Turbines
Valves, Pumps and Turbomachinery: Be cautious with systems that are not foolproof
Mechanical systems, especially rotary equipment, are designed to support easy maintenance jobs with less complexity and low chances of incorrect installation.
Safety and environmental benefits of reliability engineering
When you boil down the mission of reliability to its bare essence, the job is to deliver maximum operational availability for the least amount of money over the lifecycle of the asset.
Impact plant performance by improving the steam system
Petrochemical plants and refineries face production and profitability challenges on multiple fronts.
Reliability: Taking ownership of problems
Taking ownership of issues during a critical or troubling time is just as important as assuming responsibility during times of opportunity and benefit.
Reliability: Plan startups wisely and involve SMEs
DE, a retired former colleague of mine, recounted his experience as an expert witness for ABC in litigation against XYZ. (Note that I picked the letters A through M for the plaintiff’s side; N through Z are assigned to the defendants.)
Engineering Case Histories: Case 110: A checklist for vibration analysis
Periodically, I receive questions from engineers around the world on why a piece of critical machinery is vibrating excessively.
Design of very-high-flow coefficient centrifugal compressor stages
Centrifugal compressors are widely used in the oil and gas and petrochemical industries, with more than 15,000 operating in the U.S. alone.
Reveal the unmonitored risks in your rotating equipment: The effects of torsional vibration—Part 2
In recent case studies, unexpected and unmonitored torsional vibration resulted in sudden failures, costly downtime and potential safety hazards. Part 1 of this article, which appeared in the January issue of <i>Hydrocarbon Processing,</i> examined the origins of torsional vibration and case histories to drive an understanding of the unmonitored risk existing at many industrial sites.
Reveal the unmonitored risks in your rotating equipment—Part 1
On December 15, 2002, an anomalous event occurred in a steam turbine of Unit 2 at the South Texas Project Electric Generating Station, a pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear reactor near Bay City, Texas. The ensuing investigation concluded that a blade was ejected from a low-pressure stage, and detailed inspections revealed additional cracked blades in several stages.
Reliability: Things rarely heard at reliability conferences
We can only guess how many reliability conferences we have attended since accepting job offers in the refining or chemical processing industries. In my case, starting in 1965, it is somewhere between 60 and 80. If, in each of these conferences I listened to six presentations, the number of sessions attended is perhaps 400.
- Shell Aviation, Accenture, and Amex GBT expand Avelia into a multi-supplier SAF solution 7/16
- ORLEN and Krajowa Grupa Spożywcza sign MoU to accelerate biomethane production in Poland 7/16
- New plants, U.S. trade worries to drive China's 2025 naphtha imports to record 7/16
- Blue Water significantly reduces CO2 emissions by switching to HVO in port operations 7/16
- Swire Shipping launches new carbon insetting program – ‘Voyage to Zero’ 7/16
- China's surplus crude oil surges in June, giving refiners options 7/16
