Spring 2006 Vol. No.21 Vol. No. 22 Winter 2007 NEWS & VIEWS Using Linear Phased Array Ultrasonics to Inspect New Boiler Tube Welds As fossil boilers age, waterwall and tubing sections that have expended their useful life for various reasons are routinely replaced to avoid unplanned outages resulting from tube leaks. For years, SI has been the industry leader in detecting and evaluating conditions that could lead to forced outages. Now we are using our advanced ultrasonics to inspect replacement tubing installation welds to ensure that the new welds are sound and will provide good service. Traditionally, utilities have used radiography (RT) as the nondestructive inspection method to determine weld quality. However, owing to the hazards associated with radiation exposure, workers must be cleared from a relatively large work area for the duration of the RT inspection, halting useful work in that area. One utility calculated that these necessary safety requirements reduce the amount of available production welding by 2 to 4 days per major (six week) overhaul. Linear Phased Array (LPA), an advanced form of ultrasonic inspection, offered several advantages over RT for the overhauls. First, unlike RT, no work stoppage or relocation of the welders would be required as no safety hazards exist with the inspection technique. Second, a larger number of welds could be inspected because of the higher inspection productivity as compared to RT. Third, unlike RT, LPA is well suited for the detection of planar, crack-like indications such as lack of fusion, which are more likely to result in premature failure. To allow implementation of LPA in lieu of RT, SI developed and refned the inspection protocol, developed acceptable and unacceptable faw sizes based on analysis, fabricated performance demonstration standards containing faws in tubes of the thickness and diameter of the tubes to be examined, and fnally, benchmarked the LPA inspection results against RT. LPA UT Boiler Tube Image The benchmarking effort, essential for acceptance of the new method, included the performance demonstration standards, radiographically rejected welds from another overhaul, and several welds that were accepted by radiography, and contained acceptable indications. Finally, during the frst week of the frst overhaul, both RT and LPA were used to examine the same welds. In all instances, equivalent results were found. LPA was then used as the primary inspection technique for boiler tube pressure welds made during two major spring 2006 overhauls. The higher productivity of LPA allowed IN THIS ISSUE Using Linear Phased Array Ultrasonics for Boiler Tubes President’s Corner Root Cause Evaluation of RHR Bypass Line Cracking Charlotte, NC Offce Expansion W(SI) 2 Completes Alloy 600 Weld Overlay Projects New Phased Array Technology for Alloy 600 Repairs SI Vibes SI Associate Chairs “Corrosion in the Nuclear Power Industry” Assessment of ASME Code Temperbead Weld Procedure Qualifcation ........................................ 1 New People at SI Kewaunee Feedwater Piping Inspection and Analysis ...................................................................................................... 6 Have You Heard . . . ? ..................................................................................................... 2 ........................................... 2 ............................................................................... 2 ............................................... 3 ............................................. 3 ..................................................................................................................... 4 ............................... 5 ................. 5 ............................................. 7 ............................................................................................... 8 inspection of a higher percentage of feld welds, increasing the chances of fnding welds that would force the plant off- line. While typical RT examinations include only 10% of fabricated welds, about 20% of the over 4,000 welds were inspected during the frst overhaul, with each UT inspector averaging over 40 welds per day. During the second overhaul, the sampling rate increased to about one third of all welds. For additional information, please contact Harold Queen at (954) 572-2902 or [email protected], or John Arnold at (860) 536-3982 or [email protected]. (Continued on page 2) Visit our website at www.structint.com
Transcript
Spring 2006
Vol No21
Vol No 22 Winter 2007
NEWS amp VIEWS Using Linear Phased Array Ultrasonics to Inspect New Boiler Tube Welds
As fossil boilers age waterwall and tubing sections that have expended theiruseful life for various reasons are routinely replaced to avoid unplanned outagesresulting from tube leaks For years SI has been the industry leader in detecting andevaluating conditions that could lead to forced outages Now we are using our advancedultrasonics to inspect replacement tubing installation welds to ensure that the new weldsare sound and will provide good service
Traditionally utilities have used radiography (RT) as the nondestructiveinspection method to determine weld quality However owing to the hazards associatedwith radiation exposure workers must be cleared from a relatively large work area forthe duration of the RT inspection halting useful work in that area One utility calculatedthat these necessary safety requirements reduce the amount of available productionwelding by 2 to 4 days per major (six week) overhaul
Linear Phased Array (LPA) an advanced form of ultrasonic inspection offered severaladvantages over RT for the overhauls First unlike RT no work stoppage or relocation of thewelders would be required as no safety hazards exist with the inspection technique Seconda larger number of welds could be inspected because of the higher inspection productivity ascompared to RT Third unlike RT LPA is well suited for the detection of planar crack-likeindications such as lack of fusion which are more likely to result in premature failureTo allow implementation of LPA in lieu of RT SI developed and refined the inspection
protocol developed acceptable and unacceptable flaw sizes based on analysis fabricatedperformance demonstration standards containing flaws in tubes of the thickness and diameterof the tubes to be examined and finally benchmarked the LPA inspection results against RTLPA UT Boiler Tube Image The benchmarking effort essential for acceptance of the new method included the
performance demonstration standards radiographically rejected welds from another overhaul and several welds that were acceptedby radiography and contained acceptable indications Finally during the first week of the first overhaul both RT and LPA were usedto examine the same welds In all instances equivalent results were found
LPA was then used as the primary inspection technique forboiler tube pressure welds made during two major spring2006 overhauls The higher productivity of LPA allowedIN THIS ISSUE
Using Linear Phased Array Ultrasonics for Boiler TubesPresidentrsquos Corner Root Cause Evaluation of RHR Bypass Line CrackingCharlotte NC Office ExpansionW(SI)2 Completes Alloy 600 Weld Overlay ProjectsNew Phased Array Technology for Alloy 600 RepairsSI Vibes SI Associate Chairs ldquoCorrosion in the Nuclear Power IndustryrdquoAssessment of ASME Code Temperbead Weld Procedure Qualification
1
New People at SIKewaunee Feedwater Piping Inspection and Analysis
6
Have You Heard
2 2
2 3 3
4 5
5
7 8
inspection of a higher percentage of field welds increasingthe chances of finding welds that would force the plant off-line While typical RT examinations include only 10 offabricated welds about 20 of the over 4000 welds wereinspected during the first overhaul with each UT inspectoraveraging over 40 welds per day During the second overhaulthe sampling rate increased to about one third of all welds
For additional information please contact Harold Queen at(954) 572-2902 or hqueenstructintcom or John Arnold at(860) 536-3982 or jarnoldstructintcom
(Continued on page 2)
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom
Presidentrsquos Corner by Laney Bisbee This summer SI celebrated its 23rd year and many successes with an all
employee meeting During the meeting we were privileged to hear reflections fromone of our founders (and SIrsquos President for the first 21 years) Pete Riccardella Petesuccinctly captured much of SIrsquos history through the review of a list of technologicalfirsts achieved by SI Petersquos message was clear - one critical component of SIrsquos successhas been innovation
I recalled Petersquos message during a recent client meeting where we discussedthe innovations being applied to their pressurizer nozzle weld overlay project Throughthe W(SI)2 team this one project included no less than eight significant innovationsincluding new overlay welding equipment remote machining and the first use of aPDI-qualified linear phased array ultrasonic inspection This experience prompted meto then research the answer to the question lsquoIs SI sustaining its credo of innovationrsquo
My survey revealed the following recent important innovations l Long Range Guided Wave (G-ScanTM) inspection with integral allowable wall
thinning evaluations for nuclear fossil and pipeline applications l First ever PDI qualification and field implementation of Linear Phased Array UT for
weld overlays of critical nuclear piping l Linear Phased Array UT in lieu of RT for the butt weld acceptance testing of
replacement waterwall tubing l Sound welding processes for Alloy 52M weld overlay repairs and half-nozzle
repairs of critical nuclear piping l Integration of weld overlay design with Linear Phased Array inspection to minimize
weld overlay length and to maximize inspectable volume l Portable handheld dynamic data acquisition systems (SI-MiniDASTM) l Minimum16-bit resolution for all currently offered vibration-related data acquisition
devices l Universal automated vibration-related data processing software to reduce analysis
time l Linear Phased Array inspection of fossil header stub tube socket welds to reduce
inspection time and provide through wall crack dimensions l In-situ high-resolution NDE technique in conjunction with stress and fracture
mechanics analyses to help utilities assess the potential for generator shaft keywaycracking without costly coupling disassembly
l Macro to speed up and greatly simplify the process of inserting crack tip elements infinite element models optimizing the modeling of flaws in 3-D structures
Obviously we are continuing and even accelerating our rate of innovation Yoursquoll findarticles expanding on several of these recent SI innovations in this issue of News andViews
Root Cause Evaluation of RHR Bypass Line Cracking
In December of 2005 a ReactorCoolant System (RCS) pressure boundaryleak forced Plant Vogtle Unit 2 into anunscheduled outage The leak was in a 34-inch socket weld between a flow restrictor and a half-coupling on thebypass line for a Residual Heat Removal(RHR) suction valve Poor weld qualitywas determined to be the most probablecause of the leak However leaks attwo other welds in the same bypass linein February 2006 led to a metallurgicalanalysis which showed that some sort offatigue mechanism was responsible forthese cracks A March 2006 leak at thesame weld location as the December 2005 leak underscored the need for a thoroughinvestigation of possible degradationmechanisms
Possible failure mechanisms fall into several categories thermalfatigue stress corrosion cracking (SCC)localized corrosion (LC) flow-sensitive(FS) mechanisms mechanicalvibrationfatigue creep plastic deformation andfabrication-related mechanisms A failure analysis report prepared by theclient found no evidence of SCC or LC FS creep and plastic deformationmechanisms were also quicklyeliminated SI performed the followinganalyses to narrow things down further l Piping analyses of cold springingthermal expansion and support bindingeliminated these as possible causes
(Continued on page 4)
Charlotte NC Office Expansion Planned for NPS
Bud Auvil has been named to head SIrsquos new Nuclear Power Services (NPS) office planned for Charlotte NorthCarolina Select relocation of technical and project management personnelcurrently working in NPSrsquo San JoseCalifornia and Denver Colorado officesare expected to happen during 2007 insupport of this expansion External hires
are also planned This move is beingundertaken in an effort to improve SIrsquosresponsiveness to a nuclear utility marketthat is predominantly eastern-US based
SIrsquos nuclear and fossil NDE manpower and equipment are currentlyhoused in a 10000 square foot facility inCharlotte near EPRIrsquos NDE Center Plans for expanding SIrsquos existing Charlotte
facility to support growth of both SIrsquosNDE and NPS resource base are beingdeveloped
Candidates interested in employmentopportunities with SI in Charlotte orelsewhere should visit httpwwwstructintcomcareershtml
Winter 2007 Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Vol No
Completes Alloy 600 Weld Overlay Projects with First-Time Quality
SI Launches New Linear Phased Array Inspection Capability for Alloy 600 Repairs
SI successfully qualified andhas now repeatedly applied a first-of-a-kind Linear Phased Array (LPA) UTinspection in the field for Alloy 600weld overlay repairs Qualification ofthe process and in turn SI inspectionpersonnel was completed in September2006 via the EPRI Performance Demonstration Initiative (PDI) processSince completion of the PDI qualificationprocess LPA UT examination has beencompleted for 22 different weld overlayrepairs at four different nuclear sitesAll weld overlay repairs examined werecompleted by Welding Services Inc(WSI) with the result of no recordableindications
Use of SIrsquos proprietary LPA UTtechnology for weld overlay inspectionsoffers the following distinct advantagesover conventional UT examination
The team of Welding ServicesInc (WSI) and Structural IntegrityAssociates Inc (SI) in conjunction withtwo different utility clients have recentlycompleted four planned pressurizerrefurbishment projects which included atotal of 22 weld overlay repairs Overallthere were no recordable UT indicationsrework safety incidents or impact onoutage critical pathrdquo
These projects introduced thefollowing innovations for weld overlayrepairs l Sound welding process ndash Weldingschedules were developed and validatedthat are tolerant to a broad range of fieldconditions l Fiber optic controls ndash Welding wascontrolled from a distance of nearlyone mile (gt4500 feet) from the reactorbuilding due to workspace constraints andin an effort to minimize dose l New overlay welding equipment ndashWSI employed its new dual-torchlsquoOmegarsquo weld head (patent pending)that facilitates effective use of lsquodoubleshy
need (due to a 10 to 12 week deliverytime) The risk of improper fit and thus asignificant change in probe requirementsas a result of variances in the as-built repair is substantial and can lead tosignificant repair schedule delays andexpediting costs SIrsquos LPA UT techniqueincorporates the use of a separate probeand its associated wedges Should as-built conditions require machining ofonly the wedge is required for LPA UTexamination This machining scope caneasily be accommodated on-site andgenerally within one hour of the identifiedneed
In addition to the above LPA UToffers advantages in coverage volumepotentially reducing the length of weldoverlay repair designs thus reducingwelder exposure
For more information please contactMichael Lashley at (303) 792-0077 ormlashleystructintcom
a new machining process that provides auniform surface contour with minimum material removal The equipment isdesigned to meet ALARA goals andreduce schedule impact l New Linear Phased Array (LPA) UTinspection ndash SI developed and qualifiedLPA UT inspection procedures andinspection personnel via the EPRI PDIprocess in preparation for first-timeapplication during this project (Seerelated article on this page) Use of LPAUT reduced scan time and dose by a factorof 4 or greater
W(SI)2 has now completedan industry-leading 10 pressurizerrefurbishment projects since 2003 inresponse to the Alloy 600 issue Eachproject introduced new design weldingmachining and inspection innovations allbased upon direct field experience andtechnical leadership
For more information please contactBud Auvil at (704) 458-8883 or bauvilstructintcom
uprsquo weld progressions for out-of-positionAlloy 52M welding The dual-torchdesign eliminates schedule impacts formachine cable rewrap Coupled with thenew weld heads are the latest GoldTrac VITM power supplies and WSI-designedstate-of-the-art digital operator videocontrol consoles
l New remote machining ndash Surfaceswere prepared for NDE remotely using
l Examination ScheduleALARAndash Conventional UT examination of weld overlay repairs can require as many as13 or more scans to provide completecoverage However LPA UT can covera wide range of angles with a singlescan thus reducing the required numberof scans to four (two axial and twocircumferential) This greatly reducesscan time improving schedule anddecreasing radiation dose for examinersFor example typical scan time for apressurizer surge line weld overlay repairhas now been reduced from a 12-hour shift for a crew of three to approximately2 hours for one examiner with the use of LPA UT l Risk Reduction ndash Typically probesets for conventional UT examinations of weld overlay repairs are ordered basedon overlay design and in advance of the
Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007
(Continued from page 2)
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No
l SI delivered a 32 channel data acquisition system to support strain gagedata collection at Browns Ferry NuclearPlant The industrial computer basedsystem is a self contained unit mountedin rolling 19-inch rack cabinet Theunit features automatic Wheatstone bridge balancing and allows quickreconfiguration of strain channels in caseof gage losses l A Transient Torsional Vibration Monitoring System (TTVMSTM) waspermanently mounted at South TexasProject Unit 1 The system will help alertoperators to the presence of potentiallyharmful torsional vibrations of the main turbine l SI assisted in evaluating the vibrationof one of the RHR valve bypass lines atVogtle Electric Generating Plant Pleaseread the full length article on this topic inthis issue of News and Views l Oconee Nuclear Station was providedan SI-VersaDAS to enable monitoring thetemperatures and vibration levels of theirLow Pressure Injection (LPI) line Theyalso obtained powerful data processingsoftware with automated plot generationfeatures to aid data evaluation l SI supported the root cause analysisefforts at Hatch Nuclear Plant after it was determined that one of the RHR pumpmotors was vibrating at high levels under
SI Vibes News Briefs from the SI Vibration Group
certain operating conditions l SI is currently developing a prototypewireless data acquisition system based onWiFi and ZigBee standards Stay tuned toSI Vibes for advancements in this area l Strain gage data reduction serviceswere provided to Quad Cities nuclearplant to help confirm the successfulimplementation of an industry-firstsolution for mitigating potentially harmfulpressure oscillations in their main steampiping Quad Cities has also obtained SIrsquosdata processing software for continuedmonitoring of the piping system
Questions or comments Contact KarenFujikawa at (303) 792-0077 or kfujikawa structintcom or George Szasz at (303) 792-0077 or gszaszstructintcom
Root Cause l SI determined acoustic resonance and vortex shedding frequencies identifyingthe possibility of amplification of vortexshedding frequencies near 30 and 170 Hz l Evaluation of thermal stratification per EPRIMRP guidelines showed stablestratification outboard of the isolation valve but no stratification cycling l Vibration analysis showed that duringplant heatup vibration stresses peakedat about 80 power when the acousticand vortex shedding frequencies are inalignment While significant the vibrationstresses did not exceed the material endurance limit
Additional vibration data collected after plant restart showedan unusual shock or ldquopulserdquo loadingComparison with plant logs indicated thata valve had been opened on a connectingsafety injection line to rapidly drop thepressure in that line and thus reseat aleaking check valve It is believed that therapid pressure drop caused the liquid inthe line to flash to steam and the ensuingvoid collapse sent a pressure wave up theline which then caused the RHR bypasscheck valve disk to chatter The vibration following this pulse loading was sufficientto exceed the endurance limit and fail the socket weld
SI recommended changes inoperation and plant configuration toprevent recurrence Key among thesewere
l Eliminate the check valve reseating procedure l Replace the swing type check with a lift or tiltingdisk check l Ensure that socket welds are as free of defects as possible l Use a 2x1 leg length geometry using ASMECode Case N-666 if building up an existing weld
SI also performed vibration and crackgrowth analyses on the Unit 1 bypass geometry andshowed that similar failure was unlikely for Unit 1
For more information please contact PaulHirschberg at (408) 978-8200 or phirschberg structintcom
bypass
RHR
SI
SI Associate Chairs ldquoCorrosion in the Nuclear Power Industryrdquofor ASM
Due to his worldwide renown in the area of corrosion in nuclear powerplants and his previous authorshipwith the American Society for Metals(ASM) SIrsquos Barry Gordon was askedto lead ASMrsquos update of the chapter oncorrosion in the nuclear power industryfor Volume 13c of their popular metalshandbook series Aside from originallywriting the introductory section and coshyauthoring ldquoCorrosion in Boiling WaterReactorsrdquo Barry assembled the worldrsquosnuclear power corrosion experts towrite the other sections of the chapter
including ldquoCorrosion in PressurizedWater Reactorsrdquo ldquoEffect of Irradiation onStress Corrosion Cracking and Corrosionin Light Water Reactorsrdquo ldquoCorrosion ofZirconium Alloy Components in LightWater Reactorsrdquo and ldquoCorrosion ofContainment Materials for Radioactive Waste Isolationrdquo Details for Volume 13c can be viewed at wwwasminternational orgvolume13c
Much of the updated informationwas based on Barryrsquos SI training classldquoCorrosion and Corrosion Control in LWRsrdquo Please check out wwwstructint
comtrainingcoursedescriptionscorrcontdeschtml for course details
For more information please contactBarry Gordon at (408) 978-8200 orbgordonstructintcom
IGSCC in a Type 304 Stainless Steel Pipe Heat Affected Zone
Assessment of ASME Code Temperbead Weld Procedure QualificationNote This article is adapted from ldquoAssessment of ASME Code Temperbead Weld Procedure Qualificationrdquo Co-authors R Smith and A McGehee EPRI 7th International Conference on Welding and Repair Technology for Power Plants Marriott Sawgrass Conference Center Jacksonville FL June 2006
The overall goal in qualifyingtemperbead weld procedures without postweld heat treatment (PWHT) is to ensurethat the welding process will not degradethe mechanical response of the materialbeing welded when compared to theoriginal condition that received PWHTToughness properties are the key to thequalification Toughness Transition for SA508 Cl 2
than the NDT three Charpy-V (Cv)impact samples are tested that must meeta minimum requirement of 35 mils lateralexpansion If the minimum requirementsare met then the NDT becomes the RTNDT If not then additional sets ofthree Cv samples are tested at increasingtemperatures until the minimum
requirementsASME Boiler
250and Pressure Vessel Code testing
200
protocol 150
requiresmeasurement 100
of a reference 50
nil ductility0temperature
(RTNDT)that is used
-320 -240 -160 -80 0 80 160 240
Temperature (F)
Base Metal HAZ DWNDT + 60
to index low alloy steels to a reference toughnesscurve provided by the Code This curveprescribes the rate of toughness increasewith temperature and the referencetemperature identifies the temperaturerange over which this upsweep intoughness occurs The testing protocoldetermines a nil ductility temperature(NDT) using the standard drop weighttest Then at a temperature 60degF higher
are met Subsequentlyan RT is defined 60degF below the temperaturewhere the minimum requirementsare met
Anyincrease in the RTNDT for the
weld repair process is undesirable becauseit will necessarily increase the lowesttemperature at which the componentcan be pressurized This has not been aproblem for temperbead testing wherethe test material is similar to the originalmaterial of fabrication Temperbeadwelding typically produces a weld heataffected zone (HAZ) that is mechanicallysuperior to the original base material as
measured by the Code test protocol Theproblem is that the modern materials areso tough in relation to where the dropweight NDT is measured that the improvedtoughness of the HAZ is difficult todemonstrate
SI conducted a study for EPRIthat considered testing differences to beexpected with different vintage materialswhen using testing protocol required byCode Test results from a current heat were compared to results obtained historicallyThe results suggest the Cv test temperaturesfor modern materials prescribed by thedrop weight test are too far up the transitionrange to demonstrate improvement in HAZproperties
A better approach is to developthe full Cv curves using single tests atmany temperatures for both the HAZ andbase metal then compare the transitionshift at 50 shear A negative shift woulddefine an effective welding procedure Thefigure at the left displays this procedurefor modern low alloy steel showing thehuge improvement in toughness for theHAZ These results suggest that alternatetoughness testing criteria be consideredfor temperbead welding procedurequalifications to obtain an accurateevaluation The full report is publishedby EPRI as RRAAC Report No 1013553Acceptable Cv Results for Temperbead Weld Procedure Qualification
For more information please contactDick Smith at (704) 677-2370 or rsmith structintcom
Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No 1
New People at SI
Terry Haigler is a Laboratory Assistantin the Charlotte office helping with NDEdevelopment and with field services (whenschool doesnrsquot interfere) He is attendingcollege and expects to receive his BS in weldingengineering in August 2007
Mark Jaeger has joined our Denver COoffice Mark has recently received his BS inMechanical Engineering from South DakotaSchool of Mines and Technology
Newly hired in our San Jose office Eric Houston has a Bachelorrsquos degree fromUniversity of Texas in Mechanical EngineeringPrior to joining SI Eric worked on the structuraldesign of sonar test equipment He is now working in the areas of wall thinning evaluationFatiguePro and fracture mechanics Jason Krupicka is an Integrity EngineeringAnalyst for SI Pipeline Services in our Denveroffice
Terry Herrmann a Syracuse Universitygraduate has 30 years of experience in nucleardesign construction testing failure analysisand PRA including extensive experience inthe Maintenance Rule surveillance testing andpreventive maintenance Terry works in ourDenver office
Ping Wang who has joined our San Jose officeis an expert in finite element analysis and ispublished in the areas of fracture mechanicsand mechanics of materials He has a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from VanderbiltUniversity and and has degrees from BeijingUniversity in both Aeronautics and SolidMechanics
Shane Cavanaugh has joined our StoningtonCT office He recently graduated from MaineMaritime Academy with a BS degree in PowerEngineering Technology
Benjamin Owen is a graduate of theSoutheastern Community Collegersquos NDEprogram and is one of SIrsquos newest ultrasonicpractitioners helping deliver linear phased arraysolutions for the fossil NDE Services group
Sean Hastings has rejoined SI after an 8 yearhiatus and now works on advanced eddycurrent and ultrasonic inspection applicationsdevelopment in our Charlotte office Sean is a mechanical engineering graduate of theUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte
Steve Jeffery has joined SI in the position ofExecutive Human Resources Director in our San Jose office Steve has over 25 years as anHR professional with leadership experience inall aspects of HR including recruiting staff andorganizational development and performancemanagement
Nancy Nicolaysen is a Technical Typist in our San Jose office Nancy comes to us with over15 years of Administrative Experience
Jeff Henry is an internationally recognizedleader in advanced materials metallurgicalanalysis and evaluation of critical componentsfor conventional co-generation and advanceddesign fossil power plants
Dan Peters works out of SIrsquos Uniontown OHoffice and has extensive experience in thedesign analysis and in-service inspection ofultra-high pressure (up to 150000 psi) vesselsand systems
Diep Nguyen joins our Accounting staff inSan Jose as an Accounts Payable SpecialistDiep has over 12 years of accounts payableexperience and will be helping streamline our process
Ron Thompson is responsible fortroubleshooting and repair of some of SIrsquosadvanced NDE systems as well as providingfield support for electronic repairs duringnuclear NDE field projects He has over 17 years experience in maintenance and repair ofautomated ultrasonic equipment
Amanda Seeliger has joined the staff ofour Materials Science Center in Austin She graduated from The University of Texas witha BS degree in mechanical engineering in May2006
New People at SI continued Cliff Anderson brings an extensive backgroundand knowledge of the energy business sectorincluding over 20 years of quality assurancequality control and non-destructive testingresponsibilities at nuclear fossil fuel powerstations as well as activities for the aerospaceindustry
Dr Marshal Clark is helping SI establish alitigation business unit leveraging his extensiveexperience in expert witness support for theelectric utilities and SIrsquos expansive expertise inall disciplines of engineering and nondestructiveexamination Marshal is also an industry leaderin the asset management of critical fossil plantcomponents
Gary Hensley is responsible for operationsmanagement the NDE Services Group andthe Charlotte office Gary brings an extensivebackground and knowledge of the combustionturbine industry and will be working closelywith the SI Fossil Plant Services leadershipteam over the next few months to determine this marketrsquos potential for SI Robert Briley has joined SIrsquos nuclear NDEServices group as a Senior NDE Specialist inour Charlotte office Bob has over 15 years ofNon Destructive Examination implementationand supervision experience in the nuclear andfossil industries both in the US and abroad
Ned Finney is supporting the growing needsof our nuclear NDE group in our Charlotteoffice Ned brings extensive background in andknowledge of the nuclear industry includingproject coordination and vendor surveillancefor fabrication and inspection of nuclear qualitycomponents and piping
Chris Lohse has joined SIrsquos technical staff in San Jose UC Davisrsquo Mechanical EngineeringProgram provided Mr Lohse with laboratoryand analytical experience in dynamics x-raydiffraction fracture mechanics thermodynamicsstrength of materials and control systems
Kewaunee Feedwater Piping Inspection and AnalysisAt Dominionrsquos Kewaunee
Nuclear Power Plant utility personnelwanted to inspect a section of feedwaterpiping for flow accelerated corrosion(FAC) The challenge was that a portionof the piping is surrounded by animpingement barrier SI used both G-ScanTM inspection and analysis to showthat the piping had adequate thicknesssaving the utility the cost of replacing thepiping and reducing associated outagetime impacts
G-ScanTM uses low frequencyultrasonic longitudinal and torsionalwaves (sending and receiving) to examinethe piping Depending on pipingconfiguration and conditions piping canbe examined 100 feet or more in either direction from where the G-ScanTM collar is mounted on the piping At Kewauneethe G-ScanTM found wall loss within mill tolerance slightly downstream of thestraight pipe to elbow weld for each oftwo elbows
To determine whether the measured thinning was acceptable SIdetermined minimum wall thickness in accordance with the code of construction
VVol Nool No
(B311) and ASME Code Case N-597-1 permitted in recent ASME Code editionsProjecting the observed thinning forward the piping was found acceptable for thein time using conservative assumptions remaining life of the plantfor initial wall thickness and thinning ratethe thickness was shown to be acceptable For more information please contactfor at least nine more years of operation Ken Rach at (630) 728-2094 or krachbased on the original code of construction structintcomHowever using the higher allowable stress
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007 7Winter 007 7
February 19-21 2007 (Centennial CO)- Nuclear Power Services WorkshopAugust 28-29 2007 (Plymouth MA)
See wwwstructintcom for details
Have You Heard SI Senior Consulting Engineer Bill Amend volunteers at The Air Museum
Planes of Fame (wwwplanesoffameorg) aviation museum in Chino CA Recentlyhe had a chance to put his metallurgical and failure analysis expertise to work for themuseum The museumrsquos one of a kind 1940s vintage Northrop N9MB Flying Wingdevelopmental prototype had a partial engine failure and fire while being used to make
an IMAX film Through-wall fatiguecracks were found in the aluminum cylinder head where it mated with acast iron combustion cylinder linerBill together with a team of volunteers concluded that the likely cause of failurewas thermal stress cycling due to (1) uneven temperature distributions acrossthe head and (2) thermal expansion mismatch between the aluminum and castiron components Museum staff are working with an aerospace casting house onselection of an alternate alloy to repair the engine and prevent future similar failures
For more information please contact Bill Amend at (562) 413-3190 or bamendstructintcom
San Jose CA Silver Spring MD Whittier CA Ontario Canada Uniontown OH 408-978-8200 301-445-8200 562-944-8210 905-829-9817 330-899-9753
Sunrise FL Charlotte NC Denver CO Austin TX Stonington CT 954-572-2902 704-597-5554 303-792-0077 512-533-9191 860-536-3982
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom
Presidentrsquos Corner by Laney Bisbee This summer SI celebrated its 23rd year and many successes with an all
employee meeting During the meeting we were privileged to hear reflections fromone of our founders (and SIrsquos President for the first 21 years) Pete Riccardella Petesuccinctly captured much of SIrsquos history through the review of a list of technologicalfirsts achieved by SI Petersquos message was clear - one critical component of SIrsquos successhas been innovation
I recalled Petersquos message during a recent client meeting where we discussedthe innovations being applied to their pressurizer nozzle weld overlay project Throughthe W(SI)2 team this one project included no less than eight significant innovationsincluding new overlay welding equipment remote machining and the first use of aPDI-qualified linear phased array ultrasonic inspection This experience prompted meto then research the answer to the question lsquoIs SI sustaining its credo of innovationrsquo
My survey revealed the following recent important innovations l Long Range Guided Wave (G-ScanTM) inspection with integral allowable wall
thinning evaluations for nuclear fossil and pipeline applications l First ever PDI qualification and field implementation of Linear Phased Array UT for
weld overlays of critical nuclear piping l Linear Phased Array UT in lieu of RT for the butt weld acceptance testing of
replacement waterwall tubing l Sound welding processes for Alloy 52M weld overlay repairs and half-nozzle
repairs of critical nuclear piping l Integration of weld overlay design with Linear Phased Array inspection to minimize
weld overlay length and to maximize inspectable volume l Portable handheld dynamic data acquisition systems (SI-MiniDASTM) l Minimum16-bit resolution for all currently offered vibration-related data acquisition
devices l Universal automated vibration-related data processing software to reduce analysis
time l Linear Phased Array inspection of fossil header stub tube socket welds to reduce
inspection time and provide through wall crack dimensions l In-situ high-resolution NDE technique in conjunction with stress and fracture
mechanics analyses to help utilities assess the potential for generator shaft keywaycracking without costly coupling disassembly
l Macro to speed up and greatly simplify the process of inserting crack tip elements infinite element models optimizing the modeling of flaws in 3-D structures
Obviously we are continuing and even accelerating our rate of innovation Yoursquoll findarticles expanding on several of these recent SI innovations in this issue of News andViews
Root Cause Evaluation of RHR Bypass Line Cracking
In December of 2005 a ReactorCoolant System (RCS) pressure boundaryleak forced Plant Vogtle Unit 2 into anunscheduled outage The leak was in a 34-inch socket weld between a flow restrictor and a half-coupling on thebypass line for a Residual Heat Removal(RHR) suction valve Poor weld qualitywas determined to be the most probablecause of the leak However leaks attwo other welds in the same bypass linein February 2006 led to a metallurgicalanalysis which showed that some sort offatigue mechanism was responsible forthese cracks A March 2006 leak at thesame weld location as the December 2005 leak underscored the need for a thoroughinvestigation of possible degradationmechanisms
Possible failure mechanisms fall into several categories thermalfatigue stress corrosion cracking (SCC)localized corrosion (LC) flow-sensitive(FS) mechanisms mechanicalvibrationfatigue creep plastic deformation andfabrication-related mechanisms A failure analysis report prepared by theclient found no evidence of SCC or LC FS creep and plastic deformationmechanisms were also quicklyeliminated SI performed the followinganalyses to narrow things down further l Piping analyses of cold springingthermal expansion and support bindingeliminated these as possible causes
(Continued on page 4)
Charlotte NC Office Expansion Planned for NPS
Bud Auvil has been named to head SIrsquos new Nuclear Power Services (NPS) office planned for Charlotte NorthCarolina Select relocation of technical and project management personnelcurrently working in NPSrsquo San JoseCalifornia and Denver Colorado officesare expected to happen during 2007 insupport of this expansion External hires
are also planned This move is beingundertaken in an effort to improve SIrsquosresponsiveness to a nuclear utility marketthat is predominantly eastern-US based
SIrsquos nuclear and fossil NDE manpower and equipment are currentlyhoused in a 10000 square foot facility inCharlotte near EPRIrsquos NDE Center Plans for expanding SIrsquos existing Charlotte
facility to support growth of both SIrsquosNDE and NPS resource base are beingdeveloped
Candidates interested in employmentopportunities with SI in Charlotte orelsewhere should visit httpwwwstructintcomcareershtml
Winter 2007 Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Vol No
Completes Alloy 600 Weld Overlay Projects with First-Time Quality
SI Launches New Linear Phased Array Inspection Capability for Alloy 600 Repairs
SI successfully qualified andhas now repeatedly applied a first-of-a-kind Linear Phased Array (LPA) UTinspection in the field for Alloy 600weld overlay repairs Qualification ofthe process and in turn SI inspectionpersonnel was completed in September2006 via the EPRI Performance Demonstration Initiative (PDI) processSince completion of the PDI qualificationprocess LPA UT examination has beencompleted for 22 different weld overlayrepairs at four different nuclear sitesAll weld overlay repairs examined werecompleted by Welding Services Inc(WSI) with the result of no recordableindications
Use of SIrsquos proprietary LPA UTtechnology for weld overlay inspectionsoffers the following distinct advantagesover conventional UT examination
The team of Welding ServicesInc (WSI) and Structural IntegrityAssociates Inc (SI) in conjunction withtwo different utility clients have recentlycompleted four planned pressurizerrefurbishment projects which included atotal of 22 weld overlay repairs Overallthere were no recordable UT indicationsrework safety incidents or impact onoutage critical pathrdquo
These projects introduced thefollowing innovations for weld overlayrepairs l Sound welding process ndash Weldingschedules were developed and validatedthat are tolerant to a broad range of fieldconditions l Fiber optic controls ndash Welding wascontrolled from a distance of nearlyone mile (gt4500 feet) from the reactorbuilding due to workspace constraints andin an effort to minimize dose l New overlay welding equipment ndashWSI employed its new dual-torchlsquoOmegarsquo weld head (patent pending)that facilitates effective use of lsquodoubleshy
need (due to a 10 to 12 week deliverytime) The risk of improper fit and thus asignificant change in probe requirementsas a result of variances in the as-built repair is substantial and can lead tosignificant repair schedule delays andexpediting costs SIrsquos LPA UT techniqueincorporates the use of a separate probeand its associated wedges Should as-built conditions require machining ofonly the wedge is required for LPA UTexamination This machining scope caneasily be accommodated on-site andgenerally within one hour of the identifiedneed
In addition to the above LPA UToffers advantages in coverage volumepotentially reducing the length of weldoverlay repair designs thus reducingwelder exposure
For more information please contactMichael Lashley at (303) 792-0077 ormlashleystructintcom
a new machining process that provides auniform surface contour with minimum material removal The equipment isdesigned to meet ALARA goals andreduce schedule impact l New Linear Phased Array (LPA) UTinspection ndash SI developed and qualifiedLPA UT inspection procedures andinspection personnel via the EPRI PDIprocess in preparation for first-timeapplication during this project (Seerelated article on this page) Use of LPAUT reduced scan time and dose by a factorof 4 or greater
W(SI)2 has now completedan industry-leading 10 pressurizerrefurbishment projects since 2003 inresponse to the Alloy 600 issue Eachproject introduced new design weldingmachining and inspection innovations allbased upon direct field experience andtechnical leadership
For more information please contactBud Auvil at (704) 458-8883 or bauvilstructintcom
uprsquo weld progressions for out-of-positionAlloy 52M welding The dual-torchdesign eliminates schedule impacts formachine cable rewrap Coupled with thenew weld heads are the latest GoldTrac VITM power supplies and WSI-designedstate-of-the-art digital operator videocontrol consoles
l New remote machining ndash Surfaceswere prepared for NDE remotely using
l Examination ScheduleALARAndash Conventional UT examination of weld overlay repairs can require as many as13 or more scans to provide completecoverage However LPA UT can covera wide range of angles with a singlescan thus reducing the required numberof scans to four (two axial and twocircumferential) This greatly reducesscan time improving schedule anddecreasing radiation dose for examinersFor example typical scan time for apressurizer surge line weld overlay repairhas now been reduced from a 12-hour shift for a crew of three to approximately2 hours for one examiner with the use of LPA UT l Risk Reduction ndash Typically probesets for conventional UT examinations of weld overlay repairs are ordered basedon overlay design and in advance of the
Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007
(Continued from page 2)
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No
l SI delivered a 32 channel data acquisition system to support strain gagedata collection at Browns Ferry NuclearPlant The industrial computer basedsystem is a self contained unit mountedin rolling 19-inch rack cabinet Theunit features automatic Wheatstone bridge balancing and allows quickreconfiguration of strain channels in caseof gage losses l A Transient Torsional Vibration Monitoring System (TTVMSTM) waspermanently mounted at South TexasProject Unit 1 The system will help alertoperators to the presence of potentiallyharmful torsional vibrations of the main turbine l SI assisted in evaluating the vibrationof one of the RHR valve bypass lines atVogtle Electric Generating Plant Pleaseread the full length article on this topic inthis issue of News and Views l Oconee Nuclear Station was providedan SI-VersaDAS to enable monitoring thetemperatures and vibration levels of theirLow Pressure Injection (LPI) line Theyalso obtained powerful data processingsoftware with automated plot generationfeatures to aid data evaluation l SI supported the root cause analysisefforts at Hatch Nuclear Plant after it was determined that one of the RHR pumpmotors was vibrating at high levels under
SI Vibes News Briefs from the SI Vibration Group
certain operating conditions l SI is currently developing a prototypewireless data acquisition system based onWiFi and ZigBee standards Stay tuned toSI Vibes for advancements in this area l Strain gage data reduction serviceswere provided to Quad Cities nuclearplant to help confirm the successfulimplementation of an industry-firstsolution for mitigating potentially harmfulpressure oscillations in their main steampiping Quad Cities has also obtained SIrsquosdata processing software for continuedmonitoring of the piping system
Questions or comments Contact KarenFujikawa at (303) 792-0077 or kfujikawa structintcom or George Szasz at (303) 792-0077 or gszaszstructintcom
Root Cause l SI determined acoustic resonance and vortex shedding frequencies identifyingthe possibility of amplification of vortexshedding frequencies near 30 and 170 Hz l Evaluation of thermal stratification per EPRIMRP guidelines showed stablestratification outboard of the isolation valve but no stratification cycling l Vibration analysis showed that duringplant heatup vibration stresses peakedat about 80 power when the acousticand vortex shedding frequencies are inalignment While significant the vibrationstresses did not exceed the material endurance limit
Additional vibration data collected after plant restart showedan unusual shock or ldquopulserdquo loadingComparison with plant logs indicated thata valve had been opened on a connectingsafety injection line to rapidly drop thepressure in that line and thus reseat aleaking check valve It is believed that therapid pressure drop caused the liquid inthe line to flash to steam and the ensuingvoid collapse sent a pressure wave up theline which then caused the RHR bypasscheck valve disk to chatter The vibration following this pulse loading was sufficientto exceed the endurance limit and fail the socket weld
SI recommended changes inoperation and plant configuration toprevent recurrence Key among thesewere
l Eliminate the check valve reseating procedure l Replace the swing type check with a lift or tiltingdisk check l Ensure that socket welds are as free of defects as possible l Use a 2x1 leg length geometry using ASMECode Case N-666 if building up an existing weld
SI also performed vibration and crackgrowth analyses on the Unit 1 bypass geometry andshowed that similar failure was unlikely for Unit 1
For more information please contact PaulHirschberg at (408) 978-8200 or phirschberg structintcom
bypass
RHR
SI
SI Associate Chairs ldquoCorrosion in the Nuclear Power Industryrdquofor ASM
Due to his worldwide renown in the area of corrosion in nuclear powerplants and his previous authorshipwith the American Society for Metals(ASM) SIrsquos Barry Gordon was askedto lead ASMrsquos update of the chapter oncorrosion in the nuclear power industryfor Volume 13c of their popular metalshandbook series Aside from originallywriting the introductory section and coshyauthoring ldquoCorrosion in Boiling WaterReactorsrdquo Barry assembled the worldrsquosnuclear power corrosion experts towrite the other sections of the chapter
including ldquoCorrosion in PressurizedWater Reactorsrdquo ldquoEffect of Irradiation onStress Corrosion Cracking and Corrosionin Light Water Reactorsrdquo ldquoCorrosion ofZirconium Alloy Components in LightWater Reactorsrdquo and ldquoCorrosion ofContainment Materials for Radioactive Waste Isolationrdquo Details for Volume 13c can be viewed at wwwasminternational orgvolume13c
Much of the updated informationwas based on Barryrsquos SI training classldquoCorrosion and Corrosion Control in LWRsrdquo Please check out wwwstructint
comtrainingcoursedescriptionscorrcontdeschtml for course details
For more information please contactBarry Gordon at (408) 978-8200 orbgordonstructintcom
IGSCC in a Type 304 Stainless Steel Pipe Heat Affected Zone
Assessment of ASME Code Temperbead Weld Procedure QualificationNote This article is adapted from ldquoAssessment of ASME Code Temperbead Weld Procedure Qualificationrdquo Co-authors R Smith and A McGehee EPRI 7th International Conference on Welding and Repair Technology for Power Plants Marriott Sawgrass Conference Center Jacksonville FL June 2006
The overall goal in qualifyingtemperbead weld procedures without postweld heat treatment (PWHT) is to ensurethat the welding process will not degradethe mechanical response of the materialbeing welded when compared to theoriginal condition that received PWHTToughness properties are the key to thequalification Toughness Transition for SA508 Cl 2
than the NDT three Charpy-V (Cv)impact samples are tested that must meeta minimum requirement of 35 mils lateralexpansion If the minimum requirementsare met then the NDT becomes the RTNDT If not then additional sets ofthree Cv samples are tested at increasingtemperatures until the minimum
requirementsASME Boiler
250and Pressure Vessel Code testing
200
protocol 150
requiresmeasurement 100
of a reference 50
nil ductility0temperature
(RTNDT)that is used
-320 -240 -160 -80 0 80 160 240
Temperature (F)
Base Metal HAZ DWNDT + 60
to index low alloy steels to a reference toughnesscurve provided by the Code This curveprescribes the rate of toughness increasewith temperature and the referencetemperature identifies the temperaturerange over which this upsweep intoughness occurs The testing protocoldetermines a nil ductility temperature(NDT) using the standard drop weighttest Then at a temperature 60degF higher
are met Subsequentlyan RT is defined 60degF below the temperaturewhere the minimum requirementsare met
Anyincrease in the RTNDT for the
weld repair process is undesirable becauseit will necessarily increase the lowesttemperature at which the componentcan be pressurized This has not been aproblem for temperbead testing wherethe test material is similar to the originalmaterial of fabrication Temperbeadwelding typically produces a weld heataffected zone (HAZ) that is mechanicallysuperior to the original base material as
measured by the Code test protocol Theproblem is that the modern materials areso tough in relation to where the dropweight NDT is measured that the improvedtoughness of the HAZ is difficult todemonstrate
SI conducted a study for EPRIthat considered testing differences to beexpected with different vintage materialswhen using testing protocol required byCode Test results from a current heat were compared to results obtained historicallyThe results suggest the Cv test temperaturesfor modern materials prescribed by thedrop weight test are too far up the transitionrange to demonstrate improvement in HAZproperties
A better approach is to developthe full Cv curves using single tests atmany temperatures for both the HAZ andbase metal then compare the transitionshift at 50 shear A negative shift woulddefine an effective welding procedure Thefigure at the left displays this procedurefor modern low alloy steel showing thehuge improvement in toughness for theHAZ These results suggest that alternatetoughness testing criteria be consideredfor temperbead welding procedurequalifications to obtain an accurateevaluation The full report is publishedby EPRI as RRAAC Report No 1013553Acceptable Cv Results for Temperbead Weld Procedure Qualification
For more information please contactDick Smith at (704) 677-2370 or rsmith structintcom
Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No 1
New People at SI
Terry Haigler is a Laboratory Assistantin the Charlotte office helping with NDEdevelopment and with field services (whenschool doesnrsquot interfere) He is attendingcollege and expects to receive his BS in weldingengineering in August 2007
Mark Jaeger has joined our Denver COoffice Mark has recently received his BS inMechanical Engineering from South DakotaSchool of Mines and Technology
Newly hired in our San Jose office Eric Houston has a Bachelorrsquos degree fromUniversity of Texas in Mechanical EngineeringPrior to joining SI Eric worked on the structuraldesign of sonar test equipment He is now working in the areas of wall thinning evaluationFatiguePro and fracture mechanics Jason Krupicka is an Integrity EngineeringAnalyst for SI Pipeline Services in our Denveroffice
Terry Herrmann a Syracuse Universitygraduate has 30 years of experience in nucleardesign construction testing failure analysisand PRA including extensive experience inthe Maintenance Rule surveillance testing andpreventive maintenance Terry works in ourDenver office
Ping Wang who has joined our San Jose officeis an expert in finite element analysis and ispublished in the areas of fracture mechanicsand mechanics of materials He has a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from VanderbiltUniversity and and has degrees from BeijingUniversity in both Aeronautics and SolidMechanics
Shane Cavanaugh has joined our StoningtonCT office He recently graduated from MaineMaritime Academy with a BS degree in PowerEngineering Technology
Benjamin Owen is a graduate of theSoutheastern Community Collegersquos NDEprogram and is one of SIrsquos newest ultrasonicpractitioners helping deliver linear phased arraysolutions for the fossil NDE Services group
Sean Hastings has rejoined SI after an 8 yearhiatus and now works on advanced eddycurrent and ultrasonic inspection applicationsdevelopment in our Charlotte office Sean is a mechanical engineering graduate of theUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte
Steve Jeffery has joined SI in the position ofExecutive Human Resources Director in our San Jose office Steve has over 25 years as anHR professional with leadership experience inall aspects of HR including recruiting staff andorganizational development and performancemanagement
Nancy Nicolaysen is a Technical Typist in our San Jose office Nancy comes to us with over15 years of Administrative Experience
Jeff Henry is an internationally recognizedleader in advanced materials metallurgicalanalysis and evaluation of critical componentsfor conventional co-generation and advanceddesign fossil power plants
Dan Peters works out of SIrsquos Uniontown OHoffice and has extensive experience in thedesign analysis and in-service inspection ofultra-high pressure (up to 150000 psi) vesselsand systems
Diep Nguyen joins our Accounting staff inSan Jose as an Accounts Payable SpecialistDiep has over 12 years of accounts payableexperience and will be helping streamline our process
Ron Thompson is responsible fortroubleshooting and repair of some of SIrsquosadvanced NDE systems as well as providingfield support for electronic repairs duringnuclear NDE field projects He has over 17 years experience in maintenance and repair ofautomated ultrasonic equipment
Amanda Seeliger has joined the staff ofour Materials Science Center in Austin She graduated from The University of Texas witha BS degree in mechanical engineering in May2006
New People at SI continued Cliff Anderson brings an extensive backgroundand knowledge of the energy business sectorincluding over 20 years of quality assurancequality control and non-destructive testingresponsibilities at nuclear fossil fuel powerstations as well as activities for the aerospaceindustry
Dr Marshal Clark is helping SI establish alitigation business unit leveraging his extensiveexperience in expert witness support for theelectric utilities and SIrsquos expansive expertise inall disciplines of engineering and nondestructiveexamination Marshal is also an industry leaderin the asset management of critical fossil plantcomponents
Gary Hensley is responsible for operationsmanagement the NDE Services Group andthe Charlotte office Gary brings an extensivebackground and knowledge of the combustionturbine industry and will be working closelywith the SI Fossil Plant Services leadershipteam over the next few months to determine this marketrsquos potential for SI Robert Briley has joined SIrsquos nuclear NDEServices group as a Senior NDE Specialist inour Charlotte office Bob has over 15 years ofNon Destructive Examination implementationand supervision experience in the nuclear andfossil industries both in the US and abroad
Ned Finney is supporting the growing needsof our nuclear NDE group in our Charlotteoffice Ned brings extensive background in andknowledge of the nuclear industry includingproject coordination and vendor surveillancefor fabrication and inspection of nuclear qualitycomponents and piping
Chris Lohse has joined SIrsquos technical staff in San Jose UC Davisrsquo Mechanical EngineeringProgram provided Mr Lohse with laboratoryand analytical experience in dynamics x-raydiffraction fracture mechanics thermodynamicsstrength of materials and control systems
Kewaunee Feedwater Piping Inspection and AnalysisAt Dominionrsquos Kewaunee
Nuclear Power Plant utility personnelwanted to inspect a section of feedwaterpiping for flow accelerated corrosion(FAC) The challenge was that a portionof the piping is surrounded by animpingement barrier SI used both G-ScanTM inspection and analysis to showthat the piping had adequate thicknesssaving the utility the cost of replacing thepiping and reducing associated outagetime impacts
G-ScanTM uses low frequencyultrasonic longitudinal and torsionalwaves (sending and receiving) to examinethe piping Depending on pipingconfiguration and conditions piping canbe examined 100 feet or more in either direction from where the G-ScanTM collar is mounted on the piping At Kewauneethe G-ScanTM found wall loss within mill tolerance slightly downstream of thestraight pipe to elbow weld for each oftwo elbows
To determine whether the measured thinning was acceptable SIdetermined minimum wall thickness in accordance with the code of construction
VVol Nool No
(B311) and ASME Code Case N-597-1 permitted in recent ASME Code editionsProjecting the observed thinning forward the piping was found acceptable for thein time using conservative assumptions remaining life of the plantfor initial wall thickness and thinning ratethe thickness was shown to be acceptable For more information please contactfor at least nine more years of operation Ken Rach at (630) 728-2094 or krachbased on the original code of construction structintcomHowever using the higher allowable stress
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007 7Winter 007 7
February 19-21 2007 (Centennial CO)- Nuclear Power Services WorkshopAugust 28-29 2007 (Plymouth MA)
See wwwstructintcom for details
Have You Heard SI Senior Consulting Engineer Bill Amend volunteers at The Air Museum
Planes of Fame (wwwplanesoffameorg) aviation museum in Chino CA Recentlyhe had a chance to put his metallurgical and failure analysis expertise to work for themuseum The museumrsquos one of a kind 1940s vintage Northrop N9MB Flying Wingdevelopmental prototype had a partial engine failure and fire while being used to make
an IMAX film Through-wall fatiguecracks were found in the aluminum cylinder head where it mated with acast iron combustion cylinder linerBill together with a team of volunteers concluded that the likely cause of failurewas thermal stress cycling due to (1) uneven temperature distributions acrossthe head and (2) thermal expansion mismatch between the aluminum and castiron components Museum staff are working with an aerospace casting house onselection of an alternate alloy to repair the engine and prevent future similar failures
For more information please contact Bill Amend at (562) 413-3190 or bamendstructintcom
San Jose CA Silver Spring MD Whittier CA Ontario Canada Uniontown OH 408-978-8200 301-445-8200 562-944-8210 905-829-9817 330-899-9753
Sunrise FL Charlotte NC Denver CO Austin TX Stonington CT 954-572-2902 704-597-5554 303-792-0077 512-533-9191 860-536-3982
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom
Completes Alloy 600 Weld Overlay Projects with First-Time Quality
SI Launches New Linear Phased Array Inspection Capability for Alloy 600 Repairs
SI successfully qualified andhas now repeatedly applied a first-of-a-kind Linear Phased Array (LPA) UTinspection in the field for Alloy 600weld overlay repairs Qualification ofthe process and in turn SI inspectionpersonnel was completed in September2006 via the EPRI Performance Demonstration Initiative (PDI) processSince completion of the PDI qualificationprocess LPA UT examination has beencompleted for 22 different weld overlayrepairs at four different nuclear sitesAll weld overlay repairs examined werecompleted by Welding Services Inc(WSI) with the result of no recordableindications
Use of SIrsquos proprietary LPA UTtechnology for weld overlay inspectionsoffers the following distinct advantagesover conventional UT examination
The team of Welding ServicesInc (WSI) and Structural IntegrityAssociates Inc (SI) in conjunction withtwo different utility clients have recentlycompleted four planned pressurizerrefurbishment projects which included atotal of 22 weld overlay repairs Overallthere were no recordable UT indicationsrework safety incidents or impact onoutage critical pathrdquo
These projects introduced thefollowing innovations for weld overlayrepairs l Sound welding process ndash Weldingschedules were developed and validatedthat are tolerant to a broad range of fieldconditions l Fiber optic controls ndash Welding wascontrolled from a distance of nearlyone mile (gt4500 feet) from the reactorbuilding due to workspace constraints andin an effort to minimize dose l New overlay welding equipment ndashWSI employed its new dual-torchlsquoOmegarsquo weld head (patent pending)that facilitates effective use of lsquodoubleshy
need (due to a 10 to 12 week deliverytime) The risk of improper fit and thus asignificant change in probe requirementsas a result of variances in the as-built repair is substantial and can lead tosignificant repair schedule delays andexpediting costs SIrsquos LPA UT techniqueincorporates the use of a separate probeand its associated wedges Should as-built conditions require machining ofonly the wedge is required for LPA UTexamination This machining scope caneasily be accommodated on-site andgenerally within one hour of the identifiedneed
In addition to the above LPA UToffers advantages in coverage volumepotentially reducing the length of weldoverlay repair designs thus reducingwelder exposure
For more information please contactMichael Lashley at (303) 792-0077 ormlashleystructintcom
a new machining process that provides auniform surface contour with minimum material removal The equipment isdesigned to meet ALARA goals andreduce schedule impact l New Linear Phased Array (LPA) UTinspection ndash SI developed and qualifiedLPA UT inspection procedures andinspection personnel via the EPRI PDIprocess in preparation for first-timeapplication during this project (Seerelated article on this page) Use of LPAUT reduced scan time and dose by a factorof 4 or greater
W(SI)2 has now completedan industry-leading 10 pressurizerrefurbishment projects since 2003 inresponse to the Alloy 600 issue Eachproject introduced new design weldingmachining and inspection innovations allbased upon direct field experience andtechnical leadership
For more information please contactBud Auvil at (704) 458-8883 or bauvilstructintcom
uprsquo weld progressions for out-of-positionAlloy 52M welding The dual-torchdesign eliminates schedule impacts formachine cable rewrap Coupled with thenew weld heads are the latest GoldTrac VITM power supplies and WSI-designedstate-of-the-art digital operator videocontrol consoles
l New remote machining ndash Surfaceswere prepared for NDE remotely using
l Examination ScheduleALARAndash Conventional UT examination of weld overlay repairs can require as many as13 or more scans to provide completecoverage However LPA UT can covera wide range of angles with a singlescan thus reducing the required numberof scans to four (two axial and twocircumferential) This greatly reducesscan time improving schedule anddecreasing radiation dose for examinersFor example typical scan time for apressurizer surge line weld overlay repairhas now been reduced from a 12-hour shift for a crew of three to approximately2 hours for one examiner with the use of LPA UT l Risk Reduction ndash Typically probesets for conventional UT examinations of weld overlay repairs are ordered basedon overlay design and in advance of the
Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007
(Continued from page 2)
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No
l SI delivered a 32 channel data acquisition system to support strain gagedata collection at Browns Ferry NuclearPlant The industrial computer basedsystem is a self contained unit mountedin rolling 19-inch rack cabinet Theunit features automatic Wheatstone bridge balancing and allows quickreconfiguration of strain channels in caseof gage losses l A Transient Torsional Vibration Monitoring System (TTVMSTM) waspermanently mounted at South TexasProject Unit 1 The system will help alertoperators to the presence of potentiallyharmful torsional vibrations of the main turbine l SI assisted in evaluating the vibrationof one of the RHR valve bypass lines atVogtle Electric Generating Plant Pleaseread the full length article on this topic inthis issue of News and Views l Oconee Nuclear Station was providedan SI-VersaDAS to enable monitoring thetemperatures and vibration levels of theirLow Pressure Injection (LPI) line Theyalso obtained powerful data processingsoftware with automated plot generationfeatures to aid data evaluation l SI supported the root cause analysisefforts at Hatch Nuclear Plant after it was determined that one of the RHR pumpmotors was vibrating at high levels under
SI Vibes News Briefs from the SI Vibration Group
certain operating conditions l SI is currently developing a prototypewireless data acquisition system based onWiFi and ZigBee standards Stay tuned toSI Vibes for advancements in this area l Strain gage data reduction serviceswere provided to Quad Cities nuclearplant to help confirm the successfulimplementation of an industry-firstsolution for mitigating potentially harmfulpressure oscillations in their main steampiping Quad Cities has also obtained SIrsquosdata processing software for continuedmonitoring of the piping system
Questions or comments Contact KarenFujikawa at (303) 792-0077 or kfujikawa structintcom or George Szasz at (303) 792-0077 or gszaszstructintcom
Root Cause l SI determined acoustic resonance and vortex shedding frequencies identifyingthe possibility of amplification of vortexshedding frequencies near 30 and 170 Hz l Evaluation of thermal stratification per EPRIMRP guidelines showed stablestratification outboard of the isolation valve but no stratification cycling l Vibration analysis showed that duringplant heatup vibration stresses peakedat about 80 power when the acousticand vortex shedding frequencies are inalignment While significant the vibrationstresses did not exceed the material endurance limit
Additional vibration data collected after plant restart showedan unusual shock or ldquopulserdquo loadingComparison with plant logs indicated thata valve had been opened on a connectingsafety injection line to rapidly drop thepressure in that line and thus reseat aleaking check valve It is believed that therapid pressure drop caused the liquid inthe line to flash to steam and the ensuingvoid collapse sent a pressure wave up theline which then caused the RHR bypasscheck valve disk to chatter The vibration following this pulse loading was sufficientto exceed the endurance limit and fail the socket weld
SI recommended changes inoperation and plant configuration toprevent recurrence Key among thesewere
l Eliminate the check valve reseating procedure l Replace the swing type check with a lift or tiltingdisk check l Ensure that socket welds are as free of defects as possible l Use a 2x1 leg length geometry using ASMECode Case N-666 if building up an existing weld
SI also performed vibration and crackgrowth analyses on the Unit 1 bypass geometry andshowed that similar failure was unlikely for Unit 1
For more information please contact PaulHirschberg at (408) 978-8200 or phirschberg structintcom
bypass
RHR
SI
SI Associate Chairs ldquoCorrosion in the Nuclear Power Industryrdquofor ASM
Due to his worldwide renown in the area of corrosion in nuclear powerplants and his previous authorshipwith the American Society for Metals(ASM) SIrsquos Barry Gordon was askedto lead ASMrsquos update of the chapter oncorrosion in the nuclear power industryfor Volume 13c of their popular metalshandbook series Aside from originallywriting the introductory section and coshyauthoring ldquoCorrosion in Boiling WaterReactorsrdquo Barry assembled the worldrsquosnuclear power corrosion experts towrite the other sections of the chapter
including ldquoCorrosion in PressurizedWater Reactorsrdquo ldquoEffect of Irradiation onStress Corrosion Cracking and Corrosionin Light Water Reactorsrdquo ldquoCorrosion ofZirconium Alloy Components in LightWater Reactorsrdquo and ldquoCorrosion ofContainment Materials for Radioactive Waste Isolationrdquo Details for Volume 13c can be viewed at wwwasminternational orgvolume13c
Much of the updated informationwas based on Barryrsquos SI training classldquoCorrosion and Corrosion Control in LWRsrdquo Please check out wwwstructint
comtrainingcoursedescriptionscorrcontdeschtml for course details
For more information please contactBarry Gordon at (408) 978-8200 orbgordonstructintcom
IGSCC in a Type 304 Stainless Steel Pipe Heat Affected Zone
Assessment of ASME Code Temperbead Weld Procedure QualificationNote This article is adapted from ldquoAssessment of ASME Code Temperbead Weld Procedure Qualificationrdquo Co-authors R Smith and A McGehee EPRI 7th International Conference on Welding and Repair Technology for Power Plants Marriott Sawgrass Conference Center Jacksonville FL June 2006
The overall goal in qualifyingtemperbead weld procedures without postweld heat treatment (PWHT) is to ensurethat the welding process will not degradethe mechanical response of the materialbeing welded when compared to theoriginal condition that received PWHTToughness properties are the key to thequalification Toughness Transition for SA508 Cl 2
than the NDT three Charpy-V (Cv)impact samples are tested that must meeta minimum requirement of 35 mils lateralexpansion If the minimum requirementsare met then the NDT becomes the RTNDT If not then additional sets ofthree Cv samples are tested at increasingtemperatures until the minimum
requirementsASME Boiler
250and Pressure Vessel Code testing
200
protocol 150
requiresmeasurement 100
of a reference 50
nil ductility0temperature
(RTNDT)that is used
-320 -240 -160 -80 0 80 160 240
Temperature (F)
Base Metal HAZ DWNDT + 60
to index low alloy steels to a reference toughnesscurve provided by the Code This curveprescribes the rate of toughness increasewith temperature and the referencetemperature identifies the temperaturerange over which this upsweep intoughness occurs The testing protocoldetermines a nil ductility temperature(NDT) using the standard drop weighttest Then at a temperature 60degF higher
are met Subsequentlyan RT is defined 60degF below the temperaturewhere the minimum requirementsare met
Anyincrease in the RTNDT for the
weld repair process is undesirable becauseit will necessarily increase the lowesttemperature at which the componentcan be pressurized This has not been aproblem for temperbead testing wherethe test material is similar to the originalmaterial of fabrication Temperbeadwelding typically produces a weld heataffected zone (HAZ) that is mechanicallysuperior to the original base material as
measured by the Code test protocol Theproblem is that the modern materials areso tough in relation to where the dropweight NDT is measured that the improvedtoughness of the HAZ is difficult todemonstrate
SI conducted a study for EPRIthat considered testing differences to beexpected with different vintage materialswhen using testing protocol required byCode Test results from a current heat were compared to results obtained historicallyThe results suggest the Cv test temperaturesfor modern materials prescribed by thedrop weight test are too far up the transitionrange to demonstrate improvement in HAZproperties
A better approach is to developthe full Cv curves using single tests atmany temperatures for both the HAZ andbase metal then compare the transitionshift at 50 shear A negative shift woulddefine an effective welding procedure Thefigure at the left displays this procedurefor modern low alloy steel showing thehuge improvement in toughness for theHAZ These results suggest that alternatetoughness testing criteria be consideredfor temperbead welding procedurequalifications to obtain an accurateevaluation The full report is publishedby EPRI as RRAAC Report No 1013553Acceptable Cv Results for Temperbead Weld Procedure Qualification
For more information please contactDick Smith at (704) 677-2370 or rsmith structintcom
Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No 1
New People at SI
Terry Haigler is a Laboratory Assistantin the Charlotte office helping with NDEdevelopment and with field services (whenschool doesnrsquot interfere) He is attendingcollege and expects to receive his BS in weldingengineering in August 2007
Mark Jaeger has joined our Denver COoffice Mark has recently received his BS inMechanical Engineering from South DakotaSchool of Mines and Technology
Newly hired in our San Jose office Eric Houston has a Bachelorrsquos degree fromUniversity of Texas in Mechanical EngineeringPrior to joining SI Eric worked on the structuraldesign of sonar test equipment He is now working in the areas of wall thinning evaluationFatiguePro and fracture mechanics Jason Krupicka is an Integrity EngineeringAnalyst for SI Pipeline Services in our Denveroffice
Terry Herrmann a Syracuse Universitygraduate has 30 years of experience in nucleardesign construction testing failure analysisand PRA including extensive experience inthe Maintenance Rule surveillance testing andpreventive maintenance Terry works in ourDenver office
Ping Wang who has joined our San Jose officeis an expert in finite element analysis and ispublished in the areas of fracture mechanicsand mechanics of materials He has a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from VanderbiltUniversity and and has degrees from BeijingUniversity in both Aeronautics and SolidMechanics
Shane Cavanaugh has joined our StoningtonCT office He recently graduated from MaineMaritime Academy with a BS degree in PowerEngineering Technology
Benjamin Owen is a graduate of theSoutheastern Community Collegersquos NDEprogram and is one of SIrsquos newest ultrasonicpractitioners helping deliver linear phased arraysolutions for the fossil NDE Services group
Sean Hastings has rejoined SI after an 8 yearhiatus and now works on advanced eddycurrent and ultrasonic inspection applicationsdevelopment in our Charlotte office Sean is a mechanical engineering graduate of theUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte
Steve Jeffery has joined SI in the position ofExecutive Human Resources Director in our San Jose office Steve has over 25 years as anHR professional with leadership experience inall aspects of HR including recruiting staff andorganizational development and performancemanagement
Nancy Nicolaysen is a Technical Typist in our San Jose office Nancy comes to us with over15 years of Administrative Experience
Jeff Henry is an internationally recognizedleader in advanced materials metallurgicalanalysis and evaluation of critical componentsfor conventional co-generation and advanceddesign fossil power plants
Dan Peters works out of SIrsquos Uniontown OHoffice and has extensive experience in thedesign analysis and in-service inspection ofultra-high pressure (up to 150000 psi) vesselsand systems
Diep Nguyen joins our Accounting staff inSan Jose as an Accounts Payable SpecialistDiep has over 12 years of accounts payableexperience and will be helping streamline our process
Ron Thompson is responsible fortroubleshooting and repair of some of SIrsquosadvanced NDE systems as well as providingfield support for electronic repairs duringnuclear NDE field projects He has over 17 years experience in maintenance and repair ofautomated ultrasonic equipment
Amanda Seeliger has joined the staff ofour Materials Science Center in Austin She graduated from The University of Texas witha BS degree in mechanical engineering in May2006
New People at SI continued Cliff Anderson brings an extensive backgroundand knowledge of the energy business sectorincluding over 20 years of quality assurancequality control and non-destructive testingresponsibilities at nuclear fossil fuel powerstations as well as activities for the aerospaceindustry
Dr Marshal Clark is helping SI establish alitigation business unit leveraging his extensiveexperience in expert witness support for theelectric utilities and SIrsquos expansive expertise inall disciplines of engineering and nondestructiveexamination Marshal is also an industry leaderin the asset management of critical fossil plantcomponents
Gary Hensley is responsible for operationsmanagement the NDE Services Group andthe Charlotte office Gary brings an extensivebackground and knowledge of the combustionturbine industry and will be working closelywith the SI Fossil Plant Services leadershipteam over the next few months to determine this marketrsquos potential for SI Robert Briley has joined SIrsquos nuclear NDEServices group as a Senior NDE Specialist inour Charlotte office Bob has over 15 years ofNon Destructive Examination implementationand supervision experience in the nuclear andfossil industries both in the US and abroad
Ned Finney is supporting the growing needsof our nuclear NDE group in our Charlotteoffice Ned brings extensive background in andknowledge of the nuclear industry includingproject coordination and vendor surveillancefor fabrication and inspection of nuclear qualitycomponents and piping
Chris Lohse has joined SIrsquos technical staff in San Jose UC Davisrsquo Mechanical EngineeringProgram provided Mr Lohse with laboratoryand analytical experience in dynamics x-raydiffraction fracture mechanics thermodynamicsstrength of materials and control systems
Kewaunee Feedwater Piping Inspection and AnalysisAt Dominionrsquos Kewaunee
Nuclear Power Plant utility personnelwanted to inspect a section of feedwaterpiping for flow accelerated corrosion(FAC) The challenge was that a portionof the piping is surrounded by animpingement barrier SI used both G-ScanTM inspection and analysis to showthat the piping had adequate thicknesssaving the utility the cost of replacing thepiping and reducing associated outagetime impacts
G-ScanTM uses low frequencyultrasonic longitudinal and torsionalwaves (sending and receiving) to examinethe piping Depending on pipingconfiguration and conditions piping canbe examined 100 feet or more in either direction from where the G-ScanTM collar is mounted on the piping At Kewauneethe G-ScanTM found wall loss within mill tolerance slightly downstream of thestraight pipe to elbow weld for each oftwo elbows
To determine whether the measured thinning was acceptable SIdetermined minimum wall thickness in accordance with the code of construction
VVol Nool No
(B311) and ASME Code Case N-597-1 permitted in recent ASME Code editionsProjecting the observed thinning forward the piping was found acceptable for thein time using conservative assumptions remaining life of the plantfor initial wall thickness and thinning ratethe thickness was shown to be acceptable For more information please contactfor at least nine more years of operation Ken Rach at (630) 728-2094 or krachbased on the original code of construction structintcomHowever using the higher allowable stress
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007 7Winter 007 7
February 19-21 2007 (Centennial CO)- Nuclear Power Services WorkshopAugust 28-29 2007 (Plymouth MA)
See wwwstructintcom for details
Have You Heard SI Senior Consulting Engineer Bill Amend volunteers at The Air Museum
Planes of Fame (wwwplanesoffameorg) aviation museum in Chino CA Recentlyhe had a chance to put his metallurgical and failure analysis expertise to work for themuseum The museumrsquos one of a kind 1940s vintage Northrop N9MB Flying Wingdevelopmental prototype had a partial engine failure and fire while being used to make
an IMAX film Through-wall fatiguecracks were found in the aluminum cylinder head where it mated with acast iron combustion cylinder linerBill together with a team of volunteers concluded that the likely cause of failurewas thermal stress cycling due to (1) uneven temperature distributions acrossthe head and (2) thermal expansion mismatch between the aluminum and castiron components Museum staff are working with an aerospace casting house onselection of an alternate alloy to repair the engine and prevent future similar failures
For more information please contact Bill Amend at (562) 413-3190 or bamendstructintcom
San Jose CA Silver Spring MD Whittier CA Ontario Canada Uniontown OH 408-978-8200 301-445-8200 562-944-8210 905-829-9817 330-899-9753
Sunrise FL Charlotte NC Denver CO Austin TX Stonington CT 954-572-2902 704-597-5554 303-792-0077 512-533-9191 860-536-3982
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom
(Continued from page 2)
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No
l SI delivered a 32 channel data acquisition system to support strain gagedata collection at Browns Ferry NuclearPlant The industrial computer basedsystem is a self contained unit mountedin rolling 19-inch rack cabinet Theunit features automatic Wheatstone bridge balancing and allows quickreconfiguration of strain channels in caseof gage losses l A Transient Torsional Vibration Monitoring System (TTVMSTM) waspermanently mounted at South TexasProject Unit 1 The system will help alertoperators to the presence of potentiallyharmful torsional vibrations of the main turbine l SI assisted in evaluating the vibrationof one of the RHR valve bypass lines atVogtle Electric Generating Plant Pleaseread the full length article on this topic inthis issue of News and Views l Oconee Nuclear Station was providedan SI-VersaDAS to enable monitoring thetemperatures and vibration levels of theirLow Pressure Injection (LPI) line Theyalso obtained powerful data processingsoftware with automated plot generationfeatures to aid data evaluation l SI supported the root cause analysisefforts at Hatch Nuclear Plant after it was determined that one of the RHR pumpmotors was vibrating at high levels under
SI Vibes News Briefs from the SI Vibration Group
certain operating conditions l SI is currently developing a prototypewireless data acquisition system based onWiFi and ZigBee standards Stay tuned toSI Vibes for advancements in this area l Strain gage data reduction serviceswere provided to Quad Cities nuclearplant to help confirm the successfulimplementation of an industry-firstsolution for mitigating potentially harmfulpressure oscillations in their main steampiping Quad Cities has also obtained SIrsquosdata processing software for continuedmonitoring of the piping system
Questions or comments Contact KarenFujikawa at (303) 792-0077 or kfujikawa structintcom or George Szasz at (303) 792-0077 or gszaszstructintcom
Root Cause l SI determined acoustic resonance and vortex shedding frequencies identifyingthe possibility of amplification of vortexshedding frequencies near 30 and 170 Hz l Evaluation of thermal stratification per EPRIMRP guidelines showed stablestratification outboard of the isolation valve but no stratification cycling l Vibration analysis showed that duringplant heatup vibration stresses peakedat about 80 power when the acousticand vortex shedding frequencies are inalignment While significant the vibrationstresses did not exceed the material endurance limit
Additional vibration data collected after plant restart showedan unusual shock or ldquopulserdquo loadingComparison with plant logs indicated thata valve had been opened on a connectingsafety injection line to rapidly drop thepressure in that line and thus reseat aleaking check valve It is believed that therapid pressure drop caused the liquid inthe line to flash to steam and the ensuingvoid collapse sent a pressure wave up theline which then caused the RHR bypasscheck valve disk to chatter The vibration following this pulse loading was sufficientto exceed the endurance limit and fail the socket weld
SI recommended changes inoperation and plant configuration toprevent recurrence Key among thesewere
l Eliminate the check valve reseating procedure l Replace the swing type check with a lift or tiltingdisk check l Ensure that socket welds are as free of defects as possible l Use a 2x1 leg length geometry using ASMECode Case N-666 if building up an existing weld
SI also performed vibration and crackgrowth analyses on the Unit 1 bypass geometry andshowed that similar failure was unlikely for Unit 1
For more information please contact PaulHirschberg at (408) 978-8200 or phirschberg structintcom
bypass
RHR
SI
SI Associate Chairs ldquoCorrosion in the Nuclear Power Industryrdquofor ASM
Due to his worldwide renown in the area of corrosion in nuclear powerplants and his previous authorshipwith the American Society for Metals(ASM) SIrsquos Barry Gordon was askedto lead ASMrsquos update of the chapter oncorrosion in the nuclear power industryfor Volume 13c of their popular metalshandbook series Aside from originallywriting the introductory section and coshyauthoring ldquoCorrosion in Boiling WaterReactorsrdquo Barry assembled the worldrsquosnuclear power corrosion experts towrite the other sections of the chapter
including ldquoCorrosion in PressurizedWater Reactorsrdquo ldquoEffect of Irradiation onStress Corrosion Cracking and Corrosionin Light Water Reactorsrdquo ldquoCorrosion ofZirconium Alloy Components in LightWater Reactorsrdquo and ldquoCorrosion ofContainment Materials for Radioactive Waste Isolationrdquo Details for Volume 13c can be viewed at wwwasminternational orgvolume13c
Much of the updated informationwas based on Barryrsquos SI training classldquoCorrosion and Corrosion Control in LWRsrdquo Please check out wwwstructint
comtrainingcoursedescriptionscorrcontdeschtml for course details
For more information please contactBarry Gordon at (408) 978-8200 orbgordonstructintcom
IGSCC in a Type 304 Stainless Steel Pipe Heat Affected Zone
Assessment of ASME Code Temperbead Weld Procedure QualificationNote This article is adapted from ldquoAssessment of ASME Code Temperbead Weld Procedure Qualificationrdquo Co-authors R Smith and A McGehee EPRI 7th International Conference on Welding and Repair Technology for Power Plants Marriott Sawgrass Conference Center Jacksonville FL June 2006
The overall goal in qualifyingtemperbead weld procedures without postweld heat treatment (PWHT) is to ensurethat the welding process will not degradethe mechanical response of the materialbeing welded when compared to theoriginal condition that received PWHTToughness properties are the key to thequalification Toughness Transition for SA508 Cl 2
than the NDT three Charpy-V (Cv)impact samples are tested that must meeta minimum requirement of 35 mils lateralexpansion If the minimum requirementsare met then the NDT becomes the RTNDT If not then additional sets ofthree Cv samples are tested at increasingtemperatures until the minimum
requirementsASME Boiler
250and Pressure Vessel Code testing
200
protocol 150
requiresmeasurement 100
of a reference 50
nil ductility0temperature
(RTNDT)that is used
-320 -240 -160 -80 0 80 160 240
Temperature (F)
Base Metal HAZ DWNDT + 60
to index low alloy steels to a reference toughnesscurve provided by the Code This curveprescribes the rate of toughness increasewith temperature and the referencetemperature identifies the temperaturerange over which this upsweep intoughness occurs The testing protocoldetermines a nil ductility temperature(NDT) using the standard drop weighttest Then at a temperature 60degF higher
are met Subsequentlyan RT is defined 60degF below the temperaturewhere the minimum requirementsare met
Anyincrease in the RTNDT for the
weld repair process is undesirable becauseit will necessarily increase the lowesttemperature at which the componentcan be pressurized This has not been aproblem for temperbead testing wherethe test material is similar to the originalmaterial of fabrication Temperbeadwelding typically produces a weld heataffected zone (HAZ) that is mechanicallysuperior to the original base material as
measured by the Code test protocol Theproblem is that the modern materials areso tough in relation to where the dropweight NDT is measured that the improvedtoughness of the HAZ is difficult todemonstrate
SI conducted a study for EPRIthat considered testing differences to beexpected with different vintage materialswhen using testing protocol required byCode Test results from a current heat were compared to results obtained historicallyThe results suggest the Cv test temperaturesfor modern materials prescribed by thedrop weight test are too far up the transitionrange to demonstrate improvement in HAZproperties
A better approach is to developthe full Cv curves using single tests atmany temperatures for both the HAZ andbase metal then compare the transitionshift at 50 shear A negative shift woulddefine an effective welding procedure Thefigure at the left displays this procedurefor modern low alloy steel showing thehuge improvement in toughness for theHAZ These results suggest that alternatetoughness testing criteria be consideredfor temperbead welding procedurequalifications to obtain an accurateevaluation The full report is publishedby EPRI as RRAAC Report No 1013553Acceptable Cv Results for Temperbead Weld Procedure Qualification
For more information please contactDick Smith at (704) 677-2370 or rsmith structintcom
Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No 1
New People at SI
Terry Haigler is a Laboratory Assistantin the Charlotte office helping with NDEdevelopment and with field services (whenschool doesnrsquot interfere) He is attendingcollege and expects to receive his BS in weldingengineering in August 2007
Mark Jaeger has joined our Denver COoffice Mark has recently received his BS inMechanical Engineering from South DakotaSchool of Mines and Technology
Newly hired in our San Jose office Eric Houston has a Bachelorrsquos degree fromUniversity of Texas in Mechanical EngineeringPrior to joining SI Eric worked on the structuraldesign of sonar test equipment He is now working in the areas of wall thinning evaluationFatiguePro and fracture mechanics Jason Krupicka is an Integrity EngineeringAnalyst for SI Pipeline Services in our Denveroffice
Terry Herrmann a Syracuse Universitygraduate has 30 years of experience in nucleardesign construction testing failure analysisand PRA including extensive experience inthe Maintenance Rule surveillance testing andpreventive maintenance Terry works in ourDenver office
Ping Wang who has joined our San Jose officeis an expert in finite element analysis and ispublished in the areas of fracture mechanicsand mechanics of materials He has a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from VanderbiltUniversity and and has degrees from BeijingUniversity in both Aeronautics and SolidMechanics
Shane Cavanaugh has joined our StoningtonCT office He recently graduated from MaineMaritime Academy with a BS degree in PowerEngineering Technology
Benjamin Owen is a graduate of theSoutheastern Community Collegersquos NDEprogram and is one of SIrsquos newest ultrasonicpractitioners helping deliver linear phased arraysolutions for the fossil NDE Services group
Sean Hastings has rejoined SI after an 8 yearhiatus and now works on advanced eddycurrent and ultrasonic inspection applicationsdevelopment in our Charlotte office Sean is a mechanical engineering graduate of theUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte
Steve Jeffery has joined SI in the position ofExecutive Human Resources Director in our San Jose office Steve has over 25 years as anHR professional with leadership experience inall aspects of HR including recruiting staff andorganizational development and performancemanagement
Nancy Nicolaysen is a Technical Typist in our San Jose office Nancy comes to us with over15 years of Administrative Experience
Jeff Henry is an internationally recognizedleader in advanced materials metallurgicalanalysis and evaluation of critical componentsfor conventional co-generation and advanceddesign fossil power plants
Dan Peters works out of SIrsquos Uniontown OHoffice and has extensive experience in thedesign analysis and in-service inspection ofultra-high pressure (up to 150000 psi) vesselsand systems
Diep Nguyen joins our Accounting staff inSan Jose as an Accounts Payable SpecialistDiep has over 12 years of accounts payableexperience and will be helping streamline our process
Ron Thompson is responsible fortroubleshooting and repair of some of SIrsquosadvanced NDE systems as well as providingfield support for electronic repairs duringnuclear NDE field projects He has over 17 years experience in maintenance and repair ofautomated ultrasonic equipment
Amanda Seeliger has joined the staff ofour Materials Science Center in Austin She graduated from The University of Texas witha BS degree in mechanical engineering in May2006
New People at SI continued Cliff Anderson brings an extensive backgroundand knowledge of the energy business sectorincluding over 20 years of quality assurancequality control and non-destructive testingresponsibilities at nuclear fossil fuel powerstations as well as activities for the aerospaceindustry
Dr Marshal Clark is helping SI establish alitigation business unit leveraging his extensiveexperience in expert witness support for theelectric utilities and SIrsquos expansive expertise inall disciplines of engineering and nondestructiveexamination Marshal is also an industry leaderin the asset management of critical fossil plantcomponents
Gary Hensley is responsible for operationsmanagement the NDE Services Group andthe Charlotte office Gary brings an extensivebackground and knowledge of the combustionturbine industry and will be working closelywith the SI Fossil Plant Services leadershipteam over the next few months to determine this marketrsquos potential for SI Robert Briley has joined SIrsquos nuclear NDEServices group as a Senior NDE Specialist inour Charlotte office Bob has over 15 years ofNon Destructive Examination implementationand supervision experience in the nuclear andfossil industries both in the US and abroad
Ned Finney is supporting the growing needsof our nuclear NDE group in our Charlotteoffice Ned brings extensive background in andknowledge of the nuclear industry includingproject coordination and vendor surveillancefor fabrication and inspection of nuclear qualitycomponents and piping
Chris Lohse has joined SIrsquos technical staff in San Jose UC Davisrsquo Mechanical EngineeringProgram provided Mr Lohse with laboratoryand analytical experience in dynamics x-raydiffraction fracture mechanics thermodynamicsstrength of materials and control systems
Kewaunee Feedwater Piping Inspection and AnalysisAt Dominionrsquos Kewaunee
Nuclear Power Plant utility personnelwanted to inspect a section of feedwaterpiping for flow accelerated corrosion(FAC) The challenge was that a portionof the piping is surrounded by animpingement barrier SI used both G-ScanTM inspection and analysis to showthat the piping had adequate thicknesssaving the utility the cost of replacing thepiping and reducing associated outagetime impacts
G-ScanTM uses low frequencyultrasonic longitudinal and torsionalwaves (sending and receiving) to examinethe piping Depending on pipingconfiguration and conditions piping canbe examined 100 feet or more in either direction from where the G-ScanTM collar is mounted on the piping At Kewauneethe G-ScanTM found wall loss within mill tolerance slightly downstream of thestraight pipe to elbow weld for each oftwo elbows
To determine whether the measured thinning was acceptable SIdetermined minimum wall thickness in accordance with the code of construction
VVol Nool No
(B311) and ASME Code Case N-597-1 permitted in recent ASME Code editionsProjecting the observed thinning forward the piping was found acceptable for thein time using conservative assumptions remaining life of the plantfor initial wall thickness and thinning ratethe thickness was shown to be acceptable For more information please contactfor at least nine more years of operation Ken Rach at (630) 728-2094 or krachbased on the original code of construction structintcomHowever using the higher allowable stress
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007 7Winter 007 7
February 19-21 2007 (Centennial CO)- Nuclear Power Services WorkshopAugust 28-29 2007 (Plymouth MA)
See wwwstructintcom for details
Have You Heard SI Senior Consulting Engineer Bill Amend volunteers at The Air Museum
Planes of Fame (wwwplanesoffameorg) aviation museum in Chino CA Recentlyhe had a chance to put his metallurgical and failure analysis expertise to work for themuseum The museumrsquos one of a kind 1940s vintage Northrop N9MB Flying Wingdevelopmental prototype had a partial engine failure and fire while being used to make
an IMAX film Through-wall fatiguecracks were found in the aluminum cylinder head where it mated with acast iron combustion cylinder linerBill together with a team of volunteers concluded that the likely cause of failurewas thermal stress cycling due to (1) uneven temperature distributions acrossthe head and (2) thermal expansion mismatch between the aluminum and castiron components Museum staff are working with an aerospace casting house onselection of an alternate alloy to repair the engine and prevent future similar failures
For more information please contact Bill Amend at (562) 413-3190 or bamendstructintcom
San Jose CA Silver Spring MD Whittier CA Ontario Canada Uniontown OH 408-978-8200 301-445-8200 562-944-8210 905-829-9817 330-899-9753
Sunrise FL Charlotte NC Denver CO Austin TX Stonington CT 954-572-2902 704-597-5554 303-792-0077 512-533-9191 860-536-3982
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom
SI Associate Chairs ldquoCorrosion in the Nuclear Power Industryrdquofor ASM
Due to his worldwide renown in the area of corrosion in nuclear powerplants and his previous authorshipwith the American Society for Metals(ASM) SIrsquos Barry Gordon was askedto lead ASMrsquos update of the chapter oncorrosion in the nuclear power industryfor Volume 13c of their popular metalshandbook series Aside from originallywriting the introductory section and coshyauthoring ldquoCorrosion in Boiling WaterReactorsrdquo Barry assembled the worldrsquosnuclear power corrosion experts towrite the other sections of the chapter
including ldquoCorrosion in PressurizedWater Reactorsrdquo ldquoEffect of Irradiation onStress Corrosion Cracking and Corrosionin Light Water Reactorsrdquo ldquoCorrosion ofZirconium Alloy Components in LightWater Reactorsrdquo and ldquoCorrosion ofContainment Materials for Radioactive Waste Isolationrdquo Details for Volume 13c can be viewed at wwwasminternational orgvolume13c
Much of the updated informationwas based on Barryrsquos SI training classldquoCorrosion and Corrosion Control in LWRsrdquo Please check out wwwstructint
comtrainingcoursedescriptionscorrcontdeschtml for course details
For more information please contactBarry Gordon at (408) 978-8200 orbgordonstructintcom
IGSCC in a Type 304 Stainless Steel Pipe Heat Affected Zone
Assessment of ASME Code Temperbead Weld Procedure QualificationNote This article is adapted from ldquoAssessment of ASME Code Temperbead Weld Procedure Qualificationrdquo Co-authors R Smith and A McGehee EPRI 7th International Conference on Welding and Repair Technology for Power Plants Marriott Sawgrass Conference Center Jacksonville FL June 2006
The overall goal in qualifyingtemperbead weld procedures without postweld heat treatment (PWHT) is to ensurethat the welding process will not degradethe mechanical response of the materialbeing welded when compared to theoriginal condition that received PWHTToughness properties are the key to thequalification Toughness Transition for SA508 Cl 2
than the NDT three Charpy-V (Cv)impact samples are tested that must meeta minimum requirement of 35 mils lateralexpansion If the minimum requirementsare met then the NDT becomes the RTNDT If not then additional sets ofthree Cv samples are tested at increasingtemperatures until the minimum
requirementsASME Boiler
250and Pressure Vessel Code testing
200
protocol 150
requiresmeasurement 100
of a reference 50
nil ductility0temperature
(RTNDT)that is used
-320 -240 -160 -80 0 80 160 240
Temperature (F)
Base Metal HAZ DWNDT + 60
to index low alloy steels to a reference toughnesscurve provided by the Code This curveprescribes the rate of toughness increasewith temperature and the referencetemperature identifies the temperaturerange over which this upsweep intoughness occurs The testing protocoldetermines a nil ductility temperature(NDT) using the standard drop weighttest Then at a temperature 60degF higher
are met Subsequentlyan RT is defined 60degF below the temperaturewhere the minimum requirementsare met
Anyincrease in the RTNDT for the
weld repair process is undesirable becauseit will necessarily increase the lowesttemperature at which the componentcan be pressurized This has not been aproblem for temperbead testing wherethe test material is similar to the originalmaterial of fabrication Temperbeadwelding typically produces a weld heataffected zone (HAZ) that is mechanicallysuperior to the original base material as
measured by the Code test protocol Theproblem is that the modern materials areso tough in relation to where the dropweight NDT is measured that the improvedtoughness of the HAZ is difficult todemonstrate
SI conducted a study for EPRIthat considered testing differences to beexpected with different vintage materialswhen using testing protocol required byCode Test results from a current heat were compared to results obtained historicallyThe results suggest the Cv test temperaturesfor modern materials prescribed by thedrop weight test are too far up the transitionrange to demonstrate improvement in HAZproperties
A better approach is to developthe full Cv curves using single tests atmany temperatures for both the HAZ andbase metal then compare the transitionshift at 50 shear A negative shift woulddefine an effective welding procedure Thefigure at the left displays this procedurefor modern low alloy steel showing thehuge improvement in toughness for theHAZ These results suggest that alternatetoughness testing criteria be consideredfor temperbead welding procedurequalifications to obtain an accurateevaluation The full report is publishedby EPRI as RRAAC Report No 1013553Acceptable Cv Results for Temperbead Weld Procedure Qualification
For more information please contactDick Smith at (704) 677-2370 or rsmith structintcom
Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No 1
New People at SI
Terry Haigler is a Laboratory Assistantin the Charlotte office helping with NDEdevelopment and with field services (whenschool doesnrsquot interfere) He is attendingcollege and expects to receive his BS in weldingengineering in August 2007
Mark Jaeger has joined our Denver COoffice Mark has recently received his BS inMechanical Engineering from South DakotaSchool of Mines and Technology
Newly hired in our San Jose office Eric Houston has a Bachelorrsquos degree fromUniversity of Texas in Mechanical EngineeringPrior to joining SI Eric worked on the structuraldesign of sonar test equipment He is now working in the areas of wall thinning evaluationFatiguePro and fracture mechanics Jason Krupicka is an Integrity EngineeringAnalyst for SI Pipeline Services in our Denveroffice
Terry Herrmann a Syracuse Universitygraduate has 30 years of experience in nucleardesign construction testing failure analysisand PRA including extensive experience inthe Maintenance Rule surveillance testing andpreventive maintenance Terry works in ourDenver office
Ping Wang who has joined our San Jose officeis an expert in finite element analysis and ispublished in the areas of fracture mechanicsand mechanics of materials He has a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from VanderbiltUniversity and and has degrees from BeijingUniversity in both Aeronautics and SolidMechanics
Shane Cavanaugh has joined our StoningtonCT office He recently graduated from MaineMaritime Academy with a BS degree in PowerEngineering Technology
Benjamin Owen is a graduate of theSoutheastern Community Collegersquos NDEprogram and is one of SIrsquos newest ultrasonicpractitioners helping deliver linear phased arraysolutions for the fossil NDE Services group
Sean Hastings has rejoined SI after an 8 yearhiatus and now works on advanced eddycurrent and ultrasonic inspection applicationsdevelopment in our Charlotte office Sean is a mechanical engineering graduate of theUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte
Steve Jeffery has joined SI in the position ofExecutive Human Resources Director in our San Jose office Steve has over 25 years as anHR professional with leadership experience inall aspects of HR including recruiting staff andorganizational development and performancemanagement
Nancy Nicolaysen is a Technical Typist in our San Jose office Nancy comes to us with over15 years of Administrative Experience
Jeff Henry is an internationally recognizedleader in advanced materials metallurgicalanalysis and evaluation of critical componentsfor conventional co-generation and advanceddesign fossil power plants
Dan Peters works out of SIrsquos Uniontown OHoffice and has extensive experience in thedesign analysis and in-service inspection ofultra-high pressure (up to 150000 psi) vesselsand systems
Diep Nguyen joins our Accounting staff inSan Jose as an Accounts Payable SpecialistDiep has over 12 years of accounts payableexperience and will be helping streamline our process
Ron Thompson is responsible fortroubleshooting and repair of some of SIrsquosadvanced NDE systems as well as providingfield support for electronic repairs duringnuclear NDE field projects He has over 17 years experience in maintenance and repair ofautomated ultrasonic equipment
Amanda Seeliger has joined the staff ofour Materials Science Center in Austin She graduated from The University of Texas witha BS degree in mechanical engineering in May2006
New People at SI continued Cliff Anderson brings an extensive backgroundand knowledge of the energy business sectorincluding over 20 years of quality assurancequality control and non-destructive testingresponsibilities at nuclear fossil fuel powerstations as well as activities for the aerospaceindustry
Dr Marshal Clark is helping SI establish alitigation business unit leveraging his extensiveexperience in expert witness support for theelectric utilities and SIrsquos expansive expertise inall disciplines of engineering and nondestructiveexamination Marshal is also an industry leaderin the asset management of critical fossil plantcomponents
Gary Hensley is responsible for operationsmanagement the NDE Services Group andthe Charlotte office Gary brings an extensivebackground and knowledge of the combustionturbine industry and will be working closelywith the SI Fossil Plant Services leadershipteam over the next few months to determine this marketrsquos potential for SI Robert Briley has joined SIrsquos nuclear NDEServices group as a Senior NDE Specialist inour Charlotte office Bob has over 15 years ofNon Destructive Examination implementationand supervision experience in the nuclear andfossil industries both in the US and abroad
Ned Finney is supporting the growing needsof our nuclear NDE group in our Charlotteoffice Ned brings extensive background in andknowledge of the nuclear industry includingproject coordination and vendor surveillancefor fabrication and inspection of nuclear qualitycomponents and piping
Chris Lohse has joined SIrsquos technical staff in San Jose UC Davisrsquo Mechanical EngineeringProgram provided Mr Lohse with laboratoryand analytical experience in dynamics x-raydiffraction fracture mechanics thermodynamicsstrength of materials and control systems
Kewaunee Feedwater Piping Inspection and AnalysisAt Dominionrsquos Kewaunee
Nuclear Power Plant utility personnelwanted to inspect a section of feedwaterpiping for flow accelerated corrosion(FAC) The challenge was that a portionof the piping is surrounded by animpingement barrier SI used both G-ScanTM inspection and analysis to showthat the piping had adequate thicknesssaving the utility the cost of replacing thepiping and reducing associated outagetime impacts
G-ScanTM uses low frequencyultrasonic longitudinal and torsionalwaves (sending and receiving) to examinethe piping Depending on pipingconfiguration and conditions piping canbe examined 100 feet or more in either direction from where the G-ScanTM collar is mounted on the piping At Kewauneethe G-ScanTM found wall loss within mill tolerance slightly downstream of thestraight pipe to elbow weld for each oftwo elbows
To determine whether the measured thinning was acceptable SIdetermined minimum wall thickness in accordance with the code of construction
VVol Nool No
(B311) and ASME Code Case N-597-1 permitted in recent ASME Code editionsProjecting the observed thinning forward the piping was found acceptable for thein time using conservative assumptions remaining life of the plantfor initial wall thickness and thinning ratethe thickness was shown to be acceptable For more information please contactfor at least nine more years of operation Ken Rach at (630) 728-2094 or krachbased on the original code of construction structintcomHowever using the higher allowable stress
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007 7Winter 007 7
February 19-21 2007 (Centennial CO)- Nuclear Power Services WorkshopAugust 28-29 2007 (Plymouth MA)
See wwwstructintcom for details
Have You Heard SI Senior Consulting Engineer Bill Amend volunteers at The Air Museum
Planes of Fame (wwwplanesoffameorg) aviation museum in Chino CA Recentlyhe had a chance to put his metallurgical and failure analysis expertise to work for themuseum The museumrsquos one of a kind 1940s vintage Northrop N9MB Flying Wingdevelopmental prototype had a partial engine failure and fire while being used to make
an IMAX film Through-wall fatiguecracks were found in the aluminum cylinder head where it mated with acast iron combustion cylinder linerBill together with a team of volunteers concluded that the likely cause of failurewas thermal stress cycling due to (1) uneven temperature distributions acrossthe head and (2) thermal expansion mismatch between the aluminum and castiron components Museum staff are working with an aerospace casting house onselection of an alternate alloy to repair the engine and prevent future similar failures
For more information please contact Bill Amend at (562) 413-3190 or bamendstructintcom
San Jose CA Silver Spring MD Whittier CA Ontario Canada Uniontown OH 408-978-8200 301-445-8200 562-944-8210 905-829-9817 330-899-9753
Sunrise FL Charlotte NC Denver CO Austin TX Stonington CT 954-572-2902 704-597-5554 303-792-0077 512-533-9191 860-536-3982
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 2007 Vol No 1
New People at SI
Terry Haigler is a Laboratory Assistantin the Charlotte office helping with NDEdevelopment and with field services (whenschool doesnrsquot interfere) He is attendingcollege and expects to receive his BS in weldingengineering in August 2007
Mark Jaeger has joined our Denver COoffice Mark has recently received his BS inMechanical Engineering from South DakotaSchool of Mines and Technology
Newly hired in our San Jose office Eric Houston has a Bachelorrsquos degree fromUniversity of Texas in Mechanical EngineeringPrior to joining SI Eric worked on the structuraldesign of sonar test equipment He is now working in the areas of wall thinning evaluationFatiguePro and fracture mechanics Jason Krupicka is an Integrity EngineeringAnalyst for SI Pipeline Services in our Denveroffice
Terry Herrmann a Syracuse Universitygraduate has 30 years of experience in nucleardesign construction testing failure analysisand PRA including extensive experience inthe Maintenance Rule surveillance testing andpreventive maintenance Terry works in ourDenver office
Ping Wang who has joined our San Jose officeis an expert in finite element analysis and ispublished in the areas of fracture mechanicsand mechanics of materials He has a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from VanderbiltUniversity and and has degrees from BeijingUniversity in both Aeronautics and SolidMechanics
Shane Cavanaugh has joined our StoningtonCT office He recently graduated from MaineMaritime Academy with a BS degree in PowerEngineering Technology
Benjamin Owen is a graduate of theSoutheastern Community Collegersquos NDEprogram and is one of SIrsquos newest ultrasonicpractitioners helping deliver linear phased arraysolutions for the fossil NDE Services group
Sean Hastings has rejoined SI after an 8 yearhiatus and now works on advanced eddycurrent and ultrasonic inspection applicationsdevelopment in our Charlotte office Sean is a mechanical engineering graduate of theUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte
Steve Jeffery has joined SI in the position ofExecutive Human Resources Director in our San Jose office Steve has over 25 years as anHR professional with leadership experience inall aspects of HR including recruiting staff andorganizational development and performancemanagement
Nancy Nicolaysen is a Technical Typist in our San Jose office Nancy comes to us with over15 years of Administrative Experience
Jeff Henry is an internationally recognizedleader in advanced materials metallurgicalanalysis and evaluation of critical componentsfor conventional co-generation and advanceddesign fossil power plants
Dan Peters works out of SIrsquos Uniontown OHoffice and has extensive experience in thedesign analysis and in-service inspection ofultra-high pressure (up to 150000 psi) vesselsand systems
Diep Nguyen joins our Accounting staff inSan Jose as an Accounts Payable SpecialistDiep has over 12 years of accounts payableexperience and will be helping streamline our process
Ron Thompson is responsible fortroubleshooting and repair of some of SIrsquosadvanced NDE systems as well as providingfield support for electronic repairs duringnuclear NDE field projects He has over 17 years experience in maintenance and repair ofautomated ultrasonic equipment
Amanda Seeliger has joined the staff ofour Materials Science Center in Austin She graduated from The University of Texas witha BS degree in mechanical engineering in May2006
New People at SI continued Cliff Anderson brings an extensive backgroundand knowledge of the energy business sectorincluding over 20 years of quality assurancequality control and non-destructive testingresponsibilities at nuclear fossil fuel powerstations as well as activities for the aerospaceindustry
Dr Marshal Clark is helping SI establish alitigation business unit leveraging his extensiveexperience in expert witness support for theelectric utilities and SIrsquos expansive expertise inall disciplines of engineering and nondestructiveexamination Marshal is also an industry leaderin the asset management of critical fossil plantcomponents
Gary Hensley is responsible for operationsmanagement the NDE Services Group andthe Charlotte office Gary brings an extensivebackground and knowledge of the combustionturbine industry and will be working closelywith the SI Fossil Plant Services leadershipteam over the next few months to determine this marketrsquos potential for SI Robert Briley has joined SIrsquos nuclear NDEServices group as a Senior NDE Specialist inour Charlotte office Bob has over 15 years ofNon Destructive Examination implementationand supervision experience in the nuclear andfossil industries both in the US and abroad
Ned Finney is supporting the growing needsof our nuclear NDE group in our Charlotteoffice Ned brings extensive background in andknowledge of the nuclear industry includingproject coordination and vendor surveillancefor fabrication and inspection of nuclear qualitycomponents and piping
Chris Lohse has joined SIrsquos technical staff in San Jose UC Davisrsquo Mechanical EngineeringProgram provided Mr Lohse with laboratoryand analytical experience in dynamics x-raydiffraction fracture mechanics thermodynamicsstrength of materials and control systems
Kewaunee Feedwater Piping Inspection and AnalysisAt Dominionrsquos Kewaunee
Nuclear Power Plant utility personnelwanted to inspect a section of feedwaterpiping for flow accelerated corrosion(FAC) The challenge was that a portionof the piping is surrounded by animpingement barrier SI used both G-ScanTM inspection and analysis to showthat the piping had adequate thicknesssaving the utility the cost of replacing thepiping and reducing associated outagetime impacts
G-ScanTM uses low frequencyultrasonic longitudinal and torsionalwaves (sending and receiving) to examinethe piping Depending on pipingconfiguration and conditions piping canbe examined 100 feet or more in either direction from where the G-ScanTM collar is mounted on the piping At Kewauneethe G-ScanTM found wall loss within mill tolerance slightly downstream of thestraight pipe to elbow weld for each oftwo elbows
To determine whether the measured thinning was acceptable SIdetermined minimum wall thickness in accordance with the code of construction
VVol Nool No
(B311) and ASME Code Case N-597-1 permitted in recent ASME Code editionsProjecting the observed thinning forward the piping was found acceptable for thein time using conservative assumptions remaining life of the plantfor initial wall thickness and thinning ratethe thickness was shown to be acceptable For more information please contactfor at least nine more years of operation Ken Rach at (630) 728-2094 or krachbased on the original code of construction structintcomHowever using the higher allowable stress
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007 7Winter 007 7
February 19-21 2007 (Centennial CO)- Nuclear Power Services WorkshopAugust 28-29 2007 (Plymouth MA)
See wwwstructintcom for details
Have You Heard SI Senior Consulting Engineer Bill Amend volunteers at The Air Museum
Planes of Fame (wwwplanesoffameorg) aviation museum in Chino CA Recentlyhe had a chance to put his metallurgical and failure analysis expertise to work for themuseum The museumrsquos one of a kind 1940s vintage Northrop N9MB Flying Wingdevelopmental prototype had a partial engine failure and fire while being used to make
an IMAX film Through-wall fatiguecracks were found in the aluminum cylinder head where it mated with acast iron combustion cylinder linerBill together with a team of volunteers concluded that the likely cause of failurewas thermal stress cycling due to (1) uneven temperature distributions acrossthe head and (2) thermal expansion mismatch between the aluminum and castiron components Museum staff are working with an aerospace casting house onselection of an alternate alloy to repair the engine and prevent future similar failures
For more information please contact Bill Amend at (562) 413-3190 or bamendstructintcom
San Jose CA Silver Spring MD Whittier CA Ontario Canada Uniontown OH 408-978-8200 301-445-8200 562-944-8210 905-829-9817 330-899-9753
Sunrise FL Charlotte NC Denver CO Austin TX Stonington CT 954-572-2902 704-597-5554 303-792-0077 512-533-9191 860-536-3982
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom
New People at SI continued Cliff Anderson brings an extensive backgroundand knowledge of the energy business sectorincluding over 20 years of quality assurancequality control and non-destructive testingresponsibilities at nuclear fossil fuel powerstations as well as activities for the aerospaceindustry
Dr Marshal Clark is helping SI establish alitigation business unit leveraging his extensiveexperience in expert witness support for theelectric utilities and SIrsquos expansive expertise inall disciplines of engineering and nondestructiveexamination Marshal is also an industry leaderin the asset management of critical fossil plantcomponents
Gary Hensley is responsible for operationsmanagement the NDE Services Group andthe Charlotte office Gary brings an extensivebackground and knowledge of the combustionturbine industry and will be working closelywith the SI Fossil Plant Services leadershipteam over the next few months to determine this marketrsquos potential for SI Robert Briley has joined SIrsquos nuclear NDEServices group as a Senior NDE Specialist inour Charlotte office Bob has over 15 years ofNon Destructive Examination implementationand supervision experience in the nuclear andfossil industries both in the US and abroad
Ned Finney is supporting the growing needsof our nuclear NDE group in our Charlotteoffice Ned brings extensive background in andknowledge of the nuclear industry includingproject coordination and vendor surveillancefor fabrication and inspection of nuclear qualitycomponents and piping
Chris Lohse has joined SIrsquos technical staff in San Jose UC Davisrsquo Mechanical EngineeringProgram provided Mr Lohse with laboratoryand analytical experience in dynamics x-raydiffraction fracture mechanics thermodynamicsstrength of materials and control systems
Kewaunee Feedwater Piping Inspection and AnalysisAt Dominionrsquos Kewaunee
Nuclear Power Plant utility personnelwanted to inspect a section of feedwaterpiping for flow accelerated corrosion(FAC) The challenge was that a portionof the piping is surrounded by animpingement barrier SI used both G-ScanTM inspection and analysis to showthat the piping had adequate thicknesssaving the utility the cost of replacing thepiping and reducing associated outagetime impacts
G-ScanTM uses low frequencyultrasonic longitudinal and torsionalwaves (sending and receiving) to examinethe piping Depending on pipingconfiguration and conditions piping canbe examined 100 feet or more in either direction from where the G-ScanTM collar is mounted on the piping At Kewauneethe G-ScanTM found wall loss within mill tolerance slightly downstream of thestraight pipe to elbow weld for each oftwo elbows
To determine whether the measured thinning was acceptable SIdetermined minimum wall thickness in accordance with the code of construction
VVol Nool No
(B311) and ASME Code Case N-597-1 permitted in recent ASME Code editionsProjecting the observed thinning forward the piping was found acceptable for thein time using conservative assumptions remaining life of the plantfor initial wall thickness and thinning ratethe thickness was shown to be acceptable For more information please contactfor at least nine more years of operation Ken Rach at (630) 728-2094 or krachbased on the original code of construction structintcomHowever using the higher allowable stress
Visit our website at wwwstructintcom Winter 007 7Winter 007 7
February 19-21 2007 (Centennial CO)- Nuclear Power Services WorkshopAugust 28-29 2007 (Plymouth MA)
See wwwstructintcom for details
Have You Heard SI Senior Consulting Engineer Bill Amend volunteers at The Air Museum
Planes of Fame (wwwplanesoffameorg) aviation museum in Chino CA Recentlyhe had a chance to put his metallurgical and failure analysis expertise to work for themuseum The museumrsquos one of a kind 1940s vintage Northrop N9MB Flying Wingdevelopmental prototype had a partial engine failure and fire while being used to make
an IMAX film Through-wall fatiguecracks were found in the aluminum cylinder head where it mated with acast iron combustion cylinder linerBill together with a team of volunteers concluded that the likely cause of failurewas thermal stress cycling due to (1) uneven temperature distributions acrossthe head and (2) thermal expansion mismatch between the aluminum and castiron components Museum staff are working with an aerospace casting house onselection of an alternate alloy to repair the engine and prevent future similar failures
For more information please contact Bill Amend at (562) 413-3190 or bamendstructintcom
San Jose CA Silver Spring MD Whittier CA Ontario Canada Uniontown OH 408-978-8200 301-445-8200 562-944-8210 905-829-9817 330-899-9753
Sunrise FL Charlotte NC Denver CO Austin TX Stonington CT 954-572-2902 704-597-5554 303-792-0077 512-533-9191 860-536-3982
February 19-21 2007 (Centennial CO)- Nuclear Power Services WorkshopAugust 28-29 2007 (Plymouth MA)
See wwwstructintcom for details
Have You Heard SI Senior Consulting Engineer Bill Amend volunteers at The Air Museum
Planes of Fame (wwwplanesoffameorg) aviation museum in Chino CA Recentlyhe had a chance to put his metallurgical and failure analysis expertise to work for themuseum The museumrsquos one of a kind 1940s vintage Northrop N9MB Flying Wingdevelopmental prototype had a partial engine failure and fire while being used to make
an IMAX film Through-wall fatiguecracks were found in the aluminum cylinder head where it mated with acast iron combustion cylinder linerBill together with a team of volunteers concluded that the likely cause of failurewas thermal stress cycling due to (1) uneven temperature distributions acrossthe head and (2) thermal expansion mismatch between the aluminum and castiron components Museum staff are working with an aerospace casting house onselection of an alternate alloy to repair the engine and prevent future similar failures
For more information please contact Bill Amend at (562) 413-3190 or bamendstructintcom
San Jose CA Silver Spring MD Whittier CA Ontario Canada Uniontown OH 408-978-8200 301-445-8200 562-944-8210 905-829-9817 330-899-9753
Sunrise FL Charlotte NC Denver CO Austin TX Stonington CT 954-572-2902 704-597-5554 303-792-0077 512-533-9191 860-536-3982
