Becht Boosts Mechanical Engineering Expertise
Recently, Becht Engineering has added experienced, industry experts to its mechanical engineering roster. These include David Dewees, Robert Brown, Nathan Wilcoxson, Curtis Koether, and Zumao Chen.
Dave Dewees, PE – Subject Matter Expert: Nonlinear Stress Analysis, Elevated Temperature Mechanical Material Behavior
Dave has worked in the petrochemical, nuclear and power industries over the last 16 years. Dave’s specialties include finite element analysis (FEA – heat transfer/thermal-stress, creep, fracture and shock and vibration), fatigue, fracture and creep modeling, as well as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and multiphysics problems. He is a long time member of ASME (Sections I, III and VIII) and API committees, as well as AWS (weld residual stress modeling). Dave lives in the Cleveland, Ohio area where he will be opening the Medina, Ohio office shortly.
Robert ‘Bob’ Brown, PE – Subject Matter Expert: Fitness for Service Specialist, Fatigue and Fracture Mechanics, Nonlinear Stress Analysis
Bob Brown has thirty years of mechanical engineering experience as both a consultant and an owner-user, providing engineering support to petrochemical, process and power plants worldwide. He is an industry expert in the development and practical use of advanced finite element analysis techniques to evaluate mechanical integrity and to optimize the life cycle of in-service pressure containing equipment.
Mr. Brown was integral in the development of the major revision to the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section VIII, Division 2 (2007), specifically the “design by analysis” section of the new Code. He was also a contributor in the development of the landmark Fitness-for-Service standard API 579-1/ASME FFS-1. Bob lives in the Cleveland, Ohio area where he will be opening the Medina, Ohio office shortly.
Nathan Wilcoxson – Fitness for Service Specialist: Mechanical, Structural, Pressure Vessel & Pipe Stress
Nathan Wilcoxson has worked in the petrochemical and refining industry for the past 8 years with Flint Hill Resources (FHR) and John Zink (JZ). At FHR Nathan was responsible for pressure vessel and piping reliability as well as Fitness-For-Service. At JZ Nathan was a structural design engineer for flare stacks, thermal oxidizers and derrick structures. He has experience in ASME VIII, ASME B31.3, API 579, AISC, ASCE 7 and other various codes and standards. Nathan is working out of the Liberty Corner, NJ office on pressure vessels, piping and fitness for service work.
Curtis Koether, PE – Fixed Equipment Engineer: Piping, Pressure Vessel, Fired Heater, and Fitness for Service Analysis
Curtis Koether has worked in the refining industry for 11 years with Phillips 66. At Phillips 66, Curtis was responsible for mechanical integrity of fixed equipment such as pressure vessels, piping, and fired heaters. He has experience in ASME VIII, ASME B31.3, API 579, and various other codes and standards. Curtis is working out of the Houston Engineering Center office supporting fixed equipment engineering work.
Zumao Chen, PhD – Subject Matter Expert: Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
Zumao Chen has worked in the power industry for more than 11 years with Babcock & Wilcox and 4 years with Reaction Engineering International. He has over 15 years of experience in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling of utility and industrial boilers, burners, over-fire air (OFA) ports and other boiler components. He also has more than 6 years of experience in model development for fluid dynamics, convective and radiative heat transfer, combustion, and computer programming to simulate two-phase flow systems. Zumao lives in the Cleveland, Ohio area where he will be opening the Medina, Ohio office shortly.
