OFFSHORE excellence
Grantec Engineering Consultants Inc. provides specialist engineering analysis and design for the offshore, manufacturing, energy, petro-chemical, marine, and defence sectors. We got in touch with founder Richard M Grant about the history of his company, Grantec’s projects, and his role in advancing safety for offshore platforms through his work with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Grantec’s Richard M. Grant has strove to be at the leading edge of technology since starting his professional career over thirty years ago. He has taken on some difficult challenges. His depth of knowledge and attention to detail have been noted by others. Some of his accomplishments, prior to incorporating Grantec, include: detailed assessment of the safety of a subsided subsea wellhead system following the emergency evacuation of the offshore drilling platform; development of methods for analysis of deep water marine riser systems (then at 5000 foot water depth); independent review of the certification of the first offshore production platform in Canada; review and recommendations leading to the granting of the Leave to Open for the first offshore pipeline to shore in Canada; critical review of the integrity of “certified” offshore platform fire deluge systems, leading to their replacement; and was the engineer responsible for the advanced structural analysis (i.e. shock, blast, vibration, fatigue, etc.) of the Canadian Navy’s Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel (MCDV). He has been called upon as an expert to assess numerous failures including those involving loss of life. Grantec was founded in May 2006 with the goal of providing world-class advanced engineering services with specialization in the areas of structural dynamics, pressure vessels, offshore structures, and ocean engineering. Grantec has provided services as far away as the East China Sea. Some of Grantec’s offshore areas of expertise include: offshore structures; marine risers; subsea, including launchers and receivers; design for resistance to accidental actions; process equipment design; and fitness for service assessment. Richard Grant’s offshore expertise has been called upon by government for the independent review of developmental marine energy converters. In addition to the offshore sector, Grantec has provided highly specialized expertise on a range of very notable projects such as for the design of the Sequoia Detector Vessel for the $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) Project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The SNS facility provides the most powerful pulsed neutron beam in the world for scientific and industrial research. The Sequoia Detector Vessel is one of the largest vacuum chambers ever built in North America. Some of Grantec’s other notable accomplishments include the design of the TEXCC Chamber for the Trident Laser Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory, advanced analysis in the area of naval shock and vibration to support the design of the US Navy’s Expendable Mine Neutralization System (EMNS); and development of sophisticated hydrodynamic models for simulation of proprietary offshore aquaculture systems. Grantec routinely employs very advanced technologies such as the Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) capabilities within the ANSYS multiphysics software. Grantec was a very early adopter of this leading edge technology in 2007. Some of their advanced simulation efforts for the offshore sector have been included in ANSYS Advantage magazine articles, the most recent entitled “Raising the Standards” that appears in the 2014 Oil & Gas Special Edition distributed at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. “We are very honoured to receive these two awards” states Grantec’s Richard Grant. “It is excellent to be recognized for the specialized and advanced engineering analysis and design services that we provide. Further, it is humbling to be recognized internationally for the work done to advance offshore safety in both Canada and internationally.” Richard Grant has been an instrumental leader in Canada’s offshore structures standards development initiatives and those under ISO since 1997. He currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Canadian Strategic Steering Committee on Offshore Structures Standards and represents Canada on several of the ISO offshore structures standards working groups and technical panels. He has made significant contributions to the advancement of offshore safety standards. One of his most significant accomplishments was the work he performed to advance fire and explosion safety for offshore platforms. This work was initiated by Richard after he identified serious shortcomings in both the Canadian offshore regulations and the offshore standards in 1999 and he has worked tirelessly since to advance safety in this area. Much of his work in the area of fire and explosion safety formed the basis of the provisions in revised CSA offshore standards. This work was recognized by the international offshore community and he was subsequently called upon to participate directly in the ISO initiatives on fire and explosion safety. He has since contributed to the authoring of the provisions for accidental actions, including fire and explosion safety, within the ISO offshore structures standards. The ISO standards will improve safety in offshore structures around the world. Another of his notable accomplishments includes initiating and directing, as the Chair of the Canadian offshore welding subcommittee, the rewrite of the Canadian offshore welding requirements. These new welding requirements are published in the CSA W59-13 standard which is referenced by the ISO 19902 standard for Fixed Steel offshore structures. Offshore Excellence Awards 2015 / 51