As the Director of the Polymeric, Composite & Non-Metallic Materials practice, Mr. Shah oversees materials and analysis personnel and related work across offices of ESi.
Mr. Shah conducts and leads investigations on the performance of products made from plastics, composites, and elastomeric materials for use in diverse applications. He specializes in product failure analysis, material characterization testing, investigations on the appropriateness of the choice of materials for their intended application, evaluating the influence of processing parameters on product performance, and in evaluating product design. He has published his work in numerous technical journals and is a co-author of Fractography in Failure Analysis of Polymers book.
In his 20 years of experience, he has evaluated incidents related to product, systems, and component failures in plumbing, transportation, construction, electrical, oil and gas, chemical processing, medical, and consumer industry. His experience also includes investigating formulations of polymers in paints, coatings, adhesives, and in lubricants. He utilizes the study of interpretation of fracture surface features (Fractography), and principals of structure property relationship in polymers, to provide solutions to plastic product performance and service life issues. Mr. Shah has provided testimony in matters pending before both state and federal courts.
Areas of Expertise
Publications
- A Study of CPVC Fire Suppression Sprinkler Pipe Chemical Compatibility with common Plasticizers found in Wires and Cables, Society of Plastics Engineers, ANTEC® 2025 Conference, March 2025
- Best Safety Practices for Stability of PVC Pipe Bundles During Transport, Proceedings of the XXXVth Annual International Occupational Ergonomics and Safety Conference, October 2023
- Fracture of Plastics, Characterization and Failure Analysis of Plastics, ASM Handbook, Volume 11B, January 2022
- Failure Analysis of Products with Plastic to Metal Threaded Connections, Society of Plastics Engineers, ANTEC® 2021: The Virtual Edition, December 2021
- Service Lifetime Assessment of Polymeric Material Products, ASM Handbook, Volume 11, ASM 2020, January 2020
- Preventing Failures in Elastomeric Resistance Bands, Proceedings of the Society of Plastics Engineers Annual Technical Conference, May 2017
- Computed Tomography X-Ray Imaging - A Technique for Non-Destructive Examination of Plastic Products, Society of Plastics Engineers Annual Technical Conference, March 2015
- Determination of Environmental Stress Cracking Failure Mode in Investigation of CPVC Fire-Suppression Sprinkler Pipe Failures, Proceedings of the Society of Plastics Engineers Annual Technical Conference, April 2012
- Failure Analysis of Plastic Crimp Fitting Assemblies, Proceedings fo the Society of Plastics Engineers Annual Technical Conference, May 2011
- A Discussion on Prevention of Plastic Product Failures, Society of Plastics Engineers Annual Technical Conference, May 2010
- The Effect of Marking Paint on Walking Surface Slip Resistance, International Conference on Slips, Trips and Falls 2007: From Research to Practice, August 2007
- Role of Finite Element Analysis - A Computer Aided Engineering Technique in Failure Analysis of Plastic Products, Proceedings of the 12th Annual International Conference on Industrial Engineering Theory, Applications, and Practice (IJIE'07), November 2007
See CV for additional publications.