow

Mr. Benac is a member of BakerRisk’s Materials Engineering Group. His work focuses on structural integrity and material issues, failure analysis of plant equipment, materials evaluations, and materials selection for designs. Mr. Benac has conducted hundreds of in-depth investigations and analyses of service failures and mishaps for a variety of structures for the nuclear, refining, petrochemical, and fossil-power industries. He currently supports the investigation of equipment such as pipelines, rotor shafts, valves, pumps, diesel-engine components, heat exchangers, reactor vessels, piping, compressor, and turbine blades and disks.

Mr. Benac has co-authored fifty peer-reviewed technical papers related to equipment reliability. Mr. Benac also serves as program manager for the global Ammonia & Fertilizer Joint Industry Program and subject matter expert on damage mechanisms and mitigation options for ammonia and fertilizer equipment.

Michael Lowak

Mr. Lowak is a member of BakerRisk’s Testing Group. He has 20 years of professional experience, with a focus on the design and evaluation of structures subjected to impulsive loadings. His dynamic testing efforts include research and developmental testing, as well as proof testing of structural components and systems loaded by dynamic loadings. Mr. Lowak also provides structural analysis consulting for blast resistant structures with specialty in blast resistant glazing systems and doors.