Child Suffers Brain Injury Following Propane Tank Explosion

Case Overview

This case involves a young boy that suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of a propane tank explosion. The child was at a pool club that had propane tank grills onsite. The child was playing a game with other children at the club and ran behind the propane tank in question. The tank subsequently exploded. An expert in metallurgy and materials science was sought to analyze the metal and material composition of the propane tank and speak to how they contributed to the explosion.

Questions to the Materials expert and their responses

Please describe your background in metallurgy.

I am an expert in metallurgy and materials science with 20+ years of experience analyzing material and alloy failure, damage, and susceptibility to extreme environments. I currently hold an endowed chair in metallurgy, run a very large research program in metallurgy and materials science, and teach both graduate and undergraduate courses on metals analysis, failure, processing, and development.

Do you have experience analyzing the materials that contribute to product explosions?

In both my research as well as consulting for previous cases and within the industry, I have studied documentation, images, and even taken samples from failure sites to perform relevant analysis from situations such as these. Moreover, I have experience understanding liquid/metal interaction, gas/metal interaction, high pressure and temperature environments, and explosive materials.

About the expert

This expert has over 20 years of experience in materials science and metallurgy. She earned her BS, MS, and PhD in materials science & engineering from Carnegie Mellon University with an undergraduate depth sequence in design and a graduate minor in chemistry. She holds 11 patents or patents-pending related to corrosion-resistant metals, advanced materials for electric motors, and materials characterization and has over 100 peer-reviewed publications. This expert is also a member of several distinguished societies including the American Physical Society, the American Society of Metals, and the Materials Research Society. Formerly, she served as a visiting scientist at the Center for Atom Probe Tomography at Northwestern University, a fellow at the US Naval Research Laboratory, a research fellow at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and an assistant dean for research at Drexel University College of Engineering. Most recently, this expert served as a professor of metallurgy at Drexel University where she ran a research group with a focus on understanding materials in extreme environments including high temperature, high pressure, corrosion, and radiation. Currently, she is a professor of metallurgy and the director of the materials characterization and processing center at a university in Maryland. She is also a staff scientist at a national laboratory in Washington.

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Specialties:

Materials

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