How to go from Engineer-In-Training to Engineer-that-knows-his-sh!t 4

[MechEng176]

Hi everyone,

I graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering recently and I now work at a nuclear power plant as a plant operator (started 2 months ago). Even though my company is going to teach me everything about operations and then some, I'll never have the opportunity to work with codes and design so won't know the background behind a lot of things like:

* why is this pipe this thick with a metallurgy of so-and-so
* why was that weld selected there
* what makes this valves seat good for such-and-such service
* all the factors that go into picking a valve
* efficient setup of pumps in parallel and series
* famous studies of failures of tanks, pumps, turbines
* and much much more.

I know a lot of this will be covered in the ASME BPVC but I need some resources to get a good base first. Someone could show me a ton of different types of welds but unless I have a good base in piping and metallurgy, none of that information will stick. Simply put, I want to teach myself basic piping engineering, plant design, reliability engineering, as well as technical information about the design /selection of pumps, impellers, turbines, flanges, gaskets, studs/bolts, instrument air, storage tanks, compressors, fans, valves, valve motor selection based on torque required for ball based on shutdown speed (I think I read something like that on a thread here), heat exchangers, tanks, metallurgy, etc. I've got a real long way to go and want to learn, grow, as well as move up in the company.

I've tried to pick this stuff up from the threads here but the vast majority of the material is at an intermediate to advanced level and goes right over my head. I haven't been sitting idle though, Wikipedia has been great for giving me the basics on some things and I also have the following books on my to-read list:

* ASME BPVC
* Crane TP410
* Machinery's Handbook

Hoping for any leads on how to start studying the codes or links to tutorials on YouTube or other sites or any advice in general would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[MechEng176]

Some background on me, right out of school I worked at an oil patch service company for a year and mostly worked on hydro-tests, leak tests, and other Nitrogen jobs (pipelines purges, pig runs, and accelerated cool downs), however the engineering for most of them was done by senior engineers (except I did pipeline purges and pig runs, those are easy).

 

[MintJulep]

Unless things have changed since the days I worked in a nuclear plant every single design calculation for every single component of your plant is available in your plant library.

Go and start reading.

 

[GregLocock]

You haven't exactly got into the ideal job for getting experience with that good list, it sounds to me as though your interests are biased towards design. As your previous job suggests, maintenance and field work are also good places to pick up practical design.

Online resources that may help you include the MIT lectures, but your reading list is a good start.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[byrdj]

Congradulations on the being hired as an Operator. If you peruse getting your SRO license, you are going to be too busy to to look at the details of construction, but you will be exposed to every aspect of the plants design. Of all the people I have met, SRO's have my respect for the vast knowledge they must have about the plant (even the ones I didn't get alone with, I still had great respect).

Now if you still desire to get into the minute details, over the years they should be opertunitues to go to engineering or even maintenace departments. Having operating experance will be of great benifit.

I will say, question your training and apply engineering principles to what is presented as "fact". As MintJulep mentioned, there is vast amounts of histroical information to study. However I just reviewed a +300 page report of a turbine trip only to find a couple paraghraphs that were technical related to the design/maintance problem.

if you have any questions related to your turbine (and its GE) just ask

 

[MechEng176]

Thanks for all the tips folks. I'm going to be on a structured training program for over a year and it's not jam packed so I can make some time to do some snooping around on the intranet to see design, isometrics, equipment spec. sheets, and other engineering drawings.

Just fyi, I'm in Canada and here the SROs are called Authorized Nuclear Operators (ANO) and run the reactor (1 per reactor). I actually REALLY want to get into my plants ANO program; once you're in it's 4 years of training for you to write the qualification exam with the CNSC (Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission). Need to play catch up on technical knowledge to get my bosses recommendation to be put in the program so that could take awhile. Hopefully someday I'll be contributing more to threads here.

Also, the turbines we have are actually Alstom made, not GE.

 

[ctopher]

My suggestion is don't count on Wikipedia. A lot of universities frown on its use.

Chris, CSWA
SolidWorks 14
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[ctopher]

My suggestion is don't count on Wikipedia, it should not be trusted as reliable.
A study in materials will help a lot.

Chris, CSWA
SolidWorks 14
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[Jboggs]

In your post you said "I'll never have the opportunity to work with codes and design". You and I both know that "never" is an overstatement here. It just feels like "never". Believe me, when you look at this situation from the other side of a career you will appreciate how truly lucky you are! Here's why: when you do make it to the design related tasks, you will have a knowledge and understanding of the life of an operator that other designers will "never" have. That one fact will give you an automatic advantage over your peers.

I have designed equipment for in-plant use my entire career. One of the first things I learned AFTER GRADUATING was that no matter how good I thought I design was, if the guys that had to use it didn't like it for any reason whatsoever, it wasn't going to work, period. Over the years I learned the hard way to ALWAYS include as much input as possible from the end users of my designs as early as possible in the design process. If they feel that you have their interests and convenience in mind, they will go out of their way to learn how to use your designs properly.

We have a saying in our engineering department: If your new design makes it two weeks out on the plant floor without ending up in a dumpster, you done good.

 

[TheTick]

There are a lot of folks on Eng-tips that started life as navy nuclear operators. I think there was even a thread about it a few years back.

There are very few guarantees in life. However, one near-guarantee is you never end up where you started. You also never end up where you first thought you were going. It's early, there's lots of time to change things if you work at it.

 

[rb1957]

working with the stuff around a plant is a good foundation for when you start designing stuff.

working on the ground floor level will also give you many useful contacts.

another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?

 

[TheTick]

Learning to be excellent at anything helps you be better at everything.

 

[tensor47]

Hi there 176,
A motor racing engineering guru call Carrol Smith wrote a series of books on the engineering aspects of designing and building race cars and your sort of questions are covered in a way that is useful for any form of engineering, particularly metalurgy and fatigue aspects of design. I think "Engineer to Win" would be a very good start, and imho it should be on the book list for any mech eng course.
Cheers
John

 

[spciesla]

Don't worry, you will be plenty busy. When you are through with training (actually, training never ends in nuclear power) and are working as an operator in the field, you should get some interaction with the plant engineers (Maintenance Engineers, System Engineers, etc., different sites call them different things). Talk to these people. Not only can you learn a lot from them, you can also teach them about how the equipment and plant works. A potential task that you may have is Inservice Testing of Pumps and/or valves. This falls under the ASME OM Code. Generally, the engineers handle the results, calculations, trends, etc., but engage them and let them know that you have an engineering background and want to understand what is going on.

Working as an Operator with an engineer background will benefit you greatly. If you choose to leave Operations at some point (most likely to get out of shift work), the Engineering and/or Maintenance Organizations will want your services.

Good luck!