Please note WE HAVE A NEW MEETING LOCATION FOR JUNE!
THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2019 at Maggiano’s Little Italy, 2019 Post Oak Blvd, Houston TX 77056, Tel: (713) 961-2700
11:30 am – Social
11:45 am – Lunch
12:00 pm – Program
1. Click here to register!
2. Click here to make payment!
Guillermo (Willy) Ramirez of ABSG will present “Root Cause Analysis of Pressure Vessel Failure” at our June meeting.
Abstract
ABSG Consulting (ABSG) provides engineering services to clients in the areas of Power, Maritime, Chemical and Infrastructure. One of the offerings ABSG provides is in the incident investigation and root cause analysis areas. The presentation will focus on the methodology, developed by ABSG, for the determination of root causes and its application to a real life incident at a production facility. This incident was the failure of a pressure vessel where the head of the vessel was ejected 40 meters into the ocean. It will provide an overview of the incident, the failure analysis and the following root cause determination along with the recommendations provided to reduce the risk of having repeat accidents with the same consequences.
Biography
Dr. Ramirez is an expert in materials and structural engineering design and evaluation with more than 28 years of professional experience. Key areas of expertise include forensic engineering, finite element linear and nonlinear modeling and simulation of structures and components in addition to the performance of steel and composite materials, concrete and other materials. He is experienced in the retrofit and field instrumentation of existing structures using conventional materials and techniques as well as advanced fiber composites.
Dr. Ramirez is experienced in the use of health monitoring protocols and evaluation of structures with nondestructive inspection methods. He has participated as member of the root cause analysis team for structural collapses, FPSO’s and major explosions and fire events including at international sites. He has also participated in the forensic evaluation of well cementing material and procedures in the investigation of high consequence incidents.
Dr. Ramirez has conducted research for the evaluation of composite materials applications in production and drilling riser prototypes. This work included development of test protocols and operation of high pressure testing systems (30 ksi). He has also performed failure analysis, root cause identification and testing of a wide range of structures and equipment. He has conducted HAZOP and HAZIDs for offshore installations. Other areas of specialized expertise include design and analysis of pressure vessels and use of fiber reinforced plastic composites in offshore applications and hydrogen storage tanks.
Dr. Ramirez serves on a number of technical committees. He is a current member of the ASME boiler and pressure vessel code committee; he is also the former chair of the Nondestructive Evaluation Committee for ASME, former chair for the American Concrete Institute technical committee on composite and hybrid construction and is currently the chair of the Committee on Acoustic Emission for reinforced plastics (CARP) for ASNT. He has served as member of the executive committee for ASME and ASNT.
