The Power of Small Modular Reactors
On 2 December 2021, Clara Lloyd attended the Nuclear Institute/Nuclear Industry Association annual dinner and, together with her co-authors, was awarded the 2020 Pinkerton Prize for their article ‘Expanding Nuclear’s Contribution to Climate Change with Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)’ (Nuclear Futures, Vol. 16, No. 5).
BLEVEs – The Hidden Danger of Back Boilers
Back boilers are often located within a chimney breast behind either an open fire or range cooker, and they are typically installed during a house’s initial construction.
Investigations Into Steel Structure Failures Part I: Failure Mechanisms
Steel is one of the most commonly used construction materials, due to its wide availability and good strength-to-weight ratio, both in tension and compression.
Ben Adams Presents on Generators at OEC London 2021
On 2nd November, Ben Adams, a Mechanical Engineer from the Hawkins’ Power & Energy Team and based in our London Office, was a speaker at the London Onshore Energy Conference.
Hawkins Welcomes Mechanical Engineer Richard Woodward
Richard comes from a background in agriculture, where he spends a lot of his spare time working on his family-run farm. From this work, he has generated an extensive understanding of agricultural equipment, extending to plant and HGV’s. This has given him experience of damage assessment and repair as well as design and fabrication of bespoke equipment.
The Power Generation Game
The process of turning mechanical energy into electrical power is pretty fascinating. You may remember turning a magnet near a coil and seeing a light bulb illuminate at school? In practice, power generation in the real world is fairly similar; an electromagnet is spun by a turbine (through wind, water, steam or a combustion engine) and power is produced. In practice, this electro-magnet may be over 100 tonnes, spinning at 3000 times a minute within a stationary coil weighing hundreds of tonnes. The largest generators being manufactured at the moment are rated in excess of 1.5 GW (gigawatts, or billion watts – enough to power three million UK homes). Whether being driven by wind, water steam or gas turbines, all generators are made of the same parts.
Hanging by a Thread: The Maintenance of Metal Wire Ropes
Metal wire ropes are widely used in hoist (lifting), towing or winching systems, such as cranes and lifts.
Autonomous Emergency Braking
Active safety systems like Autonomous Emergency Braking face real-world challenges not replicated in tests. This insight explores these discrepancies and testing
Protecting Against the Dangers of Electrical Arc Flash
Arc flash, sometimes known as electrical flashover, is a low impedance short circuit that causes a very high current flow.
Pressure, Pushing Down On Me
Everyone knows what an explosion is, but what about its opposite, an implosion? An explosion occurs when a large amount of energy is released into a small volume in a very short time, but what happens in an implosion? Put simply, an implosion is the opposite of an explosion, matter and energy collapse inward and all implosions are caused by some form of pressure acting from the outside on an object. If that pressure is greater than the pressure within the object, without adequate support, the object will collapse. This is a real risk in process industries (and submarines!).