06-24-2020, 07:42 AM
My first job out of high school was in the engineering department of a local nuclear plant that was being built. Not as an engineer, mind you, that was for the "smart" people... but as a draftsman and later on as a engineering technician.
Now, this nuclear plant was a two-unit plant. Two completely separate units, both identical and built side by side, connected to a single control room with two separate and identical controls. Each unit had a diesel generator... not your typical run-of-the-mill diesel engine, mind you... no, this thing had cylinders a grown man could stand up in and filled a room the size of an airport hangar. Attached to that room was one for the "exhaust silencer" (which in English translates to "muffler").
Both diesel generator pipelines had supports installed based on the exact same specifications, The day came when it was time to test Unit One... the diesel engine was fired up and after a few minutes, one of the drainage lines to the muffle snapped in half. It wasn't able to take the vibration. Something had to be done!
So the engineers were called in. The entire pipeline was analyzed along with every support. They spent weeks going over the issue and finally theorized (correctly) that the vibrations coming from the diesel engine were too severe for the seismic design used elsewhere (compared to the Richter scale, that thing was peaking around a 9.5!). So they had the entire pipe support systems redesigned to stricter tolerances... for Unit One. One redneck-looking kid mentioned to the engineers that maybe they should do the same thing for Unit Two, but he was just an engineering tech.
It worked. Everyoe was happy until the exact same thing happened with Unit Two. The exact same scenario happened again, this time with some redneck-looking young kid trying to explain they already had the solution worked out... but what did he know? He was just an engineering tech.
Later on, when I went back to school and got my degree, I realized why. Colleges don't teach common sense solutions. Colleges teach high-tech solutions that make them look good because their students then go out and invent things that no one ever needed before because there were easier and better ways.
Thanks for the stories. I can always use a good laugh!
TheRedneck
Now, this nuclear plant was a two-unit plant. Two completely separate units, both identical and built side by side, connected to a single control room with two separate and identical controls. Each unit had a diesel generator... not your typical run-of-the-mill diesel engine, mind you... no, this thing had cylinders a grown man could stand up in and filled a room the size of an airport hangar. Attached to that room was one for the "exhaust silencer" (which in English translates to "muffler").
Both diesel generator pipelines had supports installed based on the exact same specifications, The day came when it was time to test Unit One... the diesel engine was fired up and after a few minutes, one of the drainage lines to the muffle snapped in half. It wasn't able to take the vibration. Something had to be done!
So the engineers were called in. The entire pipeline was analyzed along with every support. They spent weeks going over the issue and finally theorized (correctly) that the vibrations coming from the diesel engine were too severe for the seismic design used elsewhere (compared to the Richter scale, that thing was peaking around a 9.5!). So they had the entire pipe support systems redesigned to stricter tolerances... for Unit One. One redneck-looking kid mentioned to the engineers that maybe they should do the same thing for Unit Two, but he was just an engineering tech.
It worked. Everyoe was happy until the exact same thing happened with Unit Two. The exact same scenario happened again, this time with some redneck-looking young kid trying to explain they already had the solution worked out... but what did he know? He was just an engineering tech.
Later on, when I went back to school and got my degree, I realized why. Colleges don't teach common sense solutions. Colleges teach high-tech solutions that make them look good because their students then go out and invent things that no one ever needed before because there were easier and better ways.
Thanks for the stories. I can always use a good laugh!
TheRedneck