Senior Level Mechanical Engineering Thermal Sciences Professional

Resume

Var S. Tashjian

***.********@*****.***

Mobile: 917-***-****

Current Interest

Senior level Mechanical Engineering position in the Energy field.

Experience Summary

Degreed Mechanical Engineer with experience in simple cycle, combined cycle, and nuclear power plant technologies (BWR & PWR).

Domain expertise includes thermodynamic, fluid dynamic and heat transfer analyses for conventional combined cycle and nuclear power plants. Conducted plant operability studies, extended power uprates (EPU) pinch point studies, and system evaluations.

Experience Description

2019-2025

As a consultant to:

ENERCON Services Inc, Nuclear Services Group: Provided Principal Mechanical Analysis Engineering services for the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant extended power uprate (EPU) pinch point study project. In this capacity, evaluated balance of plant systems to include the main steam system, turbine control valves and EHC system, moisture separator reheaters (MSR), main condenser, circulating water, and turbine auxiliaries and Support systems to assess the impact of the EPU on these systems. Performed thermodynamic, fluid dynamic, and heat transfer analyses using PEPSE heat balance data. Calculated operational margins on flows, pressures and temperatures through pipes, pumps, valves, and heat exchangers. Generated condenser performance curves utilizing HEI Standard for Surface Condensers and PEPSI heat balance data. Documented the studies in technical reports. Performed design verification studies for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant Pressure and Temperature Limits Report (PTLR) to validate RETRAN results generated by Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Westinghouse.

Limelight Investments LLC: Provided mechanical engineering services in the design and upgrade of their boiler rooms for their Newhall Mansion in Piru, CA and 1880 Union Hotel in Los Alamos, CA. In this capacity, designed, procured, and coordinated installation of the water heaters, heat exchangers, pumps, valves, and piping to replace the failing existing equipment at these historic sites. Directed subcontractor activities in the timely removal of old equipment and installation of new equipment. Coordinated permitting and licensing activities with State and County agencies.

Terra Power: Performed thermal hydraulic analyses using Relap5-3D models of the primary system for the Natrium Liquid Sodium Cooled Nuclear Reactor. In this capacity, designed and implemented modifications to the primary loop RELAP5-3D/SNAP models to analyze Intermediate Heat Exchanger (IHX) tube leaks, and loss of all Intermediate Sodium Pumps (ISP).

Saudi Arabian American Oil Company (Saudi ARAMCO) Provided engineering evaluation services to acquire in-house capability to perform plant thermal analyses utilizing industry wide simulation tools. Evaluated vendor proposals including the General Electric (GE) Company, Western Services Corporation (WSC) and MSC simulation tools to be utilized for this endeavor. Supported ARAMCO in the development of real time thermodynamic models of their combined cycle power plants utilizing the selected simulation software from the General Electric Company. Performed operability studies to ensure continuous power and steam supply to ARAMCO refineries.

2017-2019

GE Oil & Gas / Baker Hughes, a GE Company (BHGE): As a Senior Staff Modeling & Simulation Engineer, provided engineering services in the development of dynamic models for the world’s largest aluminum smelting complex located in Dubai / Abu Dhabi, UAE. The complex consisted of ten GE 109FA gas turbines (GT) configured as combined cycle units with ten dual pressure heat recovery steam generators (HRSG), four steam turbines (ST) and the associated balance of plant (BOP) equipment including a complex steam management system (SMS) feeding steam to the aluminum refinery plant. The Easy5 simulation software package with GE developed custom libraries was used to model the power generation assets. On the electrical side, the generators, exciters, transformers, pot lines, motors and the grid were simulated using GE’s Positive Sequence Load Flow (PSLF) dynamic model. The Easy5 and PSLF models were developed and integrated on the GE internal cloud server, forming the largest model ever built within GE/BHGE. This integrated model was interfaced with virtual controllers representing the actual control software for the GT’s, HRSG’s, ST’s, BOP, SMS, and power management system (PMS) controllers in GE Mark Vie. The simulation platform was used to conduct simulation studies to improve stability and availability of the power generation assets.

2005-2017

General Electric Company: As a Senior Engineer, Technical Leader, provided technical guidance to a team of modeling and simulation engineers developing steady state and transient thermodynamic models of simple cycle gas and steam turbines, combined cycle, and nuclear power plants. For simple cycle and combined cycle power plants modeled GE's Frame 6, 7, and 9 gas turbines (GT), single and multiple pressure heat recovery steam generators (HRSG), and steam turbines (ST). These thermodynamic, fluid dynamic and heat transfer models were utilized to perform plant performance optimization, plant operability, and grid excursion studies. Integrated these models with GE's Mark VI and VIe virtual controllers to set up the simulation platform on a cloud server to conduct these studies. Provided technical guidance to less experienced engineers. For nuclear plants, modeled the balance of plant (BOP) systems for the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) using WSC’s 3KeyMaster simulation platform. Collaborated with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy to integrate the developed BOP model with the TRACG model of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and nuclear steam supply system (NSSS) models. The integrated TRACG/3KeyMaster models were utilized to conduct the simulation assisted engineering (SAE) effort for the ESBWR. Collaborated with commercial leaders, product owners, control software developers, and project managers to build the portfolio of these studies and to engineer control solutions. The simulation software packages utilized included Gate Cycle, GTP, Easy5, Dynsim, Hysis, 3KeyMaster, and MATLAB/Simulink.

1996-2005

General Electric Company: As a Senior Consultant to GE through Granite Professional & Technical Services, conducted numerous plant operability studies for F-Class combined cycle plants, H-Class advanced combined cycle plants, Cogen plants, rapid response combined cycle plants and process steam systems. Simulation platforms and tools used to perform these studies included TRAX, PC-TRAX, PRO-TRAX, EASY5, BEACON, and MATLAB/Simulink. Used the BEACON code to model the Mark VI/VIe control algorithms. Provided technical guidance to less experienced engineers.

During plant commissioning, conducted plant startups, shutdowns, transient testing on the simulators to flush out any potential plant design or control issues in advance of the actual plant startups. This enabled plant-commissioning tests to be completed within budget and schedule.

1984-1996

Analytical Associates: As the Founder and Self-Employed Consultant, using strong business analysis, problem solving and strategy development skills, built a consulting business of analytical domain experts, providing consulting services to the power generation industry in the modeling and analysis of nuclear power plants. Studies conducted included safety analysis of BWR and PWR nuclear power plants following loss of coolant accidents. Clients served included Commonwealth Edison Company (currently Constellation), General Electric Company, Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety, Argonne National Lab, Fauske & Associates, and Westinghouse. Analysis software packages used included RETRAN, RELAP, TRACG, WATHAM, STEHAM, and MAAP. BWR plant modeling and operational experience included Dresden, Quad Cities, La Salle, and Clinton. PWR experience included Zion, Byron, and Braidwood. For the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety, developed RELAP5 models of the Zion (PWR) and LaSalle (BWR) power plants in collaboration with University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Nuclear Engineering Department. These RELAP5 models were utilized as the main engine for the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety Emergency Response Facility (ERF) used to respond to normal, abnormal, and emergency events occurring at Illinois nuclear power plant sites.

1979-1984

Electronic Associates Inc.: As a Proposal Manager, Technical Director, prepared proposals for two GE boiling water reactor (Brunswick and LaSalle) nuclear power plant control room simulators for operator training. Upon award of contracts, was assigned as technical director for the execution of these contracts. All plant models were built in Fortran 77. The simulation models were validated against plant operational or best estimate data derived from the RETRAN analysis for various normal and abnormal plant operational transients including anticipated transients without scram (ATWS) events.

1973-1979

General Electric Company: As an Engineer and Technical Leader, conducted safety analysis for a fleet of boiling water reactor nuclear plants in support of plant licensing activities. Developed a RELAP4 model of the GE standard BWR plant to benchmark the GE internal safety analysis codes against the results obtained from a RELAP4 model and analysis. Provided technical leadership to an engineering team for the development of methods to define hydrodynamic loads on containment structures using subscale and full-scale test data. The results of the benchmark analyses were documented in licensing topical reports for submission to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the US Department of Energy (DOE).

San Jose State University, San Jose, CA: As a Lecturer, concurrent with the position at GE, taught undergraduate thermodynamics and fluid mechanics courses at San Jose State University. Taught experiments on gas and steam turbine performance, steam boilers, steam jet air ejectors, and steam condensers. Served as mediator between industry (GE) and academia.

Skills

Proficient in Microsoft 365 Suite of Tools including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Project.

Education

Master of Science, Mechanical Engineering (Thermal Sciences), San Jose State University, San Jose, CA

Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering (Thermal Sciences), San Jose State University, San Jose, CA

Memberships & Certifications

Senior Member, American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

Senior Member, American Nuclear Society (ANS)

Senior Member, Society for Computer Simulation (SCS)

Six Sigma Green Belt Certified

Project Management Certification, General Electric Company

Effective Presentation Certification, General Electric Company

Building Essential Leadership Skills Certification, General Electric Company

Publications

ASME Paper Titled “State of the Art Dynamic Modeling of a combined Cycle Power Plant” presented at the ASME-ATI-UIT 2015 Conference on Thermal Energy Systems: Production, Storage, Utilization and the Environment, 17-20 May 2015, Napoli, Italy.

Citizenship

USA

Languages

Arabic, Armenian, & English

Photo

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