SampleCEngPRRFeb10

8/3/2019 SampleCEngPRRFeb10

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Latest Applicant AMIMechE

Professional Review Report

for Election to Corporate Membership

of the

Institution of Mechanical Engineers


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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


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


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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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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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.

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

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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

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.

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

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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.

I first produced a Technical Specification for the balancing of the turbo-

alternator, 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

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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.

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.

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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:

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

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.


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

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

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.

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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.


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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


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APPENDIX 1

Local Engineering Division Organisation

Documents

SampleCEngPRRFeb10