Education
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan (1973)
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan (1974)
Ph.D., Nuclear Engineering, University of Tokyo, Japan (1988)
(First U.S. citizen to obtain Ph.D. from the
University of Tokyo
Engineering College through their Visiting Scholar program.)
Areas of Expertise
Full-Scale Pipe and Pressure Vessel Fracture Testing,
Nondestructive Examination, JR-Curve Testing, High-Rate Toughness
Testing, Experimental Design and Instrumentation, Elastic-Plastic
Estimation Scheme Analysis, Impact Testing, ASME Section XI Flaw
Analyses, Leak-Before-Break Analyses, and Pipe System Fracture
Under Seismic Loading.
Technical Qualifications
Dr. Wilkowski has been responsible for managing, conducting
experimental research, and analyzing the fracture behavior of piping
and pressure vessels. He is an internationally recognized expert on
fracture of piping in the nuclear as well as oil and gas industries.
Some of his technical developments are:
- Development and verification of fracture mechanics and
Net-Section-Collapse analyses of circumferential cracks in
stainless steel pipe. This work is a major contribution to the
ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code - Section XI criteria for
evaluation of cracks in austenitic and ferritic steel piping.
- Developing experimental techniques for conducting laboratory
specimen and pipe fracture experiments. This has involved
significant development using the d-c electric potential
technique for in-situ crack monitoring during fatigue or
elastic-plastic fracture. Another extension of the d-c electric
potential method involved mapping the profile of surface cracks.
This has been done for stress-corrosion cracks, and circumferential
surface cracks during elastic-plastic crack growth as well as fatigue
crack growth.
- Fracture mechanics analyses of cracked pipe. Analysis and
experimental verification for fracture instability of axial,
circumferential and helical cracks in pipes for nuclear, oil and
gas transmission lines, down-hole tubular products and offshore
platforms has been performed in numerous programs.
- Pressure Vessel Nozzle cracking. Dr. Wilkowski is the
principle investigator for a long term program on stress-corrosion
cracking of reactor pressure vessel nozzles for the US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (2000-present). This work involved coordinating
multiple disciplinary analyses do determine residual stresses and their
effects on the occurrence and potential failure of failure of cracked
nozzles. The work involved analyses of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant
incident, as well as assisting in the development of regulatory positions
and development/enhancements to the ASME code for nuclear power plant
inspections and evaluation procedures.
- Other Studies. Dr. Wilkowski has also been involved in
numerous other projects, some of which are: crack initiation
and arrest in liquid natural gas storage tanks, material design
of low temperature explosive blast containers, optimization
between wear and fracture of snow plow blades, design of large
arctic pressure vessels, developing hydrostatic retest criteria
for oil and gas pipelines, fracture behavior of pipelines buried
in frozen soil, fracture analysis of railroad tank cars,
fracture of arctic grade valves, flanges, and fittings, steam
generator tubing rupture analyses, fracture toughness
requirements for nuclear shipping casks, experimental
evaluations of explosive girth welds in large diameter pipe,
crack arrest considerations for liquid CO2 pipelines, design and
optimization of mechanical crack arrestors for pipelines,
fracture behavior of valves and elbow, developing failure
criteria for helical flaws in spiral weld pipe under combined
pressure and bending loads, developed the precracked drop weight
tear test used for measuring dynamic ductile fracture toughness
of natural gas transmission piping, elastic-plastic low-cycle
fatigue crack growth analyses of pipe girth welds, transition of
unstable axial cracks to circumferential crack in CANDU reactor
pressure tubes, numerous field failure investigations for oil
and gas companies, failure analysis/expert witness testifying
for Netherlands Police Department investigation of benzene line
failure, and failure investigation on the PEPCO diesel fuel line
that failed and caused significant environmental damage.
Member of major review committees
- Consultant to the NRC Pipe Crack Task Group that
developed the NRC LBB analysis procedure, which evolved
into the draft Standard Review Plan 3.6.3 "Leak-Before-Break
Evaluation Procedures".
- Member of DOE's Structural Integrity Peer Review Groups
for:
- Savannah River plant,
- New Production Reactor plant,
- Advanced Neutron Reactor plant, and
- Uranium hexafloride storage cylinders.
- Consultants to AECB on CANDU pressure tube guillotine
break phenomena.
- Member of NRC's Peer Review Committee on proposed new
seismic design rules for nuclear power plant piping.
- Expert witness on ductile fracture control on a proposed
natural gas pipeline at Canadian National Energy Board
hearings.
- NRC reactor pressure vessel nozzle cracking review team
- NRC Elicitation panel for loss-of-coolant-accident (LOCA)
redefinition efforts (also on seismic LOCA analysis team).
Professional Recognition and Affiliations
Fellow of ASME - since 1997.
Past member of the ASTM E-24 Fracture Committee, American Welding
Society, and Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
A registered professional engineer in the State of Ohio since 1979
Current member of the following American Society of Mechanical
Engineers Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section XI groups:
- Plant Operating Criteria Special Working Group,
- Flaw Evaluation Working Group,
- Erosion-Corrosion Flaw Acceptance Task Group, and
- Secretary of the Pipe Flaw Evaluation Working Group.
Past chairman of the ASME Materials Fabrication Committee, and past
chairman of the Pipe and Support Subcommittee of the ASME
Operations, Applications, and Components Committee, all of which are
part of the ASME Pressure Vessel and Piping Division.
Coordinator of the 14th, 16th, and 17th Structural Mechanics in
Reactor Technology (SMiRT) Conference Divisions G and F sessions on
"Fracture Mechanics and Non-Destructive Testing" and "Metallic
Material Behavior and Damage, and Design Methods and Rules for
Components".
Prior Professional Experience
Founder and president of Engineering Mechanics Corporation started
in January 1998.
He worked from 1974 to 1998 at Battelle Columbus where he was a
Research Leader for Pressure Boundary Integrity.
During the spring and summer of 1973, he worked at Westinghouse
Electric Company conducting finite element analyses of fatigue and
vibration failures.
Other Experience
Dr. Wilkowski gave short courses on "Elastic-Plastic Fracture
Mechanics Applications to Nuclear Piping" to the Argentina Comision
Nacional De Energia Atomica, and similar courses on LBB and piping
fracture mechanics in Switzerland, Korea, and Brazil.
Major Publications
Dr. Wilkowski has published more than 300 technical papers and
referable reports involving fracture initiation, propagation, and
crack arrest in pipes or pressure vessels, as well as toughness
testing and experimental crack monitoring techniques.
He is a past Associate Technical Editor of the ASME Journal of
Pressure Vessel Technology, and guest editor of the Nuclear
Engineering and Design journal. He is currently on the Editorial
Board of the International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping.
He was editor or co-editor of eleven ASME special technical
publications. He was co-editor of four NRC Conference Proceeding
Reports on leak-before-break.
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