Early Bird Gets the Worm

       I'm in Seattle! It has been about a week since my arrival, and the weather is perfect (cold and gray with a nice chance of showers). I have mostly rested since my arrival (thank you jet lag), but have also been conducting further research on electrical engineering, with a focus on power distribution and utilization, which is what I would like to focus on next week. After my arrival on Saturday I was notified by my on-site advisor Alan Younker, a senior engineer at the company, that I could come in on Wednesday to see the office (because he works quite varying hours, our schedule is flexible and on a week-to-week basis).
       Just to give a little more background about my internship (about which I believe I have not delved into great detail thus far), my internship is with Casne Engineering, Inc. (their website is http://www.casne.com/), an electrical engineering firm that has about 50 employees. My advisor is in the industrial section, and does power distribution and lighting design, plus analysis of power distribution systems. He mostly does projects at various Boeing plants (of which there are plenty in the Washington area), but also does design and analysis for projects for the Port of Seattle (aka the Sea-Tac airport and other affiliated transportation). Casne also does design for the University of Washington, BNSF railroad, etc, and their IT department designs data infrastructure for projects all over the country. There is one engineer here who specializes in municipal projects, so he does the electrical design for water treatment plants, wastewater processing plants, water well facilities and such (I am very much interested in working with him in the future because of the scope of his focus and how it is related to mostly larger scale infrastructure).
       As I mentioned earlier, Wednesday was the first day of my internship, and I had to be at the South Kirkland Park and Ride (a bus station which is nearly thirty minutes away from Seattle) by 9:00am. The office complex in which the engineering firm resides is conveniently close to the station, so upon my arrival all I had to do was punch in a code to get through the gate to the next lot and then enter the building. The day was one of introductions and explanations, and I was able to see most of the office (which is split into two parts, on the opposite sides of the building). In fact, due to the departure of an engineer over the summer, the office next to that of my advisor is vacant (thus I will be occupying it for the duration of my project).



My desk :)

Messy engineer stuff

        I also met with most of the staff (two project managers, many specialized engineers, the drafters, and even the president of the company). In addition, Mr. Younker explained to me in greater detail what it is exactly that he does. His main task is to do power distribution design, providing electrical specifications, power one-line diagrams, panelboard schedules, and load flow analysis for different types of projects. Power distribution design includes evaluating voltage drop, harmonic distortion, and power factor within the electrical system. Besides power distribution, his other job is to do arc-flash analysis. This job is highly specialized, and I believe he is the only one in the entire firm who can conduct arc-flash analysis. An electric arc is basically a radiant bridge of electricity formed in the space between two electrodes, and thus an arc-flash is when a fault (a short circuit) passes through that opening, via the arc (pictured here).

 



 

 This is important because an arc-flash can be extremely dangerous. As shown in the diagram, the effects of an arc-flash (usually a higher level one) can include the melting or sublimation of the electrode, a supersonic shockwave, temperatures hotter than those at the surface of the sun, and a blinding explosion coupled with shrapnel and toxic air.

 

 

An arc-flash analysis involves categorizing, with the aid of software, and based on a short circuit and coordination study, the hazard present at specific equipment based on the incident energy (amount of heat energy that a fabric must absorb to lessen potential injury to a 2nd degree burn), as well as identifying the Arc Flash Protection Boundary (this is the closest approach allowed before Personal Protection Equipment must be worn).

 

 

If the level of danger is too high, the engineer might try to reduce it with the help of over current protective devices, and the settings of those devices. The device settings directly influence the duration of the fault for a given value of arc fault current. Using a temporary second group of settings which reduce the time a breaker takes to clear a fault when a person is working on energized equipment can greatly reduce the hazard risk category of the equipment.

 

 

After conducting the analysis, stickers (much like the one below) must be made denoting the hazard level of a particular piece of equipment to be referenced by the electrician maintaining it or using it.

Mr. Younker has recently been doing both power distribution design and arc-flash analysis for Boeing's aircraft manufacturing plant in Renton, and showed me some of his design plans. He also mentioned that he may be working on-site within the next couple of weeks, so he may be able to get me a badge to access the plant (we will see if this is possible within the next few weeks). Due to Mr. Younker's schedule, the next time I will be in the office will be next week, most likely Wednesday or Thursday. Thus I will next update my blog Thursday evening or Friday.

 

 

Random happenings:

• On Monday March 7th I will be attending a company meeting that occurs every other month regarding completed and ongoing projects (there may be clients present as well). We get free food when we attend (!!!), so I ordered Chicken Teriyaki with white rice (I wasn't about to be adventurous with a menu that has Mongolian Steamed Venison on it). I hope I'll be able to focus on the proceedings with a plate of food in front of me...
• The way I get to Kirkland is via bus 255, but before I get on that bus (which goes on the highway and crosses the 520 bridge) I have to take either buses 2, 13, or 29 down the hill from Upper Queen Anne to Downtown Seattle. On my first day I missed my stop (blame it on the fact that it's impossible to see out of the bus when you're sitting in the portion connecting the two cars). I did retrace the bus route (although I had to wander for a few blocks) and managed to get to University Tunnel Station
  
  (which is actually before Westlake Tunnel Station) and catch bus 255 early to make it there 15 minutes before 9:00am (good first impression!). On the way back to Seattle I made sure to be early at the station to catch bus 255 at exactly 2:24pm, but I hopped on the wrong bus (bus 249) and sat on it for maybe six or seven stops before I realized we weren't on the highway (which is supposed to be stop two of bus 255). Instead of going towards Seattle I had passed through Bellvue and was on my way to Renton...
  



Map of locale

 

All alone on a southbound bus...

• Farsi-speaking and -writing people  have oddly similar handwriting. One of the engineers at the company is Iranian, and I instantly recognized his handwriting on the food ordering form because it is exactly like my father's and my aunts' handwriting (I think it has something to do with stroke order).