Structural Integrity Associates Announces the Appointment of Steve Gressler as Vice President, Fossil

Structural Integrity Associates Announces the Appointment of Steve Gressler as Vice President, Fossil

Structural Integrity Associates | Steve Gressler, Vice President, FossilStructural Integrity Associates, Inc. (SI), a leader in engineering and technology in the power and oil & gas industries, today announced the appointment of Steve Gressler as Vice President of its Fossil business. Gressler will report to Mark Marano, SI President and Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Gressler is a metallurgical engineer with over 30 years of experience in metallurgy, failure analysis, and the damage assessment of fossil power generation equipment and distributed heating and cooling systems with an emphasis on piping, boilers, headers, and balance of plant equipment. He is a principal contributor to engineering life cycle programs and procedures, risk assessments, analysis tools, and technologies to assess service degradation in low alloy and creep-strength enhanced ferritic steels.  His current work focuses on the development, integration, and deployment of nondestructive testing and damage tracking technology in addition to engineering consulting and materials assessments.

Since joining Structural Integrity Associates in 1997, Steve has been a principal contributor to the methodologies applied for life assessment of high temperature and critical piping components. This includes characterization of creep and fatigue damage in longitudinal seam welds, girth welds, and header ligaments.  It also extends to the engineering of data management systems used for aiding decision-making processes.

Marano noted, “Steve brings metallurgical leadership and technology development experience to the SI leadership team and is an integral part of our new customer focused strategy. Steve’s knowledge of the fossil business, tenure with SI, and relationships with our clients will accelerate our journey to create value for power and oil industry customers as a highly valued engineering and technology partner.”

Gressler received a Bachelor of Science in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and is a Registered Professional Engineer. Steve is also a prior recipient of the SI Riccardella Innovation Award for Prioritization Method for Fossil Plant Piping.

Structural Integrity Appoints Sean Fuller as Executive Director of Sales and Marketing

Structural Integrity Appoints Sean Fuller as Executive Director of Sales and Marketing

Structural Integrity Associates | Sean Fuller, Executive Director, Sales & MarketingStructural Integrity Associates, Inc. (SI), a leader in engineering and technology in the power and oil and gas industries, today announced the appointment of Sean Fuller as Executive Director of Sales and Marketing. Fuller will report to Mark Marano, SI President and Chief Executive Officer, who recently joined the company in February.

Fuller joins SI from Curtiss-Wright Corporation where he was an Innovation Champion and Innovation Lead – Product Engineering in the Nuclear Division. Previously, Fuller served as Executive VP Sales and Technology for GSE Systems Inc., a provider of simulation, training, and engineering solutions to the power and process industries. There he was instrumental in establishing technology partnerships to develop the nuclear plant control room of the future.

Fuller brings to SI more than 30 years of commercial and new product introduction experience in the power industry. He began his career at GE Nuclear, a division of GE Power, as an Edison Engineering Program engineer where he served in commercial, engineering, and manufacturing leadership roles and was instrumental in commercializing technology that has enabled nuclear power plants to achieve 90%+ capacity factors.

Marano noted, “Sean brings extensive commercial leadership and technology development experience to the SI team and is an integral part of our new customer focused strategy. Sean’s success leading innovation and technology deployment will enhance our journey to create value for power and oil industry customers as a highly valued engineering and technology partner.”

Fuller received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical-Nuclear Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts and is Lean/6Sigma Black Belt certified.

News & View, Volume 47 | Aircraft Impact Assessments for NUSCALE Power

News & Views, Volume 47 | Aircraft Impact Assessments for NUSCALE Power

By:  Eric Kjolsing, Ph.D., PE

From 2015 to 2019 Structural Integrity Associates, Inc. (SI) worked with News & View, Volume 47 | Aircraft Impact Assessments for NUSCALE PowerNuScale Power,LLC. to develop structural details for and perform aircraft impact assessments of NuScale’s SMR Reactor Building.  The assessments were based on finite element analyses of various strike scenarios stemming from NEI 07-13 guidance.  ANACAP, a proprietary SI concrete constitutive model, was used in the finite element analyses.  Among other capabilities, the ANACAP model can capture multi-axial tensile cracking, compressive crushing with strain softening, and crack dependent shear stiffness.

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News & View, Volume 47 | TRU Compliance Expands into Physical Security | How To Make Knowing A Good Thing - Thinning Handbooks

News & View, Volume 47 | How To Make Knowing A Good Thing: Thinning Handbooks

By:  Stephen Parker and Eric HoustonNews & View, Volume 47 | TRU Compliance Expands into Physical Security | How To Make Knowing A Good Thing - Thinning Handbooks

SI has developed a process to mitigate the negative outcomes of piping examination.  One part of that process is Thinning Handbooks, which have resulted in direct savings in excess of $10 Million for one nuclear plant.

Examination of Safety Related Service Water piping is driven by a number of factors, all of which tend to converge on the objective of finding localized thinning prior to the thinning becoming a problem.  In other words, examinations are performed to eliminate the risk of a leak and ensure that the wall thickness remains greater than tmin (the minimum required uniform wall thickness).  However, the rules, regulations, and economic realities mean that only bad things happen from an exam regardless of what is found.

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News & View, Volume 47 | TRU Compliance Expands into Physical Security | Testing and Certification Services

News & View, Volume 47 | TRU Compliance Expands into Physical Security – Testing and Certification Services

By:  Dan Zentner

This service coincides with the upcoming publication of the Structural Design for Physical Security Manual of Practice by the American Society of Civil Engineers, with TRU Compliance Director Andy Coughlin as coauthor.

News & View, Volume 47 | TRU Compliance Expands into Physical Security | Testing and Certification ServicesTRU Compliance’s testing and certification services is expanding into the dynamic field of Physical Security. This service coincides with the upcoming publication of the Structural Design for Physical Security Manual of Practice by the American Society of Civil Engineers, with TRU Compliance Director Andy Coughlin as coauthor.  TRU’s practice in this arena includes Blast, Ballistics, Vehicle Impact and Forced Entry services. This is possible through TRU’s partnerships with leading test laboratories such as Oregon Ballistics Labs, Stone-OBL, BakerRisk, Calspan, and others.  Physical Security certification by TRU is accredited by the International Accreditation Service and compliments TRU’s accredited Seismic and Wind Certifications.

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News & View, Volume 47 | Surface Preparation – A Pivotal Step in the Inspection Process

News & View, Volume 47 | Surface Preparation – A Pivotal Step in the Inspection Process

By:  Ben Ruchte, Steve Gressler, and Clark McDonaldNews & View, Volume 47 | Surface Preparation – A Pivotal Step in the Inspection Process

Properly inspecting plant piping and components for service damage is an integral part of proper asset management.  High energy systems constructed in accordance with ASME codes require appropriate inspections that are based on established industry practices, such as implementation of complimentary and non-destructive examination (NDE) methods that are best suited for detecting the types of damage expected within the system.  In any instance where NDE is used to target service damage, it is desirable to perform high quality inspections while at the same time optimizing inspection efficiency in light of the need to return the unit to service.  This concept is universally applicable to high energy piping, tubing, headers, valves, turbines, and various other power and industrial systems and components.

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News & View, Volume 47 | Biofilms? MIC? What Are They?

News & View, Volume 47 | Biofilms? MIC? What Are They?

By:  Edward Dougherty

News & View, Volume 47 | Biofilms? MIC? What Are They?Has the heat conversion efficiency of your heat exchangers degraded? Is the flow of your cooling water system being impeded? Are you repairing or replacing equipment due to localized corrosion causing through-wall failure? Inefficiencies and equipment failures are big problems in any industrial process, but the cause of the problem may be smaller than you think. You might have a biofilm problem. Bacteria floating in a cooling or process water can become colonies on wetted surfaces and can form robust biofilms over remarkably short times. Biofilms are collections of living and dead cells that are enclosed in an extracellular polymeric substance matrix secreted by living organisms. The unchecked growth of biofilms can significantly decrease thermal efficiency on surfaces as the biofilm acts as an insulating layer. Highly localized chemical effects can also be created that lead to microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC).

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News & View, Volume 47 | Material Verification Intelligence

News & View, Volume 47 | Material Verification Intelligence

By:  StevenBiles and Scott Riccardella

A new program to help pipeline operators implement the Material Verification requirements in recently released pipeline regulation (Mega Rule)

On October 1, 2019, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published the long-awaited Mega-Rule  (Part 1).  One of the major new requirements identified in these amendments is when missing traceable, verifiable, and complete records, operators must implement a Material Verification (MV) (§192.607) program.  MV requires operators of natural gas transmission pipelines, to develop and implement procedures to verify the material properties and attributes of their pipeline system.  Included in the new regulation for MV are:

  • News & View, Volume 47 | Material Verification IntelligenceDevelop procedures for conducting destructive and non-destructive testing
  • Define population groupings and implement sampling programs
  • Implement and document laboratory testing
  • Complete in situ and non-destructive evaluations (NDE)
  • Expand sampling if inconsistent results based on NDE and laboratory testing
  • Document program results and preserve for the life of the pipeline asset

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News & View, Volume 47 | PEGASUS State-of-the-Art Nuclear Fuel Behavior

News & Views, Volume 47 | Introducing Pegasus: Optimize Fuel Performance

By:  Vick Nazareth and Bill LyonNews & View, Volume 47 | PEGASUS State-of-the-Art Nuclear Fuel Behavior

The Pegasus code is a culmination of nuclear fuel behavior knowledge and experience that spans a period of over five decades. It is a total fuel-cycle simulation of fuel response from initial insertion in reactor to deposition in permanent storage. The goal of Pegasus is to treat, with equal fidelity, the modeling of fuel behavior during the active fuel cycle and the back-end cycle of spent-fuel storage and transportation in a single, self-consistent, and highly cost-effective analysis approach. In the active part of the fuel cycle, Pegasus’s superior three-dimensional thermo-mechanics, coupled with validated nuclear and material behavior models, and robust fuel-cladding interface treatment make it a high-fidelity predictor of fuel-rod response during flexible power operations and operational transients.

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News & View, Volume 47 | Metallurgical Lab Case Study- Corrosion Fatigue in WaterWall Tubes Increasingly A Safety Concern as Coal Plants Cycle

News & Views, Volume 47 | Metallurgical Lab Case Study: Corrosion Fatigue in WaterWall Tubes Increasingly A Safety Concern as Coal Plants Cycle

By:  Ben RuchteNews & View, Volume 47 | Metallurgical Lab Case Study- Corrosion Fatigue in WaterWall Tubes Increasingly A Safety Concern as Coal Plants Cycle

It is well known that conventional coal-fired utility boilers are cycling more today than they ever have.  As these units have shifted to more of an ‘on-call’ demand they experience many more cycles (start-ups and shutdowns, and/or significant load swings) making other damage mechanisms such as fatigue or other related mechanisms a concern. 

The most recent short-term energy outlook provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicates the share of electricity generation from coal will average 25% in 2019 and 23% in 2020, down from 27% in 2018.  While the industry shifts towards new construction of flexible operating units, some of the safety issues that have been prevalent in the past are fading from memory.  The inherent risks  of aging seam-welded failures and waterwall tube cold-side corrosion fatigue failures are a case in point.   It is well known that conventional coal-fired utility boilers are cycling more today than they ever have.  As these units have shifted to more of an ‘on-call’ demand they experience many more cycles (start-ups and shutdowns, and/or significant load swings) making other damage mechanisms such as fatigue or other related mechanisms a concern.  The following case study highlights this point by investigating a cold-side waterwall failure that experienced Corrosion Fatigue.  While this failure did not lead to any injuries, it must be stressed that the potential for injuries is significant if the failure occurs on the cold-side of the tubes (towards the furnace wall).

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