Entries by Structural Integrity

News & Views, Volume 45 | Proving Performance – What Distinguishes an ISO-Compliant Product Certification Agency?

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By:  Andy Coughlin Whether it’s fair-trade coffee, sustain-ably harvested lumber, energy efficient appliances, or other certified products, consumers and companies look for products that have high standards of origin, production, and performance.  Structural Integrity Associates’ TRU Compliance mark is no different.  Our mark shows buyers a product has undergone rigorous assessment for seismic, wind, and […]

News & Views, Volume 45 | The Importance of HRSG HP Evaporator Tube Internal Deposit Evaluation

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By:  Barry Dooley Evaluation of High Pressure (HP) Evaporator Tube Deposits is important for several reasons: Determining if flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) might be occurring in the lower pressure circuits. Regular evaluations can provide information on the internal deposit deposition rate, which is information necessary to help prevent under-deposit corrosion damage mechanisms. Provides information necessary to […]

News & Views, Volume 44 | Failed Grade 91 “Soft” Pipe Bend – A Case Study – Failure Occurred With Less Than 35,000 Operating Hours

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By:  Kane Riggenbach and Tony Studer Grade 91 steel is widely used in tubes, headers and piping of superheaters and reheaters because of its higher strength at elevated temperature compared to low alloy steels such as Grade 22.  The improved strength is a result of a tempered martensitic microstructure with a fine distribution of carbonitride […]

News & Views, Volume 44 | Weld Overlay Repair Mitigates Thermal Fatigue Flaw Growth

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By:  David Segletes A circumferential flaw in a 14-inch diameter suction pipe-to-elbow stainless steel weld was identified in both units of a nuclear power plant as depicted in Figure 1.  The two units are Westinghouse designed four-loop pressurized water reactor (PWR) plants and are mirror images of each other.  The pipe-to-elbow weld is the first […]

News & Views, Volume 44 | Data Driven Solutions for the Most Difficult Problems

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By:  Andrew Crompton and Mark Jaeger In recent years, SI has observed an increasing trend in the use of specialty instrumentation to solve “impossible” problems or answer “indecipherable” questions.  This shift was particularly apparent within commercial nuclear, where data-driven solutions have long been perceived as challenging due to short outage windows, personnel dose concerns, and […]

News & Views, Volume 44 | Update on Proposed Safety of Gas Transmission and Gathering Pipeline Regulation

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By:  Scott Riccardella, Erica Fisette, and Bruce Paskett Structural Integrity (SI) has significant depth and expertise in current pipeline safety regulations and dedicates substantial resources to ensure a comprehensive understanding of proposed pipeline safety regulations.  Using the most current insights relative to upcoming regulations, Structural Integrity guides our clients with strategic direction to best position […]

News & Views, Volume 44 | A First-of-a-Kind NDE Innovation from SI – The first PDI qualified manually-encoded DM weld procedure

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By:  Jason Van Velsor, Joe Agnew, and Owen Malinowski Determining a course of action once in-service damage is discovered often requires applying a multi-disciplinary approach that utilizes Nondestructive Examination (NDE), analytical techniques such as stress analysis, and metallurgical lab examination.  Such was the case recently for a combined cycle plant where indications were found through […]

News & Views, Volume 44 | Example Grade 91 High Energy Piping DMW Joint Stress and Metallurgical Analysis

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By:  Ben Ruchte Determining a course of action once in-service damage is discovered often requires applying a multi-disciplinary approach that utilizes Nondestructive Examination (NDE), analytical techniques such as stress analysis, and metallurgical lab examination.  Such was the case recently for a combined cycle plant where indications were found through NDE on the inlet sides of […]

News & Views, Volume 44 | Planned and Emergent Outage Support – Structural Integrity is on Your Team

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By:  Terry Herrmann While the 2018 Spring outage season is mostly behind us, we all know a key element in being able to provide safe, reliable, clean and economic power to energy consumers is how successfully plant outages are accomplished.   I know from personal experience how good planning, including contingency planning, has significantly reduced […]