In this section of the site contributing authors submit interesting articles relating
to the various services, industries and research & development efforts of Becht.
I was asked to participate in an engineering career development panel session at the 2013 ASME Pressure Vessel and Piping Conference which was held in Paris, France. I elected to talk about what engineers can do to improve their leadership skills. I am including some of the introductory material in this blog; the full presentation […]
There are three characteristics of motion which are all related by the natural frequency of vibration for steady state harmonic vibration: displacement, velocity and acceleration. Of these, which is the best indicator for cyclic stress (or strain) which in turn is related to fatigue damage? As it turns out, it is velocity. One may think […]
ASME B31.3 provides rules for Category M Fluid Service in Chapter VIII of the Code. These rules are designed to provide additional measures of leak tightness. For example, special precautions to prevent leakage past valve stems are included and a sensitive leak test designed to find even very small leaks in the system is required. […]
Serious floods rarely occur in the life of a refinery or petro-chemical plant. But when such an event does occur there are significant implications for the reliability of rotating equipment and associated business risks when it’s time to restart the plant. And because this scenario is so uncommon, there are few, if any, industry standards […]
This is the second article in a planned series where questions related to process machinery will be addressed. The intent of these articles is to answer general questions you may have about the machinery that you work with or manage on a daily basis. In each article we will address different systems associated with the […]
A new process unit was designed and built by a petrochemical manufacturer. As part of the project, two 50 horespower blowers were installed. Rotating equipment of this type is traditionally installed at grade on an engineered monolithic concrete foundation with rebar and anchor bolts. A suitable soleplate or baseplate is then grouted to the foundation […]
The Becht Guys were recently involved with removing an existing large WPII (weather protected, internal air-cooled) electric motor and installing a new spare motor on a planned outage. This work was being performed in a petrochemical plant where we spent most of our careers. Many years ago we had developed a program to extend the […]
Summary At a gulf coast site, a large catalyst drier began experiencing vibrations after start up and suffered a failure. The drier internal diameter is approximately 7 feet, measures 40 feet long and is supported at each end by 2 large trunion shafts on which are mounted 2 rollers. There is a large ring gear […]
Two compressors at a Refinery in Texas were up-rated to bushing type dry gas seals to eliminate the historical H2S leakage to the environment. The existing seals in both of these machines were the original Clark floating bushing oil seals. There were concerns that the leakage path may be around the outside of the seals […]
Background and The Problem 24 new 3600 RPM, 440 volt AC induction motors were replaced at a large refinery as a result of flooding during hurricane Ike. The motors were inundated by 6 ft to 12 ft of floodwater. The new motors were from three of the major industrial motor manufacturers. Horsepower ratings ranged from […]
