Fitness for Service

 

Level 1 through 3 Assessments

 

 Berkeley Engineering and Research provides a full range of Fitness-for-Service services from straightforward Level 1 through complex Level 3 assessments requiring elastic-plastic finite element modeling with cracks and deformed shapes. We can either assist your engineers in setting up MathCad or Excel models with "locked" calculation fields (right) for use by your inspectors, or BEAR can perform the complete analysis. 

   

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Fitness for Service Research

 

 BEAR has performed extensive fitness for service research, contributed to the writing of the current API 579 Fitness For Service code, and applied our knowledge and techniques to a wide range of products and equipment (e.g. hundreds of pressure vessels and piping systems, including the Alaska Pipeline, rollover protection systems for trucks and automobiles, nuclear waste containers, artery implant and pacemaker connections, and many other devices). 

   

 

Structural Analysis

  

BEAR can perform all levels of structural integrity assessment with short notice and rapid results. The finite element analysis model at left analyzes the transition section of a 300' tall, 12' diameter tower during heat treatment of the welds with wind loading. Clients using our services include Chevron, TOSCO, BP, ARCO, the Golden Gate Bridge District, A/C Transit and many others. BEAR can also perform on-site strain gage and thermal couple testing to more accurately assess load conditions, as well as determine material fracture and fatigue properties in our full service laboratory.

 

   

 

Structural Testing

  

The cracked 6 inch diameter piping elbow (shown right) is part of a pipe fatigue testing program that was conducted at BEAR for ARCO.