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News & Views, Volume 46 | Adding Value Through Test Informed Modeling: Hydro Structures

July 1, 2019/in Critical Structures, Dan Parker, Eric Kjolsing, Hydroelectric Power, News and Views, Structural Assessments/by Structural Integrity

By: Eric Kjolsing and Dan Parker

In 2018, Structural Integrity Associates (SI) supported a utility in the structural assessment of a submerged concrete intake tower. The tower is nearly a century old and was investigated as part of the utility’s periodic maintenance program.

The assessment required the generation of an analysis model that accounted for both the structure and the surrounding water. When accounting for fluid effects, a typical analysis approach is to develop a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model that explicitly accounts for the interaction between the surrounding water and concrete tower. However, this modeling approach is expensive both in terms of (a) cost, due to the increased effort needed in generating the model and (b) schedule, due to the increased analysis run time. In lieu of developing an FSI model, SI implemented an alternative numerical approach to model the effects of the water and justified the approach through physical testing of the in-situ structure.

News & Views, Volume 46 | The Newest Phased Array Ultrasonic Technique: Full Matrix Capture

July 1, 2019/in Allen Porter, Jeff Milligan, News and Views, Non-Destructive Evaluation, Steve Gressler/by Structural Integrity

By: Jeff Milligan, Steve Gressler, and Allen Porter

Full Matrix Capture (FMC) and Total Focusing Method (TFM) have evolved over the past few years into NDE buzz words that warrant explanation and context for their proper and successful application. Structural Integrity (SI) is well vested and engaged in FMC and actively exploring the use of this technology where it enhances ultrasonic sensitivity and characterization to bring added value to our clients. An explanation of these technologies and what they mean to the future of ultrasonic inspection follows.

Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing (PAUT) has evolved significantly over the last 20+ years, with improvements and innovations in sensor design, signal processing, and data interpretation; however, the method by which PAUT is applied has remained relatively unchanged: Excite an array of transducer elements with predetermined time delays, called focal laws, and receive resulting reflections with the array of transducer elements,

News & Views, Volume 46 | NDE Best Practices for Generator Rotors

July 1, 2019/in News and Views, Non-Destructive Evaluation, Turbine Generator/by Structural Integrity

By: Paul Zayicek

Three factors typically drive inspection intervals of generator rotors:

a timeframe recommended by the insurance carrier or OEM
an engineering evaluation that supports a different inspection interval due to service operation events or existing rotor damage
industry best practices

Drivers from the OEM include issues defined in service bulletins or technical information letters that pertain to the entire fleet or some subset of the population. Intervals based on engineering evaluations can be derived from an identified damage mechanism with the rotor or with a critical component. An engineering evaluation can also provide for extended inspection intervals in situations where the generator has no inherent material issues, has a clean inspection record, and sees limited operational stress such as in a base-load unit.

News & Views, Volume 46 | Hydrogen Fueling Structural Integrity into New Markets

July 1, 2019/in Dan Peters, Hydrogen, News and Views, Process Pressure Vessels/by Structural Integrity

By: Daniel Peters and Myles Parr

Energy sources that don’t have carbon emissions are rapidly developing in the country and around the world today. The use of renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro, and solar is becoming increasingly common. One area that is also changing is in the automotive arena. The use of alternative fuels in the transportation sector, such as natural gas and hydrogen, has been under development for many years. Natural gas is quite common today in the public transportation sector in many cities for fueling buses in cities.

Development of hydrogen fuel cell automobiles increased significantly around the turn of the century and recently has gained increasing popularity. Many hurdles have been considered and needed to be overcome to make this a practical reality. Issues such as reliability of components used in cars, risks of fires due to leaks, and sources of hydrogen needed for those cars are just a few of them.

News & Views, Volume 46 | Plant Integrity Assistant – There’s an App for That!

July 1, 2019/in Fossil Power, Matt Freeman, News and Views, PlantTrack/by Structural Integrity

By: Matt Freeman

PlantTrack App now available

Plant engineers must often answer ‘what damage is this piece of equipment susceptible to, and what can we do about it?’ or ‘how much longer can this component continue operating’? A free app is now available in both the Google Play store and the Apple App store to help answer these and other equipment integrity questions (see figure 1).

The PlantTrack App is a plant integrity assistant that provides life calculators, damage mechanism guides, technical articles, lab sample submittal form, and other functions relevant for plant engineers. While it is geared towards fossil (both coal and gas) power plants, it has applicability for equipment at other plants as well. For subscribers to the PlantTrack web application, the mobile app also provides a dashboard view of inspection history, action items, damage tracking results, etc. Users of the PlantTrack software will recognize some of the features from the ‘PlantTrack Tools’ that have previously been available through a web browser.

News & Views, Volume 45 | Improved Asset Management Through Test Informed Analysis

January 1, 2019/in Complex Loadings, Critical Structures, Eric Kjolsing, Hydroelectric Power, News and Views, Structural Assessments/by Structural Integrity

By: Eri Kjolsing

Introduction
Structures may experience unforeseen operating environments or site-specific hazards leading to changes in the structure’s performance, safety, and longevity. These changes often prompt asset owners to undertake analysis efforts to ensure satisfactory structural performance for the updated conditions. However, conventional analyses that fail to capture the true behavior of a structure can lead to inaccurate analysis results, causing owners to make less than ideal asset management decisions. Structural Integrity (SI) is uniquely positioned to pair our dynamic characterization and advanced structural analysis capabilities to generate a better structural model. SI vibration experts use impact testing, forced vibration, or ambient excitation sources, along with proprietary signal processing software, to non-destructively characterize the dynamic behavior of structural systems. This characterization is used to inform advanced structural analyses by SI analysis experts to provide more accurate results related to operational improvements, damage location, and retrofits.

News & Views, Volume 45 | Interval Relief from RPV Threads in Flange Examination Requirements

January 1, 2019/in News and Views, Nuclear Asset Integrity, Nuclear Energy, Reactor, Scott Chesworth/by Structural Integrity

By: Scott Chesworth

ASME Code Section XI requires that the RPV Threads in Flange component (Category B-G-1, Item Number B6.40, see Figure 1) be inspected each inspection Interval using volumetric examination. However, there is general agreement that the inspection does not contribute to the overall safety of the RPV. Industry experience indicates that these examinations have not been identifying service-induced degradation and that they have negative impacts on worker exposure, personnel safety, and outage critical path time. Savings from the elimination of this inspection can be applied to other more meaningful inspections of other more risk-significant plant components.

EPRI Report 3002007626 (March 2016) provides the basis for eliminating the RPV Threads in Flange examination requirement. This report includes the results of an industry survey in which 168 units provided the status of their RPV Threads in Flange examination, as well as insight into the impacts of conducting these examinations.

News & Views, Volume 45 | Gas Pipeline Safety Regulation Update

January 1, 2019/in Bruce Paskett, Eric Fisette, Mega-Rule, News and Views, Oil and Gas Pipeline, Scott Riccardella/by Structural Integrity

By: Scott Riccardella. Erica Fisette, and Bruce Paskett

Update on the Safety of Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipelines Rulemaking (known as the Mega-Rule)
Structural Integrity (SI) personnel have had significant involvement in the Gas Pipeline Advisory Group (GPAC) meetings focused on consideration of the proposed pipeline safety rule titled “Safety of Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipelines” (Notice of Proposed Rule Making April 8, 2016). The meetings produced several recommendations to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that are likely to be included in the Final Rule. A key outcome of these meetings was that PHMSA has decided the Final Rule will be split into three sub-rule packages that will all be final rules to facilitate the rulemaking process:

Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure (MAOP) reconfirmation, Material Verification, Expansion of Integrity Management Assessments Outside of High Consequence Areas (HCAs) and other related issues,
Repair Criteria, Inspections Following Extreme Weather Events, Corrosion Control improvements, Management of Change; and
Expansion of Part 192 regulations to include additional Gas Gathering Lines.

News & Views, Volume 45 | Latitude™ Delivers – Highlights from the First Field Deployments

January 1, 2019/in Jason Van Velsor, LATITUDE, News and Views, Non-Destructive Evaluation, Nuclear Asset Integrity/by Structural Integrity

By: Jason Van Velsor, Dave Anthony, Joe Agnew, and Michael Lashley

Introduction
For the past 2 ½ years, Structural Integrity Associates (SI) has been working diligently to develop, qualify and deliver the nuclear industry’s first-of-a-kind manually acquired encoded phased array UT (PAUT) examination for Section XI dissimilar metal welds (DMWs). Development of the encoding technology behind this effort, the LATITUDE^TM non-mechanized encoding system, was completed in 2017, with our application-specific inspection procedure completed and qualified through the industry’s Performance Demonstration Program (PDI) in the Spring of 2018. Now, with much enthusiasm, we are proud to report that we have successfully completed the first field deployments of the LATITUDE technology and DMW procedure during the Fall 2018 outage season.

News & Views, Volume 45 | Life Management for High Energy Piping (HEP)

January 1, 2019/in Combined Cycle, Fossil Power, Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG), High Energy Piping (HEP), Matt Freeman, News and Views/by Structural Integrity

By: Matt Freeman

High Energy Piping systems, including main steam and hot reheat piping, are typically very reliable and can often operate trouble-free for decades. However, due to the combination of pressure and temperature at which such systems operate, a failure can have catastrophic consequences from a safety perspective and in terms of equipment loss. Because of this and the requirements of the ASME B31.1 Power Piping code, HEP programs – or as defined by Code, Covered Piping Systems (CPS) – are established to ensure that the integrity of the system is maintained throughout their lifecycle. This article discusses the steps required to implement an HEP / CPS life management program.

A Life Management Program is not synonymous with an inspection program. Inspections are an important part of an overall program but should be complimentary to the use of analytical tools, real-time monitoring, and laboratory examinations