1S2: Case Study: Avoidable 10 Cell Cooling Tower Catastrophic Failure

Lance Bisinger, Principal, Allied Reliability Group

Description

After gaining some credibility as the new vibration analysis program coordinator at a nuclear power plant, I began receiving visits from the craft and operations supervisors. One request involved concern over a 10+2 cooling tower assembly. The operators had begun refusing to make their required visual inspections from the top deck citing structural concerns. This presentation will discuss the troubleshooting steps and recommendations following the Operational Deflection Shape analysis.

Bio

As a Principal for Allied Reliability Group, Lance Bisinger represents the entire range of company products and services. His 30 years as a practitioner developing and implementing consulting solutions affords him unparalleled insight when partnering with clients to design reliability solutions. Lance started his career in the United States Navy as a nuclear trained electrician’s mate assigned to fast attack submarines. His experience and qualifications include machinery troubleshooting and problem solving; Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA); shop and field balancing; reliability program evaluation, implementation, and management; quality control and quality assurance; and project management. Industries served include: electric power generation, food, grain, manufacturing, water treatment, extrusion, pharmaceutical, government, facilities, healthcare and chemical. He specializes in Reliability Centered Maintenance improvement projects encompassing master data, CMMS updates, failure modes analysis, criticality, equipment maintenance plans, preventive maintenance optimization, training, planning/scheduling, SOP development, and condition monitoring deployment. Lance is a Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP) and Certified Reliability Leader (CRL).