Pipe Stress Failure and Thermo-Hydraulics Modeling and Analysis Expert for Chemical and Nuclear Plants
Technical Consultant #2126
Expertise
- Development of new designs meeting code requirements, failure investigation and repair, and FFS (Fitness-For-Service) assessments.
- Modeling waterhammer transients for piping systems.
- FEA programs, CAD programs, and fluid modeling programs.
Experience
Undisclosed Company, Vice President - Engineering
Hydraulics
- Study of NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) issues related to entrapped gases in liquid lines.
- Developing hydraulics models and performing analysis of the effects of pump start-up and two-phase transients.
- Developed a thermal-hydraulic model for short-term LOCA (Loss of Control Accidents) transients in order to develop forcing functions on reactor-internals.
- Modeling blastwaves exiting high-energy line breaks in nuclear power plants.
- Extensive experience modeling waterhammer transients for piping systems.
Stress
- Failure investigation of one of the largest mobile cranes in the United States.
- Developing the structural model for the crane failure used as a benchmark against observations of the event.
Furnace Rehabilitation
- Technical lead for furnace repair damaged by over pressure events including oversight of field personnel, development of structural reinforcement, and analysis of the completed repairs.
Fitness for Service
- Analyzed degraded structures and improperly fabricated structures, including buried cooling water pipe in nuclear facilities and large ship loader structures exposed to salt spray and sulfurous coke.
- Analyzed poor welds and stress-corrosion cracking in weld regions with the fracture mechanics methodology in Div. 3.
- Helped develop the EPRI fitness-for-service analysis methods and criteria for buried piping.
Computer Modeling
- FEA programs, CAD programs, and fluid modeling programs, including dynamic time-history, elastic-plastic, cyclic loads, creep studies, and strain limit damage studies from the new Div. 2.
- Designed high pressure (15,000 psi) fiber-wrapped vessels for hydrogen service.
- Conducted fitness-for-service analysis on components with local thin areas in piping and weld, misalignment and lack of penetration.
- Using a fully integrated approach of fluid dynamic modeling to understand potential sources of waterhammer.
Education
- M.S. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
- B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA