About FESI

FESI is the UK Forum for Engineering Structural Integrity

Introduction

FESI is the UK's membership organisation for Engineering Structural Integrity (ESI). The Forum draws together and disseminates the collected experience and expertise of relevant academic, regulatory, industrial and professional organisations and individuals, to assist in the assurance of the integrity of engineering structures and components.

FESI is supported by a number of distinguished organisations. FESI is a not-for-profit organisation and is registered with Companies House.

 

What FESI does

FESI facilitates the effective implementation of ESI technologies and methodologies across many industry sectors, and promotes cross-industry knowledge transfer and the development of technologies which will support safe and cost-effective engineering design and operation.

	"Engineering failure is highly visible and costly, and also avoidable."
	Thomas Deckker, architect See The FESI Bulletin Vol. 5, No 1

 

FESI works to reduce the incidence of engineering failures, which may be costly in terms of human life, environmentally and economically, by encouraging good practice and raising awareness in areas such as risk based tools and methods, and the quantification of failure.

The significance of ESI and FESI's role

The assurance of the operational integrity of structures and components across a range of industrial sectors from transport to energy, process plant to built environment, is central to the assurance of safety and economic performance.

The provision of quantifiable structural integrity assessment is an engineering function, but one involving a range of disciplines from mechanics and materials, to corrosion chemistry and applied physics, integrated within new technical disciplines such as fracture mechanics, risk based assessment and maintenance, which provide the tools that can improve failure avoidance and underpin life prediction and through-life management of ageing plant and components.

It is not only industries and practitioners traditionally associated with engineering who are alive to the benefits of adopting and embedding ESI methodologies and technologies. Increasingly, a diverse range of organisations appreciates that the ESI's interdisciplinary approach has practical value in the drive to meet current corporate challenges, including that of becoming more productive while reducing costs and simultaneously improving safety.

FESI's integrated approach to areas such as inspection, monitoring, diagnosis, analysis, materials, IT and assessment methods, and their effectiveness in application, means it is ideally placed to bring these methodologies together with lessons learned from engineering failures, disasters and catastrophes. FESI makes available new developments and potential solutions, thus helping companies to assure engineering integrity in their activities. This cross-sectoral, holistic approach to ESI discourages `silo' thinking and helps to demolish the conventional boundaries between disciplines that has, through gaps and shortfalls in practice and knowledge, resulted in failures.

FESI's role is particularly significant in this respect, as currently a much wider range of stakeholders has an interest in an organisation's performance - and in particular any deficits - than was previously the case. No longer responsible only or principally to their shareholders, companies and institutions of all sizes recognise that they have a duty of care towards the environment, the community in which they are located, and the world at large. FESI's remit of developing the understanding and implementation of ESI is instrumental in assisting companies to satisfy their social, environmental and corporate responsibilities to all stakeholder constituents.

FESI has formed constructive links with international ESI communities in order to introduce their thinking and experience to the UK. FESI has recently worked closely with, for example, Beihang University, Beijing, which is one of China's foremost universities in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics, and with the Consortium of Chinese Structural Integrity Engineers and Scientists. FESI represents the UK in Europe through ESIS - the European Structural Integrity Society. All members of FESI automatically join ESIS through a reciprocal arrangement.

FESI's history

FESI was established in 2001 in response to an urgent need for a forum which would focus on best practice in the assessment of structural integrity across industry sectors and businesses.

All countries suffer a slow but continuous deterioration of their engineering plant and the possibility of serious accidents, all of which cause grave concern to society. Railways, automobiles, aircraft, roads and bridges, chemical plant, shipping, off-shore structures, computer software, energy production and transmission systems and so on, all require continuous surveillance and constant improvements. Frequently such problems lead to unnecessary expensive legal actions in national and international courts. No engineering discipline is immune when considering plant failures and yet modem facilities, together with a wide knowledge base, plus a desire to constantly improve the design, manufacture, and usage of engineering products are readily available in depth but need to be integrated for the benefit of all concerned.

Since its launch, FESI has brought together a number of senior engineers, scientists, and other practitioners with technical specialisms. This national group, drawn from various industries, businesses and the academic world, has and continues to explore the current and developing challenges of the engineering structural integrity community.

FESI's evolvement has benefited from the input of the FESI Council, a group of committed ESI specialists and enthusiasts. FESI's Chairman is Dr Brian Tomkins, FREng; the CEO is Poul Gosney; the Honorary Treasurer, Brain Daniels; and the Chairman of the Communications & Publications Committee is Professor Peter Flewitt, FREng. See Who's Who in FESI for more information on the work of the FESI Council and on Council Members.

FESI's activities

FESI promotes ESI through educational programmes and the provision of resources. These include:

• CPD workshops and seminars, many of which are tailored to be industry-specific, and some of which are held jointly with associated professional bodies such as IMechE and SIMoNET. See EVENTS for more information. If you would like to have an industry- or organisation-specific seminar or workshop tailored to suit your company's objectives, please contact Poul Gosney, CEO, FESI, at fesi@fesi.org.uk.
• The FESI Bulletin, FESI's downloadable magazine, which presents academic papers, articles, reviews and news, events, and other issues and matters of interest to the ESI community. See THE FESI BULLETIN to download a current copy and access the archive.
• ESIA conferences, the series of international conferences on the subject of engineering structural integrity assessment, organised by FESI and involving leading authorities from industries, businesses and academic institutions from within the UK and from around the world. Most recently, ESIA11: Engineering Structural Integrity Assessment - design, fabrication, operation and disposal was held in association with Beihang University and the Chinese Consortium of Structural Integrity Engineers and Scientists, following the success of ESIA9 which was held in Beijing. ESIA11 was instrumental in levering in the thinking of China's ESI community for the benefit of the UK. See ESIA CONFERENCES for reviews and further information.
• Invitations to national and international conferences and seminars, jointly organised by FESI in collaboration with an ESI partner.
• ESIA Conference Proceedings, ESI books and publications and other conference proceedings, which are available online through EMAS, FESI's wholly-owned subsidiary publishing arm. See EMAS for a full list of publications.
• The Keith Miller Student Award for the best paper and presentation at an ESIA conference, named in honour of the late Professor Keith Miller, a world-renowned expert in ESI.
• Access to European ESI through ESIS, the European Structural Integrity Society. FESI's members automatically become members of ESIS. See JOIN FESI for more information and to download a Membership form.
• FESI's Corporate Sponsorship Programme, through which companies and institutions have an opportunity to align themselves with the UK's membership organisation. See FESI'S CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP PROGRAMME for more information on a very cost-effective way for your company to demonstrate support for ESI. FESI acknowledges the continuing support of the distinguished organisations who are its current Corporate Sponsors.
• An opportunity to participation in and contribute to the development of ESI in the UK