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See "Significant Accomplishments" and "Ongoing Projects" pages for documented successes.

RESUME (Shortened VERSION)




Capability Statement 


RESUME (exPANDED VERSION, Below)

Robert A. Leishear, PhD., P.E., PMP, ASME Fellow, NACE Senior Corrosion Technologist, NACE Senior Internal Corrosion (Piping) Technologist, AMPP Certified Coatings Inspector, Journeyman Sheet Metal Mechanic, Welder

CAREER SUMMARY:

I troubleshoot technical problems and have solved long misunderstood engineering problems by inventing new theory as required. In short, diverse experience as a tradesman and engineer, along with 24 years of night school and 7 years of additional, full time, PhD studies, were earned to design, build, and operate industrial systems, with a specialty in Fluid, Structural, Machinery Dynamics, and Explosions. As a lead research, design, and test engineer on many projects, I applied inventive solutions to engineering problems, and saved Savannah River Site (SRS) well in excess of $78,000,000 over twenty four years. As a consulting engineer, I have solved water hammer piping failures in nuclear weapons plant, a major industrial facility, and served as an expert court witness for water hammer failures. As the first to do so, I have determined the exact causes of nuclear power plant explosions and offshore, liquified natural gas rig explosions.


To document project successes, I wrote an ASME book along with Conference and Honors Journal papers, and also wrote articles in the Mensa World Journal and the ASME Magazine. Research topics included: nuclear reactors; pump and piping design; fluid mechanics; mixing; fluid transients; non-Newtonian fluids; mass transfer; explosions; machinery and structural failure analysis; vibrations; vacuums; structural dynamics; and stress analysis.


Skills include teaching experience, a sheet metal mechanic apprenticeship, welding and electrician training, a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Johns-Hopkins University, membership in ASME piping committees, attendance in ASME piping courses, completion of two years of Process Engineer training for nuclear facilities, and Masters and Doctorate degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of South Carolina (USC), which targeted industrial and nuclear processes. A second Masters' Degree is complete for Nuclear Engineering. I also earned a dozen corporate awards in a DOE facility, an ASME Fellow appointment, several ASME awards, and a Mensa Intellectual Creativity Award.

ENGINEERING EXPERIENCE:

LEISHEAR ENGINEERING, LLC, Aiken, S. C., 2016:

  • Consulting Engineer.
  • ASME Fellow award for water hammer analysis and failure analysis in piping systems.
  • ​Recent research at Pantex, a nuclear weapons assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas was performed to investigate 22 years of piping failures in a fire suppression system. Water hammer was identified and corrective actions were implemented. Underground water main breaks were nearly eliminated when partial recommendations were implemented.
  • Six years of volunteer research were performed to investigate the following issues.
  • Invented a new theory: Water main corrosion and water hammer evaluations were performed to explain water main beaks. Nearly all of the 250,000 US water main breaks can be prevented at an estimated cost of one trillion dollars over the next 25 years. In short, cathodic protection prevents corrosion, but water hammer starts water main corrosion, i.e., cathodic protection fixes the symptoms, not the problem.
  • Invented a new theory: A nuclear power plant explosion common cause was determined for Three Mile Island, Fukushima.
  • Invented a new theory: Seventy years of smaller explosions in US plants and abroad have been misdiagnosed as water hammer (gas accumulation events), and these explosions can be stopped to prevent damages to nuclear power plants.
  • Invented a new theory: A safety analysis and a supporting statistical analysis were performed for nuclear power plant explosions to prove that the next nuclear power plant accident will occur before 2039 with a one in two probability of a Fukushima type explosion. This type of explosion can be prevented to prevent loss of life and property and environmental damage due to radioactive fallout.
  • Invented a new theory: The majority of gas pipeline explosions can be stopped to prevent loss of life, where 10-12 people are killed in the US every year. Fluid transients have been shown to be the primary cause of pipeline breaks.
  • Invented a new theory: Fatigue failures were determined to be caused by grit blasting, and this discovery proves that bridge designs, piping designs, rotating machinery designs, etc. are presently unsafe. National and international codes can be changed to prevent loss of life and property, since all codes are in error, which use fatigue curves for cyclically loaded structures that are grit blasted to better adhere coatings for corrosion control.
  • Stopped 22 years of water main breaks in a fire suppression system at the Pantex Nuclear Weapons Assembly plant.​
  • ​​NFPA 67, Piping Explosion Prevention, Contributor.
  • Expert witness services.
  • ​Southeast USA Prestige Award, Engineering Consultants of the Year, 2022.
  • "Aiken's Best, Small Business Award for Engineering Consultants", 2023, Aiken, South Carolina.
  • Marquis "Who's Who, 2023".


SAVANNAH RIVER NUCLEAR SOLUTIONS, SAVANNAH RIVER NATIONAL LABORATORY (SRNL), Savannah River Site, S.C., 2007 – 2015 (4 SRNL Awards)
Previous "L" clearance, DOE ​Secret.   

Process Piping Engineer, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS):

  • Savannah River Site Expert for ASME B31.3 piping designs.
  • Savannah River Site Expert for pump designs and applications.
  • Troubleshooting of piping and fluids systems for a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility.
    •  Solved legacy, 60-year-old, fluid flow problems in cooling water systems and process piping systems.
    • ​Solved legacy pipe system corrosion and coating problems.
    • Solved steam jet system operational problems for a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant.

   Calibrations Engineer / Quality Assurance Engineer, Savannah River National Laboratory (Metrology):

  • Technical oversight for the Savannah River Standards Laboratory for pressure and vacuum instrumentation calibrations.
    • SRNL Award for redesign of a Vacuum System.
    • New discoveries in vacuum system technology.

   Research Engineer, Savannah River National Laboratory: Fluids and Pilot Scale Testing Laboratory:

  • Published a new theory to explain fires and explosions in nuclear reactor and offshore oil pipelines, where examples are Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima Daiichi, and the Gulf Oil Spill
  • Pilot scale testing for mixing of nuclear waste in million-gallon storage tanks, robotic sampling of storage tanks, and mass transfer modeling of hydrogen release in nuclear waste (Lead research engineer).
    • 3.5-million-dollar cost savings from experimental mixing research for million-gallon tanks (Lead research engineer).
    • Forty million dollar cost savings from robotic arm, or wall drilling sampler design, for million-gallon nuclear waste tanks (Lead research and design engineer).
    • Mass transfer experiments in a 30-foot-tall bubble column to investigate two phase flow of flammable gases in radioactive liquids for the Hanford, Nuclear Facility Safety Analysis (Lead research engineer).
    • Conducted full-scale grout mixing tests (Lead design and test engineer).
    • Developed a separations process for radioactive materials (Reillex), using a sixty-foot-tall column and associated equipment.​
    • Evaluated piping systems for corrosion damages and corrective actions.
    • ​Statistical calculations to support the analysis and use of experimental data.

   Radioactive Packaging Engineer, Savannah River National Laboratory:

  • Safety Analysis for packaging required to transport radioactive materials over roads and railways.
  • Study of impact loads and testing for product damages due to sudden loads, such as dropping or train crashes.
  • Heat transfer evaluations. 
  • ​DOT regulations for transportation of hazardous materials.


SAVANNAH RIVER REMEDIATION, LLC, Savannah River Site, S.C., 1991 – 2007 (1 SRS President’s Award, and 10 SRS Vice President’s Awards)
    Shift Technical Engineer / Process Engineer:

  • Responsible for engineering oversight of radioactive liquid waste facility operations, emergency response, and Safety Analysis.

   Design Engineer / Plant Engineer / Pump Engineer / Systems Engineer / Test Engineer:

  • Troubleshooting of pipe system and pressure vessel failures, fluid flow problems, machinery failures, and pump failures (Lead systems engineer, Vibration analyst).
    • Test and Design Engineer for 25 through 150 horsepower transfer and mixing pumps, which were used in processing for one-million-gallon, nuclear waste storage tanks (Lead test engineer).
    • 27-million-dollar cost savings for redesigning 150 horsepower mixing pumps to correct resonance induced failures, documented through a Six Sigma project (Lead project engineer).
    • Troubleshot and corrected fluid flow anomalies and shutdowns on multiple, different systems (Lead engineer).
    • Corrected a pump resonance problem that destroyed mechanical seals on a 90-day cycle: 1.5-million-dollar coat savings (Sole engineer).
    • ​​Applied radiography to visualize cavitation damage in piping systems (Lead engineer).​​
  • Invented and applied a new dynamic stress theory during Master's and PhD research (Sole author).
    • Used this new dynamic stress theory for a 15-million-dollar cost savings to stop hundreds of pipe failures, which occurred over forty years at Savannah River Site (Lead engineer).
    • Used this new dynamic stress theory to publish a technical basis to explain the explosion of a steam valve, which resulted in the death of an operator at a Hanford nuclear facility in 1993 (Sole author). 
    • Used this new dynamic stress theory to stop crack growth in a glass melter assembly and prevent an unplanned shut-down of the Defense Waste Processing Facility, which is used for radioactive waste processing and disposition at Savannah River Site (Lead engineering analyst).
    • Used this theory to prevent over-pressure shutdowns of a grout processing system used for disposition of nuclear waste (Lead Engineer).
  • Engineering design of piping systems and facility modifications. (Lead design engineer).
    • Designed an emergency pumping station to control radioactive liquid leaks to the environment (Lead engineer).
    • Compressor Systems and Controls: 1-million-dollar cost savings for compressor system control and vibration re-design (Lead engineer).
    • Procedure writing; Specification writing; and Contract writing.
    • Technical oversight of Maintenance and Operation departments.
    • Fire protection engineering. 
    • Piping design for air water, steam, and nuclear systems.
  • ​Vibration Analyst for rotating and reciprocating vibrations for compressors, piping, pumps, fans, and structures.


Westinghouse Defense and Electronics Systems Center, Md., 1982–1991 (Westinghouse President’s Award)
 Previous clearance, DOD Secret.

Design Engineer:

  • Design of electronic assemblies, castings, and machined parts for aircraft radar systems.
    • Fatigue testing of electronic components.
    • Technical oversight and design for drafting, casting, and machine shop contractors.
    • Patented and designed a coating process for electromagnetic interference for electrical connectors required for nuclear hardening on military aircraft radar to ensure nuclear war second strike capabilities. This design was used on all manufactured personal computers and printers for twenty-five years to reduce electrical noise coupling, and this invention is still used for many electronics applications. (Inventor, Lead electrical and mechanical engineer).
    • ​Designed electronic packaging, machined and cast parts, and printed circuit designs for military aircraft radar systems. 
    • Served as a lead electrical and mechanical engineer for military radar systems.
    • Designed electrical system coatings and plating for corrosion and thermal control.


TRAINING AND EDUCATION:

​

  • PhD (2005), Master of Science (2001), Mechanical Engineering, University of South Carolina: Fluids, Structural Mechanics and Dynamics:
    • Viscous and Turbulent Flow; Diffusion and Mass Transfer; Gas Dynamics; and Fluid Transients.
    • Fatigue; Fracture Mechanics; Structural Failure Analysis and Design; Finite Element Analysis; Plasticity; and Metallurgy / Materials Science.
    •  Building and Structural Dynamics / Seismic Design; Machinery Dynamics and Vibrations; Acoustics; and Stress Waves in Solids.
    • Combustion and Explosion Dynamics.
    • Control Theory; HVAC Design; and Advanced Thermodynamics. 
  • ​Master of Engineering in Nuclear Engineering (2023), University of South Carolina: 
    • Independent Studies: Nuclear Power Plant Water Hammer Explosions - Fukushima, Hamaoka, Brunsbuttel, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl comparisons.
    • Parallel Studies: Industrial Fluid Transient Explosions - Carlsbad pipeline explosion, San Bruno pipeline explosion, and Piper Alpha offshore oil rig explosion.
    • Parallel Studies: Failure Analysis - Fatigue Corrosion, Grit Blasting Fatigue, and Bridge Damages.
    • Introduction to Nuclear Engineering
    • Principles of Nuclear Engineering and Nuclear Reactor Core Analysis.
    • Nuclear Materials and Metallurgy.
    • Nuclear Reactor Systems and Designs.
    • Nuclear Fuel Cycles.
    • Radiation Shielding.
    • Thermal Hydraulics of Nuclear Reactors.
    • Nuclear Safeguards and Security.
    • ​Risk Analysis and Nuclear Reactor Safety / Probabilistic Risk Assessment 
    • ASME Thermal Hydraulics Course.
    • ​MIT Open Courseware, Introduction to Seismology
  • Missouri University of Technology and Science
    • Explosives Engineering - currently enrolled.
  • Expert - ​​Numerical Simulation in Engineering with Ansys, Technological University of Madrid​
    • Finite Element Method in Mechanical Analysis.
    • Fluent, Computational Fluid Dynamics (in process).
    • Fluid Structure Interaction (in process).
    • ​Combustion / Chemkin (in process).
  • International Radiological Protection School, Stockholm, Sweden, Nuclear Energy Agency.
    • Radiological detriment, dose limits and constraints, radon exposure, and other fundamentals. 
    • Radiological protection, international guidance, emergency management, decommissioning, ethics and public communication.
    • Radiological aspects of biological, epidemiological and social science.
  • Combustion and Fluids Studies to Support Explosions Research
    • Princeton University: Flame and Detonation Waves, Combustion and Fire Safety for Buildings, Combustion Physics, Combustion Kinetics, Combustion Chemistry, Combustion Chemistry Kinetics Modeling (CERFACS), Unsteady Combustion, Combustion of Solid Explosives, Advanced Propulsion, Flame Aerodynamics, Laser Diagnostics for Combustion, Numerical Combustion Methods for Soot Formation, and Combustion Dynamics.
    • Self-study: "Combustion" by Glassman et al., "Principles of Combustion" by Turns, and "Explosives Engineering" by Cooper.
    • ​CERFACS, Internet, Theoretical and Numerical Combustion, France
  • Nuclear Engineering Law Essentials
    • Nuclear Energy Agency: International Nuclear Law Essentials, Singapore: Commercial nuclear reactor treaties, licensing, regulation, construction, financing, safety, liability, insurance, safeguards, security, trafficking, terrorism, transportation, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima.​
  • ​Corrosion, NACE, National Association of Corrosion Engineers
    •  Senior Corrosion Technologist (Certified), Internal Corrosion Technologist (NACE Certified), Senior Internal Corrosion (Piping) Technologist (NACE Certified), Protective coating specialist, Cathodic Protection Tester (NACE Certified), Certified Coatings Inspector (AMPP Certified), Level 2 Coating Inspector 2 (NACE Certified), Cathodic protection technologist, Cathodic protection specialist, Cathodic protection interference, Corrosion under insulation, and Designing for corrosion.
  • Project Management Professional, Training (PMP), University of South Carolina.
    • ​SCORE courses on small business management, insurance, financing, and law.
    • PMI courses on project management, negotiations, contracts, and mediation.
  • BS, Mechanical Engineering (1982), Johns Hopkins University:
    • Fluid Mechanics; Thermodynamics; Physics; and Heat Transfer.
    • Theory of Structures; Machinery Design; Materials Science; Statics; Dynamics; and Electrical Machinery.
    • Integral Calculus; Differential Equations; Vector Analysis; Numerical Analysis; and Advanced Mathematics.
    • Electric circuits (incomplete); and Electromagnetism (incomplete).
    • Fortran Computer Programming; Computer Graphics; and Assembly Language Programming. 
    • Chemistry; Organic Chemistry (incomplete); Biology; and Genetics (incomplete). 
    • Drafting.
    • Logic and Philosophy.
    • Engineering Economics.
    • Technical Writing; English Literature; and Shakespeare.
    • Political Science (Constitutional Law); State and Local Governments (State Law).
    • ​​Fundamentals of Engineering Law (Business Law).
  • Process Engineer Training (Shift Technical Engineer and Process Engineer, 1-1/2 years, full time, Estimated SRS cost investment for training = $250,000):
    • Oral Board and Qualification Card completed to Department of Energy requirements.
    • Over 100 facility training courses completed for operations, engineering design, and safety of nuclear facilities.
    • Steam systems; compressed air systems; pressure vessel inspector; heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems; cooling water systems; storm water systems; sewer systems; control room operations; distributed control systems; and process system control.
    • Electrical power distribution systems, transformers, motor control centers, variable frequency drives; battery banks; and switch gear. 
    • Instrumentation: pressure gauges; vacuum gauges; flow gauges; and temperature instrumentation.  
    • Heat exchangers; evaporators; fans; cooling towers; compressors; steam traps; pressure regulators; diesel generators; and pumps. 
    • Chemical and nuclear processes; radiochemistry; radiation effects and calculations; plutonium metallurgy; corrosion; heat transfer; thermodynamics; chemistry; materials science; piping systems; valves; flow control; liquid level control; radiation detection; and chemical separations processes. 
    • Emergency response; Emergency Operations Center volunteer; and first aid;
    • Risk analysis; industrial hazards analysis; human performance improvement; USQ training; PISA training; and nuclear safety analysis.
    • ​Facility processes required to operate SRS, H-Canyon nuclear fuel reprocessing and SRS, H-Tank Farm nuclear waste processing: Radioactive sludge and salt processing; Radioactive waste mixing; Newtonian vs. Non-Newtonian fluid processes; Radioactive releases and prevention; Radioactive contamination; Radiolytic hydrogen generation and explosion hazards;  Nitric acid reactions; Uranium and plutonium separation processes;  and red oil explosions.
    • Safety: Radiation worker, qualified electrical worker, high voltage , electric arcs, confined space entry, scaffold inspections,  and OSHA.
  • Qualified Electrician/ Electronics and Instrumentation Training: Classes for electricians (9 weeks, full time): 
    • Completed Qualification Card requirements per DOE requirements.
    • Digital electronics, electric circuits, and electronic controls.
    • Programmable logic controllers.
    • Variable frequency drives and motors.
    • National Electrical Code.
    • Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning repair and license.
  • ASME Piping and Pressure Vessel Classes: Design, manufacture, installation, and inspection: 
    • Finite Element Analysis for Fluid Mechanics
    • Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics.
    • ASME B31.1, Power Piping materials, construction, fabrication, and examination.
    • ASME, B31.3, Process Piping design, construction, testing, and examination.
    • ASME, Section VIII, Pressure Vessel Code design, construction, testing, and examination.
    • ASME, Section III, Pressure Vessel Design by Analysis
    • High pressure piping design.
    • ​High temperature piping design.
    • API 579 / ASME FFS-1 - Piping Vibrations.
    • Flexibility analysis for piping systems.
    • Fluid - structure interaction.
    • Failure analysis of piping systems.
    • Nondestructive examination techniques.
    • Earthquake (seismic) design for piping.
    • Piping dynamics.
    • ​Fitness for service and fracture mechanics evaluations for piping.
    • Heat exchanger design.
    • National Board Inspection Code for pressure vessels.
  • AWWA Training
    • AWWA Public Officials Certificate for Water Systems.
    • Aging Infrastructure Management for Water Systems.
    • ​Water Treatment Operator Training, Level 1.
    • ​Sewage pump designs.
  • Calibrations Training: 
    • Metrology Engineer Qualification Card completed and verified by the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Board (NVLAP).
    • Vacuum instrumentation; pressure instrumentation; mass calibrations; dimensional calibrations; and electrical equipment calibrations.
    • Uncertainty analysis.
    • ISO metrology standards.
    • Quality assurance engineering and ASME, NQA-1 implementation.
    • Vacuum and pressure system: design and leak testing.
  • Mixing training:
    • Classes on mixing technology.
  • Pump and Turbine Design Training:  
    • Pump operations, design, and applications.
    • Vibration analysis.
    • Rotor dynamics.
    • Mechanical seal design.
    • Steam turbine design.
    • Gas turbine design.
    • ​Medium Voltage motor operations.
  • Computer Programs, Training, and Applications:
    • ​​Reactor Physics, Fuel Depletion, Shielding, Cross Sections, and Uncertainty Analysis software - PARCS, ORIGEN, POLARIS, KENO, TRITON, TSUNAMI, and MAVRIK: U. of Illinois, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, Paris.  
    • RELAP5 and TRACE Thermal hydraulics software for nuclear reactor design and coupling to PARCS, U. of Barcelona and U.S. NRC.
    • MATLAB software for programming.
    • ​FLUENT for Fluid Mechanics, Combustion, and Heat Transfer, Fluent Fundamentals, Multi-phase Flow, Turbulence, Dynamic Meshing, User Defined Functions, APDL and MAPDL programming, Rotor Dynamics, Fatigue, and Fluid Structure Interactions.
    • ANSYS Structural - Fundamentals, Explicit Dynamics, Material Nonlinearties, Structural Nonlinearilties, Heat Transfer, Linear and Nonlinear Dynamics, Advanced Connections, Fluid Structure Interaction, Autodyn.
    • ​Abaqus®, Autopipe®, Nastran®: structural analysis codes. 
    • process control and control room codes: Labview®; Distributed Control Systems (DCS); Process Instrumentation (PI)®; VTScada - Operations and Configuration. 
    • Water hammer: fluids dynamics codes: AFT Impulse, TFSIM.
    • Mathcad®, Matlab®, Fortran®, Excel®, and Maple®: mathematics and computer codes.
    • AutoCad®: mechanical drawing code. 
    • ANS: Reynold's averaging for turbulent flows.
  • International Codes and Standards Applications and Practice:
    • ASME, ASTM, ANSI, API.
    • Hydraulic Institute Standards.
    • ISO, and NIST.
    • National Electrical Code (NEC).
    • NQA-1. 
    • DOD, DOE, DOT, NFPA, CFR, OSHA, NFPA, Military Standards.
  • Sheet Metal Apprenticeship (4 yrs., Sheet Metal Workers Union, Local No. 100, AFL/CIO):
    • Indenture papers earned.
    • Drafting.
    • Sheet metal pattern layouts. 
    • Sheet metal shop fabrication. 
  • Welding and Steel Fabrication School (6 mo. full time):
    • Welding.
    • Acetylene cutting of steel.
    • Rigging.
    • Fitting - Large scale structural steel construction and fabrication methods for ship building.


OTHER EXPERIENCE:

​

  • Journeyman Sheet Metal Mechanic: 
    • Installation of industrial and commercial sheet metal structures, walls, roofs, filters, heat exchangers, and HVAC equipment.
    • Installed 10-foot diameter fans and duct work in buildings and subways.
    • ​Foreman over construction crews on skyscrapers and industrial plants.
    • Welder.
  • Carpenter: 
    • ​Superintendent over carpenter crews.
    • Built apartment developments and homes. 
    • ​Concrete form carpenter, Rough carpenter, Trim carpenter.
  • Iron Worker: Steel frame construction of buildings. 
  • Welder, Structural Steel Shop Fabrication, and Construction (Fitter);
    • ​Constructed major sections of the last U.S. super tanker at Sparrows Point Shipyard, using cranes, steamboat ratchets, and hundred-ton jacks for building this 1100 foot long super tanker.
    • Shop layout and forming of steel plates, cones, cylinders, etc., using brakes and rollers.
  • Steeplejack: Maintenance, painting, and equipment installation on 200-500-foot-tall radio towers.
  • Plastics and Concrete Worker and Finisher: Installation of concrete, fiberglass, and epoxies for industries, pipelines, and tunnels.
  • Plumbing: Worked on residential plumbing installations.


TEACHING:


  • Savannah River Site Teacher: (Taught classes to hundreds of engineers, operators, mechanics, and managers):
    • “Vibration Analysis of Rotating Equipment”;
    • “Pump Technology for Nuclear Waste Processing”;
    • ”Water Hammer, Piping Design, and Fluid Mechanics”.
  • ASME Teacher:
    • Five-day ASME and US Navy classes for “Piping Design, Fluid Mechanics, and Fluid Transients”.
  • Energy Facility Contractors Group Teacher (EFCOG):
    • Safety Analysis class on Fluid Transients in DOE facilities.
  • ​Pump Users Symposium and AMPP:
    • ​Water hammer short-course.
  • ​Association for Materials Protection and Performance:
    • ​Water hammer and corrosion course (in process for 2024).


PUBLICATIONS (200+):


   Author:

  • ASME Book and Supplement:
    • "Fluid Mechanics, Water Hammer, Structural Dynamics, and Piping Design" A 559-page text which provides the fundamentals needed to safely design and troubleshoot piping systems (Sole author).
  • ASME, Mechanical Engineering Magazine,
    • “CFD and Safety Factors”, Publication which documented a breakthrough in the application of computer modeling to experimental fluid mechanics (Lead researcher).
    • Article on the cause of the hydrogen fire during “The Spark That Ignited Three Mile Island” (Sole author).
  • ASME, AIChE, Mensa, Pump Users Symposium, and Waste Management SymposiumConference and Journal Publications (Lead or sole author):
    • ​Mixing and mass transfer.  
    • Pumps and fluid mechanics. Steam jet operations.
    • Vacuum system operations.
    • Machinery, failure analysis, and stress analysis.
    • Fatigue failures.
    • ​Corrosion and stress corrosion cracking.
    • ​Fatigue Corrosion.
    • Vibrations and shock waves.
    • Water hammer.
    • Nuclear power plant explosions.
    • Gas pipeline explosions.
    • Water main breaks.
    • Nuclear reactor safety and legal requirements.
    • ​Bridge failures.
    • Titan submarine explosion.
    • Civil disobedience and engineering ethics.
  • PhD Dissertation and Master’s Thesis on the invention of a new theory called the Dynamic Stress Theory, which documented the response of buildings and pipe systems to explosions or fluid transients.


PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES: (4 ASME Awards for Service, ASME Fellow, Mensa Award)


  • Who's Who in America, Top Engineers.
  • ASME Fellowship for outstanding engineering achievements, i.e., water hammer and piping failure analysis research.  ​
  • ASME Piping Design and Testing Committee Memberships:
    • ​Voting member for the ASME B31 Piping Mechanical Design Committee, B31.3 Standards and Code committee, the B31.3 Process Piping Sub-group on Design, and a past member of the Section VIII Pressure Vessel and High Pressure Vessel Committee, Subgroup on High Pressure Design. ​
  • ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conferences:
    • Member of the Pressure Vessel and Piping (PVP) Design and Analysis Conference Committee.
    • Member of the High Pressure Technology Committee.
    • PVP Conference Session Chairman and Professional Development Chairman (past).
      • Chaired and developed numerous sessions at various ASME Pressure Vessel, Piping, and Dynamics Conferences. 
    • Taught a Fluid Transient class at the ASME Pressure Vessel and Piping Conference.
    • Peer reviewer of numerous papers published for several ASME journals and conferences.
      • Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, the Journal of Fluids Engineering, the Journal of Solid Mechanics, the Pressure Vessel and Piping Conference, and the International Mechanical Engineers Conference and Exposition.
    • Attended hundreds of technical conference presentations at 40+ engineering conferences.
  • ​NFPA
    • ​​Principal voting member - Explosion Protection Systems / Piping Explosion Committee.  
  • MENSA: ​
    • Mensa, Cooper Black, Creative Intelligence Award for nuclear power plant explosion theory. 
    • IQ = 161
    • Mensa World Journal: Published an article to explain fires and explosions at nuclear reactors and offshore oil rigs, “Explosions: A Fresh Look at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, the Gulf Oil Spill, and Fukushima Daiichi”.
  • ​ANS, AWWA, NACE/AMPP, PMI, Combustion Institute, National Association of Science Writers
    • ​Member.​