Intellex Acquires Expert by Big Village

We're thrilled to announce that Intellex has acquired Expert by Big Village, effective March 22, 2024. This strategic move enhances our capabilities and strengthens our commitment to delivering exceptional solutions to our customers.

Stay tuned for more updates on how this acquisition will benefit our clients and experts.

For inquiries or more information, please contact us at info@intellex.com.

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Expert Details

Mechanical and Electrical Design and Failure Analysis

ID: 722077 California, USA

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Expert has over 35 years of experience in failure analysis, design, damage mechanics (corrosion, fracture, fatigue, creep, etc.) and risk assessment of: structures; cable structures and systems; stadium roofs; industrial equipment; turbines and reciprocating engines; automotive and aircraft components; offshore platforms for wind generation and oil exploration; pressure vessels and piping systems; blowdown, blowout and breakaway systems; rollover protection systems, consumer products, bolted connections and industrial equipment. Engineering design projects have involved testing and mathematical analysis of electronic control and hydraulic control systems; fire and explosion causation, spread and mitigation; structural dynamics and mitigation devices; material behavior improvement; heat transfer and structure/fluid interaction; and the development of medical cauterizing forceps, powerline detection systems, MRI and 3D scanning for structural components, pipe and pressure vessel corrosion detection and analysis, PWM motor controllers, and a new product development group working on a variety of consumer and medical products.

SELECT INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE:
- Milwaukee Stadium roof failure analysis and redesign.
- Deepwater Horizon Investigation.
- San Bruno pipeline fracture investigation for the Office of the Governor and the CPUC.
- Stress and fracture analysis of Bigge’s D125 15 million-pound capacity crane.
- Submarine drive system analysis for the US Navy.
- Consultant to the Golden Gate Bridge District for several retrofit projects.
- Fracture analysis of the first tension leg platforms for Chevron Corp. Blowout and Breakaway Devices for Chevron and Tesoro.
- Fracture control plans for Conoco’s refinery structures.
- Alaska Pipeline fracture control plans for the pipeline operator Alyeska and the Bureau of Land Management.

Education

Year Degree Subject Institution
Year: 1993 Degree: Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering Subject: Mechanical/Electrical Design Institution: University of California at Berkeley
Year: 1981 Degree: M.S. in Mechanical Engineering Subject: Material Behavior Institution: University of California at Berkeley
Year: 1980 Degree: B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Subject: Material Behavior Institution: Michigan Technical University

Work History

Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1986 to Present Employer: Undisclosed Title: Principal Consultant Department:
Responsibilities:
Provide consultation in the areas of failure analysis, design, fracture mechanics and risk assessment, including analysis of codes and standards, medical devices and industrial equipment.
- Failure analysis work has varied from assessing the failure of cranes, medical implants, bone fractures, ladders, chairs, industrial presses, aircraft engines, boiler and turbine generator failures, and propane/natural gas equipment and electronics to the analysis of defective safety devices on compressor/heat exchanger systems and fire investigation.
- Design projects have included the redesign of an electrohydraulic, variable position hospital bed for burn victims; medical implants (spine rod, heart valve, aorta insert, pacemaker, hip, knee and fatigue design); the design of a powered wheelchair that provides standing and sitting positions; the analysis, redesign and rerating of high temperature/high pressure boiler, pressure vessel and piping systems; the design of fire safe storage vaults for electronic media; dynamic damping devices for tall structures and bridges subject to wind and earthquake loading; the redesign of pistons and valves for high pressure hydrogen compressors; and electronic sensors for structural health monitoring.
- Fire investigation, electrical, and combustion analysis cases have included over 200 home fires; wildland fires, dozens of propane and natural gas fired equipment fires, including barbecues, heaters, furnaces and cooking appliances; refinery, chemical plant, power plant and coal processing plant fires and explosions; and the evaluation of fuel containers, including propane tanks, charcoal lighter fluid cans, and gasoline containers from 1 gallon consumer containers to tanks containing thousands of gallons. More than 200 gasoline fire and explosion tests have been conducted as well as hundreds of lithium-ion battery (e-cigarettes, computers, cell phones, etc.), magnetic field, electric field and spark tests.
- Design projects have included the design and evaluation of hydrocarbon handling equipment (towers, tanks, pumps, compressors, piping, valves, heat exchangers and furnaces), burner and flow modeling, leak detection methods for tanks, flame arrestors for storage, relief and vapor recovery systems, and burn/spark/fire resistant cauterizing forceps for surgery.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1990 to 1991 Employer: University of California, Berkeley Title: Mechanical Engineering Instructor Department:
Responsibilities:
Instructor for the Department's senior design course: ME-102B, "Mechanical Engineering Design." Conducted lectures on the design of bolted joints, springs, gears, bearings, chain drives, wire ropes, and other mechanical components. Guided students through a major design project.
Years Employer Title Department
Years: 1982 to 1989 Employer: Chevron Corp. Title: Engineering Mechanics Specialist Department: Engineering Department
Responsibilities:
Handled highly technical projects and provided technical consultation to field engineers in the areas of failure analysis and design. Projects included the redesign of compressor and turbine components, and the design of processing equipment for service temperatures above 1400 degrees Fahrenheit. Consultation varied from giving design advice on how to avoid structural vibration to calculating crack growth rates for offshore platforms in the North Sea.

Government Experience

Years Agency Role Description
Years: 2000 to Present Agency: Lawrence Livermore Labs Role: Measure strains during explosion Description: Sets up and measures 32 channels of strain gage data. Samples are gathered at 50,000 samples per second on all channels during explosion tests.
Years: 1999 to 1999 Agency: Lawrence Livermore Labs - Yucca Mountain Role: Measure residual stress in nuclear waste caskets Description: He determined residual stresses in prototype nuclear waste caskets.
Years: 1998 to 1998 Agency: U.S. Navy Role: Assess bearings on submarine Description: He assessed bearings on a submarine drive system.

International Experience

Years Country / Region Summary
Years: 1989 to 1993 Country / Region: Canada Summary: He determined the cause of the SynCrude refinery fire.
Years: 1999 to 2000 Country / Region: Kuwait Summary: Assessment of Kuwait National Oil Company refinery coke drums.

Career Accomplishments

Associations / Societies
Expert is a member of ASME and the Vibration Institute
Registered Professional Engineer: California, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada and Texas
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers
Society of Forensic Engineer and Scientists
Member of ASTM Committees: E05, E08, F15.1, and F15.10
Licenses / Certifications
He is a licensed Professional Engineer in mechanical engineering.
Publications and Patents Summary
5 patents
36 publications and presentations

Fields of Expertise

applied mechanics, mechanics, structural mechanics, dynamics, load (force), fracture mechanics, machine, machine design, machinery design, mechanical device design, mechanical engineering, mechanical joining, shear strength, strain analysis, thermal stress, statics, static balance, mechanical failure, mechanically fastened joint, bottle explosion, electrical design, pressure drop, critical speed, hydrostatic pressure, Castigliano's theorem, metal mechanics, mechanical reliability, Newtonian mechanics, nonlinear mechanics, industrial machine design, power train analysis, engine design, continuum mechanics, precision machine design, special machine design, machine safety, threaded fastener testing machine design, tool design, surface energy, mechanical system, surface tension, statistical mechanics, pipe flow

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