Becht Engineering Blog

Settlement of a pipe support foundation is usually not a big deal to assess. A local piping flexibility model will reveal if the settled support keeps the pipe bending stresses within the allowable codes and, if the bending stresses are unacceptable, modifying the support and monitor periodically for further settlement is normally a quite manageable task. However, if settlement is occurring site-wide at a large site due to errors in the pre-construction soil surveys, the problem quickly becomes unmanageable. A client recently approached Becht Engineering with a request to develop a screening tool. A tool that inspectors at such a site can easily use in the field to quickly screen pipe circuits subjected to support settlement. The stated objective was to determine which circuits are acceptable without further study based on conservative criteria requiring detailed follow-up, i.e. piping flexibility analysis. This blog supplies an overview of the bases for this tool....

The safe operation, maintenance and reliability of roofs in large tanks, does require special considerations in their design, construction and installation practices. Over the past 60 plus years, thousands of tanks with Fixed Roofs with internal Covers, and Floating Roofs, have been used to store Crude Oil and Middle Distillates. Refiners derived significant advantage through the Floating roofs which are used to store very large volumes from super-tanker shipments, and meet the escalating demand for hydrocarbons in industry. This blog is Part 1 of two blogs and covers the maintenance and reliability of floating roofs amongst storage tanks. Part 2 deals with internal floating covers on these storage tanks. Aging storage facilities, which can be 50 to 60 years old, have heightened the challenges to ensure safe operation and integrity in a cost effective manner. Therefore, these facilities must be given similar priorities to on-sites units where operational and maintenance risks...

Turnarounds (TA) in refining units are executed periodically, on a planned basis, to meet multiple objectives, such as regulatory compliance, process reliability improvement, and equipment inspection and/or repairs. In a competitive business environment, managing TA events in a cost effective manner is a well-recognized challenge. Key Step - Planning Development of a comprehensive Work Scope for the TA of equipment in a Process Unit is a key step which can make the difference when focusing on business goals for a Process Unit. Since a major turnaround can range from 500,000 – 1 MM man-hours and involve hundreds of TA tasks, Best Practices - utilizing Risk Based Work Selection  methods - are used for prioritizing and justifying execution of tasks. Execution of these tasks yields an optimized work scope and minimized TA duration. A principal outcome of this Work Process is that it enables the Unit to meet S, H, E, and Financial...

Many of the tourist spots around the world have panhandlers. Some of the more creative ones stand on street corners advertising that they will tell you where you got your shoes, for a dollar. Of course it turns out that “you got your shoes” at the corner of Bourbon and St. Peters - or wherever you happen to be standing at the moment. It’s a play on words. However, being able to predict your pump Mean Time Between Repairs (MTBR) is not a play on words. Indeed it can be done quite accurately. I am often asked to do a facility rotating equipment reliability audit. After all, the plant’s management has heard that top tier plants have pump MTBR’s in excess of 100 months. They would be happy to have half that number. Hence the need to understand the major MTBR influencing factors. The main broad reliability categories that determine what...