Joseph Rakow

Joseph Rakow, Ph.D., P.E., is a principal engineer and group vice president overseeing three Exponent practices: Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Sciences, and Vehicle Engineering. He has over 20 years of experience in composite structures, aerospace vehicles, turbine engineering, and mechanical failure analysis. He advises law firms, insurers, manufacturers, and government agencies on failure analysis, intellectual property disputes, and performance assessments across aviation, energy, consumer products, sporting goods, and industrial equipment.

Composite Structures & Materials

Dr. Rakow is one of the most recognized experts in the United States and internationally in the failure analysis of composite structures, including high-performance carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP), glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP), fiberglass, and sandwich structures. He advises clients on the root causes of composite failures arising from manufacturing, design, and use. His consulting spans the full lifecycle of composite components, from design and qualification through field use and field failures.

Dr. Rakow is a contributing author to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Manual of Accident and Incident Investigation (Chapter 9: Composite Materials), he has authored peer-reviewed publications on composite laminate and sandwich structure failure, and he teaches introductory composites courses to the U.S. Department of Defense and to professional engineers through ASM International. Dr. Rakow also serves as Working Group Chair for the industry standards organization Composite Materials Handbook (CMH-17), funded by the Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies. He is a visiting lecturer in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, and he has served as an expert witness in composite materials litigation and proceedings.

Aerospace Failure Analysis

Dr. Rakow provides failure analysis, design review, and performance assessment consulting for aircraft, spacecraft, and satellite systems. He advises aerospace manufacturers, insurers, and legal counsel on matters involving structural and mechanical failures, thermostructural damage, manufacturing nonconformances, and in-service degradation in fixed-wing aircraft, rotorcraft, launch vehicles, and commercial satellites. His work encompasses specialized mechanical systems as well as metallic and composite aerospace structures, with particular depth in the behavior of advanced materials under combined mechanical and thermal loading.

Dr. Rakow advised the U.S. Government Accountability Office on their Sept. 2011 report to Congress on the safety of composite commercial aircraft (Boeing 787, Airbus A380), and he holds a University of Southern California Aviation Safety and Security Certificate including Aircraft Accident Investigation, a program that utilizes Dr. Rakow's publications for course material. He is a long-time member of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators, and he serves on the Industry Advisory Board for the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan and the External Advisory Board of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Rakow has testified as an expert witness in aviation-related personal injury, product liability, and international arbitration proceedings.

Dr. Rakow has specific and extensive experience with communications satellites and failure analysis, spanning his career of over 20 years. These engagements have been in the context of product development and system qualification, as well as in-service performance issues, consulting directly with OEMs. He has addressed failures in a wide variety of satellite subsystems, including primary structures; propellant systems; solar arrays; deployment and actuation mechanisms; antennae; stabilization and vibration control mechanisms; electronics hardware; and launch vehicle integration components. Dr. Rakow has led large multidisciplinary investigations into numerous on-orbit failures of communications satellites and their components. Through a combination of telemetry analysis, computational modeling, and physical ground testing, he has successfully identified the root cause of on-orbit failures, and he has worked with clients in implementing corrective actions that have been adopted in the industry.

Turbine Failure Analysis

Dr. Rakow conducts failure analysis and performance assessments for wind turbines, gas turbines, and steam turbines, advising energy producers, equipment manufacturers, insurers, and legal teams on the root causes of turbine component failures and the implications for continued operation, repair, or replacement. His wind turbine consulting — encompassing blades, bearings, towers, generators, gearboxes, hydraulic systems, and other components — provides structural integrity evaluations, and life extension analyses for aging fleets, representing a significant and internationally recognized portion of his practice. He applies the same rigorous analytical framework to gas turbine and steam turbine systems, addressing blade fractures, rotor dynamics, thermal fatigue, and manufacturing-related failure modes in power generation and industrial settings.

Intellectual Property Disputes

Dr. Rakow provides technical consulting and expert witness services in intellectual property (IP) litigation and patent disputes involving highly specialized mechanical devices, composite materials, aerospace systems, and industrial equipment. He assists counsel in evaluating infringement claims, assessing the validity of patents, and explaining complex mechanical and materials engineering concepts to judges, juries, and arbitration panels. He is particularly adept at designing and executing customized laboratory tests to evaluate product performance versus claim language.

Dr. Rakow's IP work spans a wide range of unique and specialized mechanical systems — from proprietary manufacturing equipment to consumer products to advanced structural components — where deep engineering expertise is required to evaluate novelty, functionality, and alleged infringement, and ultimately provide expert witness testimony. Dr. Rakow is an inventor on two patents for specialized mechanical devices.

Specialized Mechanical Equipment

Dr. Rakow applies his broad mechanical and structural engineering expertise to the failure analysis and performance assessment of highly specialized — sometimes unprecedented — mechanical systems and industrial equipment. His consulting in this area spans power plant equipment, sporting equipment, consumer products, industrial machinery, transportation systems (cars, trucks, and specialized vehicles), and unique engineered devices encountered in manufacturing and processing environments. He leads multidisciplinary investigations that integrate laboratory testing, theoretical analysis, and numerical methods — including finite element analysis (FEA) — to deliver scientifically grounded conclusions for clients facing high-consequence engineering challenges. Dr. Rakow is an elected Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.