Latest Applicant AMIMechE

Professional Review Report for Election to Corporate Membership of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

CONTENTS LIST

1. Purpose

2. Education and Career to Date

3. Engineering Projects

3.1 Dynamic Behaviour of Rotating Plant Systems

3.1.1 Investigation of Boiler Feed Pump Vibration

3.1.2 Main Turbo-alternator outage

3.2 Reduction of Output Losses

4. Continuing Professional Development

5. Continuing Professional Development

6. Personal Commitment to Professional Standards

7. Development Action Plan

7.1 Short Term Development Plan

7.2 Medium & Long Term Development Plan

APPENDIX 1

Engineering Division Organisation

1. Purpose

The purpose of the report is to :

Summarise my educational history.

Identify my main responsibilities as a mechanical engineer within the organisations in which I have been employed.

Provide evidence of my initial professional development and the associated development of UK-SPEC competences.

Report on my continuing professional development.

Present my Development Action Plan for the short, medium and longer term.

2. Education and Career to Date

I graduated from the University of Bristol in 2003 with a first class MEng degree in Mechanical Engineering

During my degree course I undertook vacation work in a number of engineering companies and gained valuable industrial experience to complement my studies. These included working at a high pressure test facility operated by Company A, detailed engineering design of paper rolling machinery at Company B and automotive gearbox design & development at A1 A2

Company C. I arranged these placements myself and made useful contributions to the various work programmes, as well as gaining useful experience and self confidence in a real working environment. D1

Whilst at University I was awarded a Company D prize for my third year work and results, and an IMechE Best Student prize in my final year. The latter award was based on my examination results and the outcome of my final year project on the design optimisation of a supercharger and intercooler system to improve the output and efficiency of an automobile engine. A1 A2

After graduating I joined Company E as a design and development engineer, working primarily on aircraft landing gear and associated hydraulic systems. My area of responsibility widened over the next 3 years with the company, both technically and in terms of my breadth of responsibility. My engineering experience expanded to include stress analysis, system dynamic performance modelling, prototype testing and final certification of systems for delivery to the customer. A1 B2 D2

During this period I progressed from an inexperienced engineer, working on specific tasks under close supervision, to independent working, with real responsibility for technical and commercial decision making. I also built up my skills and experience in the management of my time and project resources, in order to deliver work and products to quality, time and cost. C1 C2

Necessarily, I developed my interpersonal and leadership skills during this period, and was promoted to lead a small team of 3 engineers and 1

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technician in the development department.

In 2006 I changed industries to join Company F, who own and operate 5 power stations in the UK. I was recruited as a dynamics and performance engineer in the rotating plant area. This included the main steam turbines, feed pumps, fans, cooling systems etc. I built on my degree level discipline knowledge in the technical areas of the dynamic behaviour of rotating systems, bearing design, condition monitoring, control systems and thermodynamic performance of large turbo generator systems. During this time I became the team expert in the development of improved condition monitoring systems for the companys rotating plant systems. A1

In 2008 I was asked to lead a team responsible for improving the performance and availability of turbo-generator systems, which is an increasingly important contributor to plant output losses. My remit has recently been increased to include responsibility for the analysis and reduction of unplanned output losses across all rotating plant systems. C3

3. Engineering Projects

3.1 Dynamic Behaviour of Rotating Plant Systems

The group I joined provides an operational support service on the dynamic behaviour of rotating plant to all the companys power stations. During my time with the group I attended all of our power station sites to investigate abnormal vibration behaviour of pumps, fans and main turbo-alternator

systems. During this time I progressed from an assistant role, working with a more senior engineer, to someone who could be despatched to site to diagnose problems and recommend design or operational solutions to vibration problems. I also participated in a statutory triennial outage involving a major strip and rebuild of the main turbine. The strip and rebuild process is usually on the outage critical path, with the final part of the rebuild being to balance the machine and ensure that vibration levels are within prescribed limits.

3.1.1 Investigation of Boiler Feed Pump Vibration

Power Station X had been experiencing high vibrations on one of its boiler feed pumps at part load conditions. I was given the responsibility of determining the scale and characteristics of the abnormal vibrations, investigating options to reduce vibration and making appropriate recommendations to the maintenance manager to manage the problem. B2 B3

I arranged an initial visit to the Station to meet key operational and maintenance staff, in order to gather data on the development and magnitude of the problem. This enabled me to form a plan to address the pump vibration, which I then used to establish resources required to investigate it further, together with provisional estimates of the time and internal and external costs involved. The latter aspects are part of the companys process for allocating Central Engineering manpower and revenue costs to each power Station. I also identified a requirement for technician support and agreed this with my line manager. This required me to justify D1 C1 C2

the technician being transferred to this work from a lower priority task. I then produced a preliminary resourced plan for the work for approval by my Group Head and agreement with Station staff.

I produced the necessary documentation for access to the plant and E1 approval for the data acquisition process. This included health and safety issues, since we were working in a hazardous environment. The measurements required a number of plant operational movements, which I specified. I had to design the test schedule to balance the benefits of acquiring data against the potential for disturbing the plants steady running state and incurring excessive generation losses. I then secured the necessary authorisations to carry out the tests. This required me to present my proposals to the senior Operations Engineer, to ensure that the secured plant manoeuvres were practicable and justified, particularly as they would result in lost output to the value of approximately 100,000. My proposals were agreed with minor modifications to sequencing, in order to minimise the lost output. This exercise improved my knowledge of plant operational issues, the economics of generation and helped my presentational and influencing skills. D2 E2

I carried out a comprehensive series of vibration measurements with the support of the technician, using state of the art recording and diagnostic equipment. This is capable of providing frequency domain and time domain information for off site evaluation. I captured data from both the installed vibration transducers and from temporary additional instrumentation whose location I had specified, which was installed by the technician under my direction.

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I have been trained in the use of the data analysis system and carried out frequency and time domain analysis in our laboratory. These revealed the existence of excessive vibration at specific speeds, indicative of either a bend in the feed pump shaft, or degradation of the thrust bearing. In order to investigate this further I carried out some hand calculations, and developed a finite element model of the shaft system, including the bearings to investigate the sensitivity of vibration levels to realistic levels of shaft distortion and bearing degradation. The output from the model identified further routes for analysis of the vibration data. My conclusion from the data analysis and modelling work was that the most probable cause of the vibration was deterioration of one of the thrust bearings, possibly cause by a hydrodynamic lubrication problem. I presented my results to the Station, with a recommendation that they install additional vibration transducers at the bearing, and specified an additional monitoring and analysis regime to detect any trend in vibration signature indicative of deteriorating performance. I also recommended that a temperature transducer be installed and monitored at the bearing to detect any increase in bearing temperature indicative of bearing distress, and prescribed operating limits. Overall, I gave my judgement that the feed pump could continue to operate until the next outage at slightly reduced load , with the enhanced monitoring I had specified in place. This was a successful strategy, since it minimised the cost of lost generation, whilst minimising the risk of plant damage. Had the pump been shut down early the lost generation cost would have been in excess of 500,000. The pump operated successfully in this regime until the next planned outage. Throughout this period I constantly reviewed the monitoring data to ensure that the pump was still in an acceptable state and provided regular status reports to B3 D1 D2 B2 B3 A1

Engineering Division and Station management teams. I was also on standby in the event of any deterioration in plant state being observed by Station staff. I was commended by the Station Operations Manager for my contribution to the safe, reliable operation of the Station.

3.1.2 Main Turbo-Alternator Outage

My role in the triennial outage of the main turbo-alternator at Station Y was less hands on, since the main refurbishment was being carried out by the companys principal partner, who supplied the turbine. I was part of a joint team with a specific responsibility for specifying, overseeing and accepting the final balancing and setting to work of the turbine at the end of the outage, including the run up to full power. In this role I was acting as the companys informed customer when dealing with the partner company and safeguarding the integrity of the final commissioning phase. D1

I first produced a Technical Specification for the balancing of the turboalternator, including the definition of acceptable overall vibration limits and associated principal shaft order vibration levels. These are based on international and company standards for large rotating plant, together with company specific requirements based on our operational experience. I presented these to the joint project team and discussed the detailed technical requirements with my opposite number in the partner organisation. This resulted in some fine tuning of the specification, which improved its clarity and robustness. We jointly developed a timeline for the final commissioning work, which was acceptable to both organisations, and secured formal approval from D2 E1 A1

the Outage Manager. Finally, I developed the commissioning documentation, including Work Permits, in conjunction with Station staff. These took account of national and local health & safety legislation.

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I witnessed the whole of the final commissioning phase and formally accepted the handover of the machine in terms of its vibration state on behalf of the company. This was a valuable introduction to the execution of a tightly planned programme with many complex interacting tasks. The programme had, inevitably, to be adjusted as problems arose and I had to make a number of critical decisions and adjustments to programme within short timescales. I consulted other experts and used my own judgement as appropriate. On one occasion I had to suspend further work to enable some additional analysis to be carried out on data which appeared anomalous. This was not an easy decision, but the anomaly was traced to a faulty transducer, so I learnt to stand by my judgement and experience, in the face of commercial pressure. Another key learning point was the benefit of considering what if scenarios when planning critical path work of this type in order to be prepared for things not going entirely to plan. Working with my opposite number in the partner organisation also gave me a better appreciation of the task from the perspective of a supplier/manufacturer to our industry. C1 C2

3.2 Reduction of Output Losses

The unplanned lost generation income arising from a shutdown of a main turbo-alternator can be up to 250,000 per day. Breakdown of smaller items of plant can lead to similar losses if there is no plant redundancy, or to smaller losses if output can be maintained, albeit at a reduced level.

I was tasked with leading a small team of 5 experts to evaluate the contribution of the main rotating plant items to current unplanned output losses in the power station fleet. Specifically, I was asked to: B2

Identify the magnitude of lost generation attributable to rotating plant

problems.

Determine whether there were common causes of such failures.

Identify a strategy for reducing losses to an acceptable minimum.

Specify a corrective action programme to implement the loss reduction

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strategy.

I first identified the skills I required in the Team, including technical experts within the engineering function, a Station representative and an expert from the Trading Department to provide advice on performance statistics and the impact of unplanned plant outages on company income. C3

I convened a half day workshop to review the brief with Team members, brainstormed the key issues with them and allocated responsibilities to each Team member. I then developed a Project Definition Statement as a framework for the task and asked one of the Team to develop a project plan which we could use to monitor progress. This included the requirement for 50,000 of revenue expenditure, for which I secured financial approval.

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The project ran for 3 months, during which time I chaired a weekly meeting with a standard agenda to review progress against the plan, implement corrective actions where required and update the programme as new information became available.

The work identified a number of common causes of plant unavailability, including design deficiencies, inadequate maintenance regimes and inappropriate plant manoeuvres. It also flagged up a major opportunity to improve on line condition monitoring of critical items of rotating plant, in order to provide forewarning of a deterioration in performance.

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On completion of the project, I chaired a Lessons Learned workshop, which identified a number of important lessons for future projects of this type. I documented these and entered them onto the companys quality management system for future reference by Engineering Division staff.

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I documented the outcome of the Teams work and presented it to the Engineering and Operations Directors and key members of the management team. Our recommendations were accepted, particularly the option to improve

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the scope and quality of condition monitoring systems for main rotating plant items. As a result I have been asked to develop the company strategy for this initiative, including costing the project and securing the necessary hardware and infrastructure. The potential cost benefits of such a scheme are estimated to be worth several m /annum to the company. This is a very satisfying outcome to the project which I led, and I am proud to be making such an important contribution to the business. In executing this task I will also build on my existing knowledge of sophisticated condition monitoring systems, which have enormous potential in the drive to improve overall reliability and availability of complex plant. A1

Arising from this task I have also been asked to review the performance of the staff allocated to me as part of the companys staff appraisal process. I have found this a useful experience in assessing peoples strengths and development needs and advising them on their future roles.

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4. Continuing Professional Development

I have maintained my professional development since graduating. Key activities during this period are summarised below:

I presented a Paper to the 2007 annual conference on Vibrations in

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Rotating Machinery, describing the use of modal analysis to optimise an analytical model of a turbine shaft system.

I attended the 2006 Essential Management Skills for Engineers at

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Keele University, which I found stimulating. It was good to get together with young engineers from other industries.

I have visited the secondary school local to my workplace and discussed

my role and careers in engineering with GCSE level students.

I assist with the induction of new recruits to the engineering function,

and have acted as a buddy to two new members of staff in the last two years.

I have organised a series of lunchtime seminars where an engineer

discusses his/her work area with peers.

I have participated in an exercise to improve the quality of technical

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reporting of the Divisions work.

5. Personal Commitment to Professional Standards

I am familiar with the IMechEs Code of Conduct for professional engineers and with the legislative and regulatory regimes which apply to my current role. I endeavour to maintain a professional approach to my work at all times and will contribute to sustainable development. I will maintain and extend my professional competence and will support the development and promotion of the engineering profession.

6. Development Action Plan

6.1 Short Term Development Plan

My immediate objective is to become a Chartered Engineer. If successful I shall offer my services as a mentor to new graduates on the companys MPDS Scheme. I wish to complete the task to develop a strategy for reducing unplanned output losses across all rotating plant systems in the companys power stations. I have recently joined the Young Members Section of my local IMechE Branch and am leading an initiative to promote engineering as a career, via involvement with local schools and colleges.

6.2 Medium & Long Term Development Plan

I am keen to expand the breadth of my experience within the power generation industry. In the medium term, I plan to build on my knowledge of power plant performance by transferring to a Station Systems Performance Group within Engineering Division. I shall also seek a 6 month secondment to one of our power stations to gain experience of operational and maintenance issues of our plant.

I am keen to gain more exposure to project management, either on a major engineering task or in a power station outage and to develop my business and financial awareness. I shall consider the benefits of enrolling on an MBA course to support this objective.

The company has recently invested in a wind farm project and I am interested in any opportunities to become involved in its activities in renewable energy. I see this as an exciting new area for the company and for me personally.

I aspire to a senior management role, either in a technical function, such as Central Engineering, or on one of our power stations. Achieving Fellowship of the IMechE is a longer term goal and I shall continue to promote engineering as a career and support young engineers in the company.

(Signed) L Applicant

I certify that I have read the Professional Review Report of Latest Applicant and confirm that it is, to the best of my knowledge, a true and accurate statement.

(Signed) I Mentor

APPENDIX 1

Local Engineering Division Organisation