Robert A. Sire, P.E.

Mr. Sire specializes in fracture mechanics, stress analysis, fatigue life assessment, and failure analysis of mechanical systems and components. He has more than 25 years of experience assisting clients in the areas of design analysis for stress and fatigue performance and failure analysis of mechanical systems and components. Mr. Sire’s capabilities include deterministic and probabilistic fracture mechanics analysis, development of fracture and fatigue analysis methods and software, finite element analysis methods and applications, and integration of test data and performance history with analytical methods. Mr. Sire has extensive experience in fatigue and fracture analysis of ship structures, ground transportation vehicles, and aerospace structures. His expertise also covers design analysis and reliability assessment of cardiovascular implant devices and the application of fracture mechanics to micro-electronic components.

Mr. Sire’s current areas of professional focus include stress analysis and fatigue design support for new product development, failure analysis of welded structures, evaluation of damaged pipelines, and analysis of steam and combustion turbine equipment. He has assisted clients developing implantable medical devices, energy storage systems, and offshore petroleum transport systems, to name a few. Mr. Sire has also served on failure review panels for commercial clients.

Mr. Sire is a developer and primary technical contact for the NASCRAC^TM Software, a general-purpose fracture mechanics analysis program developed by Exponent for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and available by license from Exponent. In addition to the NASCRAC Software, Mr. Sire has developed specialized fatigue analysis software for NASA based on measured strain histories for Space Shuttle Main Engine components. Mr. Sire has developed probabilistic analysis modules for steam turbine rotor life evaluation software under contract to the Electric Power Research Institute.

*NASCRAC is a trademark of Exponent, Inc.

James BA, Sire RA. Fatigue-life assessment and validation techniques for metallic vascular implants. Biomaterials 2010; 31(2):181–186. Epub ahead of print: doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2009.10.028.

James BA, Sire RA, Caligiuri RD. Determination of the failure mode and the rupture pressure in a mechanically damaged pipeline. J Failure Analysis and Prevention 2008; 8(3):223–230.

Caligiuri RD, Foulds JR, Sire RA, Andrew SP. Thermal constraint considerations in design of a heat recovery boiler. Engineering Failure Analysis 2006; 13(8):1388–1396.

Gupta A, Caligiuri RD, Moncarz PD, Sire RA. Fatigue damage assessment techniques for SPM anchorages. Proceedings, 16th International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, San Francisco, CA, May 28–June 2, 2006.

Eiselstein LE, Sire RA, James BA. Review of fatigue and fracture behavior in NiTi. Proceedings, 2005 Materials and Processes for Medical Devices Conference, Boston, MA, November 14–16, 2005.

Gavelli F, Foulds JR, Sire RA, Kytomaa H. Root cause analysis of a gas turbine compressor stator blade failure. Proceedings, ASME Power (PWR2005), Paper PWR2005-50125, Chicago, IL, April 5–7, 2005.

Murray SJ, Edmonds JS, Foulds JR, Sire RA, Chi W-M. Modeling fault propagation in and electric generator stator core. Proceedings, 8th EPRI Steam Turbine-Generator Workshop and Vendor Exposition, Electric Power Research Institute, 2003.

Andrew SP, Caligiuri RD, Sire RA, Parnell TK. Analysis of rail cracking and development of a rail screening guideline based on fracture mechanics principles. Fatigue 2003–Fatigue and Durability Assessment of Materials, Components and Structures, 5th International Conference of the Engineering Integrity Society, Cambridge, UK, April 7–9, 2003.

Moalli J, Kurtz S, Sire RA, Srivastav S, Wu M. Avoiding the GIGO Syndrome—Combining the real and virtual worlds in analysis of polymer product failures. Proceedings, SPE/ANTEC 2000 Conference, CRC Press, May 5, 2000.

Zannetti P, Sire RA. MONTECARLO—A new, fully-integrated PC Software for the 3D simulation and visualization of air pollution dispersion using Monte Carlo Lagrangian Particle (MCLP) techniques. Proceedings, Air Pollution 99-International Conference, Vol. 7, pp. 853–862, Stanford CA, 1999.

Kadlec R, Westmann R, Haghi M, Sire RA, Deyrel E. Failure analysis of heavy truck trailer axles. Technology, Law and Insurance 1998; 3: 25–31.

Moncarz PD, Caligiuri RD, McDonald BM, Sire RA, Borduin WP. Ultimate moment capacity of many steel connections: failure in design, materials or workmanship. EUROMAT '98–Conference on Materials in Oceanic Environment, Lisbon, Portugal, July 1998.

McDonald BM, Sire RA, Caligiuri RD. Ductile initiation of cleavage fractures in welded moment frame connections. Proceedings, 12th Engineering Mechanics Conference, American Society of Civil Engineers, pp. 74–77, La Jolla, CA, May 1998.

Sire RA, Hopkins SW. Analytical modeling for life extension of aging equipment. International Journal of Fatigue 1997; 19(Sup.1):S261–S266.

Harris DO, Sire RA, Dedhia D. NASCRAC™ NASA crack analysis code, Version 3.0. User’s and Theory Manuals, Failure Analysis Associates and Engineering Mechanics Technology, Inc., July 1994.

Sire RA, Kokarakis JE, Wells CH, Taylor RK. A probabilistic structural life prediction system for container ship repair and inspection. International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 1992; 50(1–3):297–315.

Popelar CF, Kanninen MF, Davidson DL, Harris DO, Sire RA, Duncan LB, Kallis JM, Buechler DW, Sandkulla DC. Experimentation and analysis of fatigue crack growth in microscale components. Proceedings, Fracture Mechanics: 23rd Symposium, American Society for Testing and Materials STP 1189, Chona R (ed), 1992.

Sire RA, Harris DO. Probabilistic fracture mechanics modeling of micro-electronic component reliability. Joint ASME/JSME Conference on Electronic Packaging, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Advances in Electronic Packaging 1992; 2:991–997.

Davidson DL, Popelar CF, Kanninen MF, Harris DO, Sire RA, Duncan LB, Kallis JM, Buechler DW, Chen IC. Application of fracture mechanics to plated-through-hole thermal cycling fatigue. Symposium on Electronic Packaging in Harsh Environments, Electrical and Electronic Packaging Division, Winter Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Atlanta, GA, December 1991.

Harris DO, Sire RA, Popelar CF, Kanninen MF, Davidson DL, Duncan LB, Kallis JM, Buechler. Fracture mechanics life prediction for microscale components—With application to wire bonding. Proceedings, 29th Annual Reliability Physics Conference, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, pp. 35–43, 1991.

Rau CA, Eiselstein LE, Sire RA. Probabilistic assessment of crack initiation and growth in shrunk-on disks. Proceedings, Fossil Steam Turbine Disc Cracking Workshop, Charlotte, NC, October 1990; EPRI GS-7250; 9-2 to 9-7, April 1991.

Dedhia DD, Sire RA, Harris DO. Generation and use of 3-D Influence functions by use of the NASCRAC™ computer code. Advanced Earth-to-Orbit Propulsion Technology 1990, Vol. III, NASA Conference Publication 3092, Scientific and Technical Information Division, pp. 457–473, 1990.

Sire RA, Harris DO, Eason ED. Automated generation of influence functions for planar crack problems. fracture mechanics: Perspectives and directions. 20th Symposium, American Society for Testing and Materials, ASTM STP 1020, Wei RP and Gangloff RP (eds), pp. 351-365, 1989.

Harris DO, Dedhia DD, Sire RA, Woytowitz PJ, Nelson EE. NASCRAC™—Fracture mechanics analysis code. Advanced Earth-to-Orbit Propulsion Technology 1988, Vol. I, NASA Conference Publication 3012, Scientific and Technical Information Division, 1988.

Harris DO, Muir DW, Sire RA, Perry WC, Rau SA. Analysis of two-piece diesel engine pistons. Proceedings, American Society of Mechanical Engineers Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference 1985; 98(5); 77–88, New Orleans, LA, July 1985.

Presentations

Gupta A, Caligiuri RD, Moncarz PD, Sire RA. Fatigue damage assessment techniques for SPM anchorages. 16th International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, San Francisco, CA, June 1, 2006.

Sire RA, Saraf VK, Moncarz PD. Simulation of hull rupture during ship collision with dock. ASM Materials Solutions Conference, Failure Analysis and Prevention Symposium, Columbus, OH, October 2004.

Sire RA, Hopkins SW. Analytical modeling for life extension of aging equipment. Engineering Foundation International Conference on Fatigue Damage in Structural Materials, Hyannis, MA, September 1996.

Sire RA, Hopkins SW. Standardization of elements within software codes used for fatigue and fracture lifetime prediction. American Society for Testing and Materials E8.04 Workshop on Software Codes in Industry/Fatigue and Fracture, Orlando, FL, May 1996.

Sire RA, Hopkins SW. Analytical modeling using elastic-plastic fracture mechanics. ASM International Advanced Aerospace Materials/Processes Conference (AeroMat’94), Anaheim, CA, June 1994.

Sire RA. Techniques for fatigue life prediction from measured strains. Advanced Earth-to-Orbit Propulsion Technology 1986, Marshall Space Flight Center, AL, May 1986.

• Staff Engineer, Structural Mechanics Department, Missile Systems Group, Hughes Aircraft Company, 1979-1980
• Engineering Assistant, Structural Engineering Department, General Atomic Company, 1978
  

• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (member)
  ASTM International
  – Committee E8 on Fatigue and Fracture (member)
• ASM International (member)