Mr. Gsell has over 25 years experience in engineering and management. He specializes in issues pertaining to electrical engineering, particularly as they relate to industrial control systems, with emphasis on instrumentation equipment as applied in the oil and gas industry. Mr. Gsell has experience in the investigation of alleged electrical fires and explosions. He also has extensive experience in the design and failure analysis of electronic systems, particularly those designed for harsh environmental conditions in oil and gas explorations. He has investigated incidents involving accidental contact with electric low and high voltage circuits as well as failures of electric equipment and appliances. He has also investigated claims related to design, installation, and construction of electrical instrumentation and control systems.
Prior to joining Exponent, Mr. Gsell worked for EM-Tech, Inc., where he developed and designed electromagnetic sensors for a variety of applications, including: non-destructive through-wall crack and corrosion detection in ferromagnetic pipelines, underground pipe depth and diameter measurement, pressure measurement through ferromagnetic barriers, chromium thickness measurement on steam boiler pipes, and crack detection on railroad track. Mr. Gsell also worked a number of years for Halliburton Energy Services, where he was the technical leader of Halliburton’s reliability improvement initiative, responsible for analyzing existing designs with recurring problems and recommending modifications to improve the reliability of the products. As a part of his responsibilities, he performed failure-modes-and-effects analysis of complex products, and defined and completed qualification testing to verify the reliability improvements of product enhancements. He also authored Halliburton’s website “Best Practices—Electrical,” which describes a broad range of design options that need to be considered when designing reliable electronic assemblies for use in hazardous environments.
Mr. Gsell has extensive experience in product Qualification Testing, including the application of Highly Accelerated Life Testing methods. He also has experience in the design of biomedical instrumentation, and various electromechanical transducers for linear displacement, angular displacement, and velocity measurements. Mr. Gsell has testified as an expert witness in Texas state court and federal court.
McDonald B, Cohen J, Long R, Gsell B. Development of a high temperature MWD system. Forum For High Temperature Electronics in the Oilfield, Sponsored by the Gas Research Institute and Spears and Associates, Houston, TX, February 3, 1999,