Gregory Brown, Ph.D., is the principal and owner of Blue Ring Engineering. He is a current voting member of the ASME/API Joint Committee on Fitness-For-Service (API 579/ASME FFS-1). Dr. Brown currently performs computational mechanics and fitness-for-service assessments for a variety of industries using API 579, as well as supporting litigation and failure analysis. He also develops specialized software and methodologies for structural analysis and life assessment. Previously Dr. Brown was the Chief Engineer for TEAM/Quest Integrity.
Dr. Brown joined Dr. Ted Anderson in 2001 at Structural Reliability Technology, which later became part of the Quest Integrity Group. Prior to SRT, he developed algorithms to update industrial finite element models using experimental measurements and performed flutter analyses of F16 and F18 fighter aircraft. Dr. Anderson, Dr. Brown, and the engineers at Structural Reliability Technology performed much of the work that was incorporated into API 579.
Jim E. Meyer, P.E., has over 45 years of experience in refining petrochemical, chemical, power generation, and industrial facilities. He is a principal engineer at CDM Smith, a full-service engineering and architectural firm, located in Wadsworth Ohio. Jim is experienced in overall project coordination/management, pressure equipment, piping design, analysis, specifications, support design, mechanical system requirements, and documentation requirements. His technical competence includes ASME piping and pressure vessel codes, stress analysis, field troubleshooting piping system support, vibration, and expansion problems.
Jim is a member of ASME and has been involved in the ASME B31.1 and ASME B31.3 Section committees for over 40 years. He currently serves on ASME B31.3 Process Piping Section Committee, ASME B31 Mechanical Design Technical Committee, the ASME Board on Pressure Technology Codes and Standards, and TES – 1 Safety Standard for Thermal Energy Storage Systems, Molten Salt. Jim has also served as Chair of the ASME B31.3 Process Piping Section Committee and Chair of ASME B31.1 Power Piping Code Section Committee, Chair of the ASME B31 Standards Committee, and Chair of the B31 Mechanical Design Technical Committee.
Most recently, Jim co-authored chapters in the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Companion Guide, 5th Edition, covering the ASME B31.1 Power Piping Code and the B31.3 Process Piping Code. Past projects and work experience have involved major oil refineries, petrochemical plants, fossil, nuclear, solar, and alternative energy generation, as well as cryogenic and vacuum test facilities.
Greg Thorwald, Ph.D., is a Principal Engineer in the Advanced Engineering Group at Quest Integrity in Boulder, Colorado. He joined Dr. Ted Anderson in 1996 at Structural Reliability Technology, which later became part of Quest Integrity. He earned a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Colorado.
Dr. Thorwald helped contribute stress intensity solutions to the API 579/ASME FFS-1 Standard that are used in fracture mechanics assessments, and he is a member of the API/ASME joint committee. His consulting work focuses on structural analysis using finite element models, Fitness-for-Service assessments, software development, and training.
Dr. Thorwald helps develop and support the Signal Fitness-for-Service (FFS) software that performs the API 579 Fitness-for-Service calculations and assessments. He is the lead developer of the FEACrack software: a parametric 3D crack mesh generator and post processor used with finite element analysis solvers to compute stress intensity and J-integral solutions needed in fracture mechanics and fatigue crack propagation assessments.
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