Bennett Associates, design engineers, has for many years
been involved in the field of failure analysis of pressure systems.
The work is typically carried out for process plants and boiler
technologies. In industries such as these regular inspections take place to
detect any sign of a defect, some defects being visually obvious such as cracks
in welds. If a defect went undetected the result could be disastrous both safety
wise and financially. It is once a problem has been detected that Bennett
Associates is commissioned. The company's engineers determine whether the
presence of these defects is in any way detrimental to the continued safe
operation of the units and therefore can predict what design life the unit has
left.
Bennett Associates’ stress analysis department is amongst the
world leaders. Its expertise in Finite Element analysis allows the engineers to
test concepts by means of computer generated models. This allows stress analysis
under many different load cases to be considered for both linear, non-linear and
transient analysis types. Predictions of thermal and mechanical behaviour of
structures can be made.
Models of pipework are usually addressed using the Caesar
pipework analysis software package which permits detailed stress and flexibility
analysis to coded requirements. This software package has recently been used by
Bennett Associates in a large contract to analyse fuel gas piping at a power
plant. Vessel models however are typically constructed using the ANSYS suite of
plate and brick elements with adequate mesh refinement in the region where
weaknesses are likely to occur.
M G Bennett and Associates Ltd is now part of the
Group
