What is failure analysis?

Failure Analysis is the science of determining how and why things fail. "Things" may include any number of items or products, or may be something less tangible, such as the failure of a procedure, instruction, or process to produce the intended result.

Although rarely intentional, some things are designed to fail. Either the design concept is flawed or the materials chosen for construction are unsuitable. Materials may have been selected without regard to the actual field or service conditions, or perhaps these conditions have changed.