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

Importance of Codes and Standards for Process Safety

Compliance with the Process Safety Management rule, OSHA 1910.119, is a requirement for plants processing certain highly hazardous materials exceeding threshold quantities. The rule requires the owner to demonstrate all equipment has been purchased and installed in accordance with recognized industry standards. Maintenance practices must also be according to Recognized and Generally Accepted Good Engineering […]

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Environmentally-Assisted Fatigue (EAF) in Nuclear Power Plants

Before we tackle environmentally-assisted fatigue (EAF), what is fatigue? In ASME Boiler & Pressure Vessel Section III Division 1, Subsection NB (in short, ASME III NB) fatigue refers to the damage caused by systems and components as a result of cyclic loads. The qualification of the primary coolant system of light water reactors (ASME III […]

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Equipment Nozzle Loads

by Greg Hollinger and George Antaki One of the qualification requirements for a piping system is to keep the loads imparted by the piping on equipment nozzles within certain allowable limits. These loads consist of sets of three forces and three moments, for the various load combinations. There are basically two types of nozzle load limits: […]

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Fluid-Structure Interaction Under Seismic Loading Using Finite Element Analysis

Becht Nuclear Services recently applied ANSYS® multi-surface, with fluid-structure interaction (FSI) capabilities to evaluate the effects of seismic loading on vessel internals that are immersed in the fluid.  Before proceeding with the analysis of the actual vessel, the FSI capabilities were benchmarked to an analytical solution of a simpler liquid-filled flexible tank under seismic loading. […]

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Resolution of Chronic Cooling Tower Fan Vibrations

Traditional rotating equipment mounted at grade use the mass of a foundation and grout to reduce vibration and provide support and stiffness. However, cooling tower fans must be elevated many feet above a basin of water which sometimes puts them “out of sight and out of mind”. Cost and practicality prohibits concrete and grout, thus […]

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Expert Witness in Swiss Arbitration Court

Becht advisors have provided a wide array of experience and background to our clients including serving as technical experts in a legal setting on many financially significant cases. In one example, our team was hired to develop economics impact of a broken five-year term agreement for our client to recover a wide range of petroleum […]

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Becht Technology Review – Unusual Business Opportunities

The process team at Becht Engineering brings decades of experience from serving in the R&D of major corporations and also from representing a wide variety of Becht Engineering clients.  We have observed and evaluated new technology from both sides of the fence…as employees or for large corporations who do R&D internally to outpace their competition, […]

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Bob Sims Installed As 133rd ASME President

Much as an athlete who uses a cross-training approach to develop strength and stamina and improve performance, ASME must embrace an interdisciplinary approach in order to grow and thrive in the coming years, ASME’s new president, J. Robert Sims, observed during his inaugural address at the ASME Annual Meeting in Portland, Ore., earlier this week. […]

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ASME B31.3 – Substantive Changes in the 2016 Edition

In addition to the many clarifications, updated references to codes and standards, updates to basic allowable stresses, and added listed materials, there are several substantive changes to the 2016 Edition of ASME B31.3, Process Piping, which is scheduled to be issued on January 4, 2017. These changes are: Severe Cyclic Conditions The definition for severe […]

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“Speed Kills” – An Empirical Association of Antifriction Bearing Behavior When Things Go From Bad to Worse

Machinery and reliability people have for a long time observed that when it comes to long life and high reliability, operating at higher speeds compares poorly to operation at lower speeds. One of the primary reasons for having high-speed devices is economics. With high speed you can have smaller equipment sizes with fewer stages. While […]

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