Request Expert

Expert (pronounced ma-kit-ka, ) has over 35 years experience in practical applications requiring consideration of materials, toughness, impact energy and resistance, tensile strength, yield strength, and ductility of metals. This includes experience with properties of welds and weldments, and ASME B&PV code requirements as they relate to impacts. He has applied fracture mechanics methods to failure studies, and has developed procedures for hydrostatic testing of highly-stressed pressure vessel-type structures. He is knowledgeable in steel materials with the best properties for the application for pipelines, penstocks, and pressure vessels. He has considered toughness, impact resistance, fatigue (including static fatigue), and materials types in old and used pressure or storage equipment. He also has reviewed failures in such equipment, including coke drums, 40-foot diameter closure in vacuum vessel, and hemispherical test head on penstock.

Expert has over 35 years of experience in all standards and codes used in America, as well as some knowledge of European, Japanese, and other foreign standards. He has working familiarity with many of the federal and state regulations and statutes, including 10 CFR 50 for nuclear work. He is currently working to develop a program at Employer to meet OSHA 1910.119 for hazardous materials. He is familiar with state requirements for boilers and pressures and pressure vessels, including those for the states of Minnesota and California, and has quick access to the needed information. He also is familiar with Canadian requirements and building codes such as UBC, and has written design and construction procedures, specifications, and QC programs to meet such regulations. He has broad familiarity with structural codes.

Expert has over 30 years of experience in all phases of design, analysis, detailing, and fabricating nozzles in pressure equipment and pipelines. He served on ASME B&PV SG on Openings for the last 15 years. He designed nozzles for ASME Section VIII, Division 2 pressure vessels, including thermal analysis, finite element analysis, and determination of stresses due to external loads and pressure. He is very knowledgeable in large diameter openings, and those with nozzle to vessel diameter ratios over 0.5 and up to 1.0. His experience includes laterals and bifurcations, fabrication and heat treatment, nondestructive examination, welding, and assembling details. He knows design and requirements for bolted flanges used in pressure vessels of all kinds, plus other types of closures such as quick opening and breech types used in autoclaves. He helped design closure for the Handford, Washington FFTF containment equipment lock, and equipment and personnel locks for nuclear containment vessels. He currently chairs the ASME WG on Bolted Flange Connections, and is developing new rules for leak-tight gasketed connections.


Expert is well-versed in the buckling of thin-walled steel shell structures, and is familiar with the requirements of major codes and standards used for ASME code, including Code Case N-284, for stiffened shells. He designed numerous shell structures, such as tall stacks and chimney liners (e.g. several 1000-foot liners for Georgia Power), tunnel liners, and spherical and cylindrical nuclear containment structures. He helped write ASCE manual on chimney liners. Expert knows both practical and theoretical basis on buckling rules currently used in the profession. He has also designed domes for large diameter storage tanks, low temperature and cryogenic tanks. Currently, he is the Chair of the ASME Subgroup on Extended Pressure Charts.


Expert has over 30 years experience in the structural design of steel, large-diameter pipelines and penstocks. His projects have included penstocks for Guri Dam, Venezuela; Mangla Dam, West Pakistan; Tarbela Dam, West Pakistan; Dworshak Dam, Idaho; LADW&P Castaic California Project, and Grand Coulee Phase III Expansion in Washington. He also helped in planning their construction and in evaluating materials used. His experience includes tunnel liners at several of these projects. From 1989-91, he served on an ASCE committee that wrote a manual of practice for penstocks. Along with his committee members, he received the 1994 Ricky Metal award. He is knowledgeable in other pipeline manuals as well. He designed appurtenances associated with pipelines and penstocks, including the design, analysis, heat treatment, geometric configuring, material selection, and procedures for appurtenances such as bifurcations, surge tanks, tunnel liners, hydraulic turbine spiral cases, and supporters.


Expert's MS degree is in structural engineering from the University of Illinois, and he has 30 years of hands-on experience in structural analysis and the design of steel structures of all types. He has experience and familiarity with reinforced concrete construction and requirements of the ANSI/ACI-318 standard. He is well-versed in the requirements of the basic building codes, including AISC, UBC, API, AWWA, ASCE standards, and ANSI. He has a strong background in ASTM material specifications used in construction, principally steels, but also others. He is proficient in many types of structures, including water towers, structural towers, guyed structures, specialty supports, and foundations for pressure vessels, columns, industrial buildings, and large diameter domed roofs. He is adept with structural beams, structural components such as walls, and is conversant in the fields of structural mechanics and statics.


Expert has over 30 years of practical experience in the design and development of weld details for pressure vessels, structural frames, atmospheric storage and low-pressure tanks, heavy weldments, towers, and every other conceivable structural and plat fabrication application. He is very familiar with weld requirements of the ASME B&PV Code Sections III, VIII, IX, AWS D1.1, AWWA, and API-650 and 620. He has some experience with welding requirements of European codes, and is fluent in all welding types, including butt, partial penetration, angle, corner, lap, fillet, seal, seam, and plug. He is also familiar with all the commonly-used weld processes, examination methods, codes, standards, and acceptance criterion.


Expert served and continues to serve on many ASME B&PV Code committees, including SG on Openings, SG Design for Section VIII, Subcommittee VIII, WG Design of Vessels, and earlier on the WG on Liners for the concrete nuclear code (Section III, Div. 2). He currently chairs the WG for Bolted Flange Connections, a new committee working out new rules for better leak tightness of flanged connections; he is very knowledgeable regarding flange codes and standards. Additionally, he is chairman of the Subgroup on External Pressure Charts and serves as a member on the Subcommittee Design. He is closely involved in writing and implementing quality control programs at CBI, including separate programs for pressure vessels and nuclear components. He is currently developing a program for pressure vessels at Employer. The program covers pressure vessels from conception through design, procurement, inspection, and in-service maintenance, up to end of life for the equipment.


He has hands-on practical experience with the design, construction, repairs, modifications, and rerating of pressure equipment. He has 30 years of experience in all phases of pressure vessel construction, from thin wall to heavy wall, small diameter to large diameter, with temperatures ranging from low and cryogenic to the creep range (800F and above). He has practical experience in high-stress basis pressure vessels designed and constructed to ASME Section VIII, Div. 2. He is expert in pressure vessel codes, design, quality control, and welding applications. With knowledge covering welded repairs and alterations to pressure equipment, Expert is familiar with the standards used for such work, namely The National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspection Code, API-510 (Pressure Vessels), API-653 (Storage Tanks), and API-57 (Piping). He is also familiar with the new ultra high pressure code, ASME Section VIII, Division 3.


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