Hawkins’ Busy October
After months of working from home, it was a very pleasant change of pace for the Hawkins’ Marketing Team and some of our forensic investigators, to attend traditional, in-person events during the month of October.
After months of working from home, it was a very pleasant change of pace for the Hawkins’ Marketing Team and some of our forensic investigators, to attend traditional, in-person events during the month of October.
Hawkins would like to announce our new offering of Forensic Architecture services, as well as the joining of both Sam Morley and Alastair Ferguson as Senior Associates within the company.
The process of turning mechanical energy into electrical power is pretty fascinating. You may remember turning a magnet near a coil and seeing a light bulb illuminate at school? In practice, power generation in the real world is fairly similar; an electromagnet is spun by a turbine (through wind, water, steam or a combustion engine) and power is produced. In practice, this electro-magnet may be over 100 tonnes, spinning at 3000 times a minute within a stationary coil weighing hundreds of tonnes. The largest generators being manufactured at the moment are rated in excess of 1.5 GW (gigawatts, or billion watts – enough to power three million UK homes). Whether being driven by wind, water steam or gas turbines, all generators are made of the same parts.
An exploding egg-speriment. Don’t try this at home! Our team includes chemists and forensic engineers who are highly trained and skilled in dealing with flammable items and the necessary safety precautions.
It is widely reported that climate change will result in an increased flood risk in the UK, with wetter winters and more intense summer thunderstorms.
Everyone knows what an explosion is, but what about its opposite, an implosion? An explosion occurs when a large amount of energy is released into a small volume in a very short time, but what happens in an implosion? Put simply, an implosion is the opposite of an explosion, matter and energy collapse inward and all implosions are caused by some form of pressure acting from the outside on an object. If that pressure is greater than the pressure within the object, without adequate support, the object will collapse. This is a real risk in process industries (and submarines!).
Sometimes building owners, asset managers or maintenance teams have to face a harsh reality when it comes to managing, maintaining and monitoring their assets. For example, what if a Housing Association has discovered cracking in the render of the external wall insulation system on some of their 1000+ properties? If the cracking is caught at an early stage, it could be easy and inexpensive to repair, but if left exposed to the elements unchecked, the repair bills could be costly. A different example could be a portfolio manager who has just acquired hundreds of properties across a low-medium seismicity zone (i.e. risk of earthquake). Could it still be considered negligent to not assess the risk of these buildings collapsing during a foreseeable earthquake? In some situations, it would not be acceptable to simply survey a sample of the buildings, as it is possible that these surveys could miss the buildings with the most significant damage. With these types of investigations only a review of every building will suffice; however, sometimes resources, availability and costs are limited so a full investigation cannot be carried out on every single building or asset.
Even a small fire can cause smoke contamination throughout a much larger area, including as the result of spread through sealed doors in some circumstances. Water damage related to fire-fighting activities can also cause mould to contaminate and damage stock as well as the building structure. Hawkins has investigated many fires from small to large scale incidents, which have started in one building and spread to affect neighbouring businesses.
Fires involving thatched roofs are normally devastating, resulting in significant emotional distress for homeowners and substantial financial losses for insurers.
Following the Grenfell Tower fire disaster in 2017, the government commissioned an independent review of Building Regulations and fire safety.
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