At KnightHawk, we look forward to the new year 2015. KnightHawk has a very strong multidiscipline team to address your specialty engineering, field data acquisition, and metallurgical/materials lab needs. We are a one stop shop when it comes to failure analysis and troubleshooting. KnightHawk has a very diverse design group and has had remarkable success on "serial number 1" designs.

• Why am I experiencing cracks in the location of the welds on nozzles on my reactors? If the cracks are in the weld area it may be due to low cycle thermal fatigue. The cracks are likely occurring in the weld are because of the residual stress. The fatigue cracking may be caused by the local thermal gradient in this area. The local stress field needs to be evaluated using FEA methods to evaluate the heat transfer and resulting stresses. CFD methods can be employed to look at the flow field. Perhaps a thermal sleeve would isolate the thermal gradient from the flow field. Our static equipment group has over a hundred years of experience in  vessel design and failure analysis using FEA and CFD tools to assist in the root cause.
• Why does my liquid ring compressor experience blade failure during certain modes of operations and run fine during others? It could be the acoustic response has changed inside the case and certain forcing functions are created to cause blade resonance. The likely reason why sometimes it works and other times it fails is due to change in molecular weights. We have also found certain species flashing out in the case of the compressor causing pulsation. Our rotating equipment group has over 150 years of experience in dealing with complex problems in Turbomachinery. They can identify the forcing function that is causing the problem. 
• For my liquid ring compressor, is there pulsation causing failure? Our field services group can use acoustic testing with vibration equipment to assist in the determination of these problems. The change in signature of the acoustical response can be a good indicator as to what is going on. 
• What is the failure mechanism in my reactor, causing high loss of metal only in certain areas? Lab testing can provide insight to the actual cause of the failure. It might also involve a local flow field causing erosion and corrosion. You may be surprised at the results, in these situations. Sometimes an SEM evaluation will tell the story with proper characterization by our KHE staff. Our Materials group can get to the bottom of it in our lab.

   http://www.knighthawk.com/current-projects.html   

   http://www.knighthawk.com/newsletter.html     

Project Spotlights: 

Reactor Failure - Petrochemical

Compressor Acoustics' - Petrochemical

Compressor Pulsation Bottle Design - Vessel Fabricator

Gantry Crane Failure Analysis - Offshore

Specialized Boat Design - Marine Manufacturer

Tower FFS - Petrochemical

Blower Vibration - Smelting facility

Blower Replacement - Nuclear

Division 2 Reactor Design - Vessel Manufacturing

Liquid Ring Compressor Failure Analysis - Petrochemical

Failure Analysis - Off Shore

Acoustic Pulsation in Gas Compressor - Petrochemical   

Tradeshow Spotlight: See KnighHawk at API Inspection Summit, January 27-29, Galveston Convention Center, Booth #307
 

24/7 around the world

Jim Salter
Director of Business Development
Cell: (713) 703-9111
Office: (281) 282-9200
Email: jsalter@knighthawk.com

WWW.KNIGHTHAWK.COM