Meet The Engineers of Stone – Washington, D.C.

Location and Mailing Address
2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 400
Arlington, VA 22202

 General Email: Info-DC@StoneSecurityEngineering.com
 Office Phone Number: +1 (703) 682-6872

Khaled El-Domiaty, P.E. – Associate Principal and Vice President – Director of DC Office Operations

With a remarkable background in design, analysis, research, and testing, Khaled El-Domiaty brings a detailed knowledge of leading-edge solutions to all his projects.   As a key member in the safety and security design field for over 13 years, Khaled has played an instrumental role in developing, managing, and delivering a wide array of projects.  He has provided risk assessment services to property owners (government, commercial or industrial) to mitigate potential risks associated with blast, fragmentation, progressive collapse, ATFP, fire and toxic hazards.  Additionally, he has performed forensic investigation for litigation support, training, R&D, guideline development, structural design, and remedial and retrofit design for a variety of structures.

Dr. Jason Florek, P.E. – Senior Safety and Security Engineer

Using his substantial expertise in finite element analysis Jason Florek has modeled many structures, such as window and wall catching systems, conventionally reinforced and innovative concrete panels, and metal trailers, to determine and enhance their resistance to blast loading.   Jason’s career spans more than 10 years during which he has worked with numerous government, military, and industrial clients to assist them in meeting applicable structural response or risk-based design criteria for new and existing construction.  Jason specializes in structures subjected to high-pressure loads and hazardous fragments.

Richard Galli – Design Safety and Security Engineer

Richard Galli brings an impressive breadth of experience in the fields of security and safety design to the firm.  His projects have included detailed design and analysis of doors, windows, and curtainwalls, test program development, authoring of Government guidelines, and accident investigations at industrial facilities. Rich has also been involved with more traditional work, participating in more than 100 successfully completed projects related to blast, progressive collapse, and fragment evaluation and mitigation for government and industrial sector clients. The scope of  these new construction or retrofit design projects has ranged from feasibility studies and conceptual designs to detailed design and construction administration support.

Timothy Sisson – Design Safety and Security Engineer

Timothy Sisson is a young engineer with a brilliant future.  He has over 3 years experience in the field of structural engineering with a focus on blast resistant design and analysis of buildings for industrial and government clients. Tim has conducted both conceptual and detailed design and analysis of building components utilizing linear and non-linear structural dynamics and finite element methods. Past projects include both new and retrofit blast designs for chemical processing plant buildings, U.S. Department of State buildings, U.S. Department of Defense buildings, and Canadian Department of National Defense buildings.

Iman Alsharkawi – Design Safety and Security Engineer

Iman “Emmy” Alsharkawi comes to Stone with an educational background in Aeronautical Engineering and a practical background in blast analysis and design and coding.    With this unique combination of knowledge and abilities, Emmy helps the firm continuously evaluate ways to be forward leaning and to bring in successful approaches from other industries.  In addition to this, Emmy performs detailed blast analysis on Department of Defense, GSA, and private client projects.

Earthquake Preparedness-Are We Ready?

With this year’s earthquakes in Southern California, Chili, and Mexico, and the the Fukashima earthquake and subsequent tsunami Japan still causing problems 3-years later, earthquake preparedness has – and should be –  been on the minds of many.

The New York Times recently posted an article and accompanying video discussing past earthquakes and the damage they have caused.  The video starts out with the Loma Prieta earthquake and its subsequent damage.  It then shifts to Oregon and seismic studies that have been done in that area show that a large earthquake (between magnitude 8 and 9) on average every 240 years.  The last one that struck was over 300 years ago.  One of these studies, The Oregon Resilience Plan, concluded that without preparedness between 1,200 and 10,000 people would die in a tsunami and economic impact would be felt for decades.

The Los Angeles Times had a recent article discussing Mexico’s 21 year old earthquake warning system.  The system provides warnings broadcast through air sirens, TV, and radio;  providing valuable seconds of warning when an earthquake hits.  The 7.2 earthquake that struck near Acapulco on April 18th, 

triggered the system and gave Mexico City 71 seconds before the shaking began in the city.  Many other countries, including Japan, also have seismic warning systems that alert residents, give bullet trains time to slow down, and even secure inventory before the shaking begins.   The USGS has a prototype warning system, but lacks the funding needed to make the system functional.

What does the emergency plan in your state/city/town include?

Sources:

New York Times

Los Angeles Times

USGS Earthquake Interactive Map

Oregon Resilience Plan

Findings from Chemical Safety Board Investigation on West, Texas Explosion Show Lacking Regulations

The Ammonium Nitrate (AN) explosion in West, Texas on April 17, 2013, which killed 14 people and wounded 200 others, destroyed and damaged the town’s 700 homes and left a crater 93-ft wide and 10-ft deep.

The Chemical Safety Board released findings of an investigation on the explosion on April 22, 2014.  The chairman of the Chemical Safety Board, Rafael Moure-Eraso told reporters  that the Board found “at all levels of government, a failure to adopt codes to keep populated areas away from hazardous facilities.”  There are 1,351 that store AN, and communities are just beginning to collect data on exactly where the material is stored and processed and how close this  is to homes and schools.

While no other single chemical has caused more harm, there is very little regulation of AN.   Existing regulations include:

• Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives regulates it as an explosive, but the rules do not apply when the material is used as a fertilizer.
• OSHA does have some regulations for AN, but it does not prohibit storage in wooden bins, and requirements for sprinklers don’t kick in until after 2,500 tons are on-site.  The West, Texas explosion had between 40 and 60 tons on site with an additional 100 tons on rail cars adjacent to the site.
• The EPA has a rule to prevent environmental damage from hazardous substances, but AN is not a trigger chemical.
• Texas does not have a statewide fire code and actually prohibits smaller counties from adopting a fire code.  There are no siting regulations or requirements for AN near homes, schools, and hospitals.

Agencies, such as the EPA are looking at a number of policy options to address chemical safety.