News & Insights

The Becht Blog

In this section of the site contributing authors submit interesting articles relating
to the various services, industries and research & development efforts of Becht.

News & Blog

Grade 91 Steel – How Did We Get Here? Part 1

This blog is the first part of a 3-blog series. To view the rest of the story click HERE for Part 2 and Here for Part 3. Part 1: History Thirty years ago, Grade 91 (9Cr-1Mo-V) steel was hailed as the savior of the power generation industry [1]; now it’s behavior has been described as […]

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Grade 91 Steel – How Did We Get Here? Part 2

Read Part 1 Part 2: Type IV Cracking and Inspectability The current concerns with Grade 91 are fundamentally and firmly rooted in inspectability of Type IV damage; while sensitivity of the material can be managed (see for example [1]), Type IV cracking is perhaps the Achilles heel of Grade 91.  At a high level, the […]

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Grade 91 Steel – How Did We Get Here? Part 3

Read Part 1 or Read Part 2 Part 3: Allowable Stresses While inspectability has been at the center of recent concerns, other issues such as chemistry control, ductility and excessive oxidation have also come under scrutiny.  Perhaps most interesting is that while all of the preceding concerns have been debated, it has also been found […]

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EPRI Publishes “Roadmap to Integrity Evaluation and Repair of Nuclear Plant Piping”

EPRI has just published the report “Roadmap to Integrity Evaluation and Repair of Nuclear Plant Piping” EPRI report number 3002013156, dated December 2018, prepared by Becht Nuclear Services, under EPRI Project Manager T. Eckert. The methods and criteria for the evaluation of degraded and non-conforming conditions in piping systems in nuclear power plants are dispersed […]

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Turnaround Critical Path Reviews – Recommendations and Examples

Critical Path Analysis, Schedule Optimization or Cold Eyes Review (call it what you want) are all designed to check your Turnaround (TA) Schedule for logic, manpower and equipment efficiencies that can affect the duration of the TA Schedule.  When margins are high you can have unit-down-days that are worth upward of $1MM/day.  For this type margin […]

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Restoring High Energy Piping System Performance by Reducing Friction

“When You’re Stuck, You’re Stuck” Over years of normal operation – like cycling and wear and tear – High Energy Pipe support friction can increase causing distress in these critical systems. Friction is a common phenomenon which is widely understood and considered in both piping analysis and support design.  Generally, a piping analyst models a […]

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Reducing Coupling weights in Large Motor Driven Pumps

One of the major issues in designing large motor driven pump applications is minimizing the overhung weight on the pump rotor.  Motor or gearbox drives are designed and sized independently of the driven unit.  They are based on motor frame size and/or gearbox frame sizes and the drive component manufacturer has no information on the […]

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Bobby Wright Joins Becht Engineering!

Becht Engineering is pleased to welcome Bobby Wright to the Becht Engineering family. Bobby comes to Becht from Stress Engineering in Houston, TX and will be the Lead Technical Authority for BechtTechnicalSolutions. This position covers our multi-discipline services to offer unique solutions to our clients’ issues. Bobby has over 30 years of experience mobilizing teams providing […]

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Due Diligence – Making Rapid, Accurate Judgements

or  “Kidnapped By My Own Business Team” A number of years ago I worked closely with an Operating Company Business Team and Mergers and Acquisitions group performing due diligence assessments. I often led these assessments and my input on reliability, maintenance, mechanical integrity and inspection was incorporated into a multi discipline team of legal, environmental, […]

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Becht On The Road for January 2019

Becht Engineering will be attending the 2019 API Inspection Summit in Galveston, TX January 28-31st. Be sure to stop by the Becht booth #513 to learn more about all of our service offerings. Additionally, Becht will be presenting the following presentations: ASME Post Construction Standards: Past, Present, & Future – Clay Rodery (C&S Technology LLC) […]

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