APETT Council Vision: To Lead the Advancement of the Engineering Profession in Trinidad and Tobago through Effective Collaboration with All Stakeholders

APETT PEN PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS’ NEWSLETTER

In This Issue

• Letter from APETT president

• St. Vincent floods of December

2013

• APETT and IEEE IAS Motor

Power and Controls Seminar

• APETT Philanthropic project

Letter from APETT President Since the last issue of PEN, we would like to apprise you of a few developments. Our Division Chairs have commenced im-

plementation of their plans for the Term, with the continuation of Seminars and publication of the APETT Chemical Engineer-

ing Newsletter. We have also started the process of updating www.apett.org, and we urge you to keep visiting the site as a

convenient means of communication. Download a copy of our new Strategic Plan, APETT Journal and much more.

Please note that our membership database is being rationalized, and we urge members to ensure that they are in good

standing. This would help us to better plan our programmes and engage Engineers in the activities of the Association. We

continue to contribute to national development, this time with comments on the National Earthquake Plan being developed by

the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management – this is a chance to have your say and to lend your expertise. Fur-

ther, we are also currently receiving nominations for Young Engineer Award, and urge you to recommend your peers.

This issue of PEN reports on the philanthropic work of APETT and Alpha Engineering & Design Limited; commendations are

due to Eng. Fazir Khan and his team for completing the flood mitigation work at the St. Elizabeth’s Home and for their engi-

neering study of work required at Asa Wright Centre. Special mention must be made of Engineers Ian Cox and Datta Balroop

for volunteering to assist in T&T’s response to severe flooding in St. Vincent. Great work guys!

If you would like to contribute to PEN, to provide feedback, or to participate in any other APETT activities and Committees,

please let us know.

Eng. Haydn I. Furlonge (MAPETT, R.Eng., C.Eng.)

Association of Professional Engineers of Trinidad and Tobago June 2014

Events

Subsea Production Systems - UTT Chaguanas Cam-

pus, 5:30 pm 3rd June 2014

Ductile Iron Piling System - Radisson Hotel, 9:00am,

25th June 2014

Honours and Awards Ceremony - September 2014

Contact Us

Email or give us a call for more information or if you are interested in being involved.

APETT, The Professional Centre, 11-13 Fitz Blackman Drive, Port-of-Spain

Email: apett@mail.tt; Phone: (868) 627-6697; Web: www.apett.org; Like us on Facebook.

PEN Editor: Eng. Dr. Chris Maharaj (R.Eng., MAPETT, C.Eng.)

Page 2

Journal Entry by Eng. Ian Cox - The St. Vincent floods of December 2013

Introduction

Between the 23rd and 25th December 2013, sections of the Windward Island chain in the Caribbean Sea experienced signifi-

cant rainfall in a relatively short time period. Estimates from the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology revealed

an accumulation of 406 mm at Burton, St. Lucia, 156 mm in Grenada and 109 mm in St. Vincent for the 12 to 24 hour period.

This excessive rainfall caused massive flooding and landslides in many valleys on the islands damaging homes and infra-

structure. While St. Vincent experienced the least accumulation, its hilly geography, granular soil, very steep gradients, and

narrow valleys along with the fact that normal rainfall for the entire month of December averages 100 mm had great bearing

on the high impact experienced.

Response

Calls for assistance were answered by many in the region including the Government of Trinidad and Tobago via the Office of

Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM). Individuals with varying skill sets were engaged to provide assistance. In

the case of Eng. Datta Balroop and myself (Eng. Ian Cox), we responded to a message from APETT on the night of 30th

December 2013. We met at the ODPM the next morning, where we were joined by Mr. Keron Sooklal, a member of the vol-

unteer defence force and HSE specialist employed with The National Gas Company.

We left the offices of the ODPM at 10:30am to meet our helicopter transport. The helicopter was loaded with relief supplies,

equipment, construction material, and the team (top image). We departed Port of Spain at 12:30pm and arrived at St. Vin-

cent 5.5 hours later. We were greeted by a contingent from St. Vincent including Dr. Ralph Gonsalves - Prime Minister of St.

Vincent, Mr. Howie Prince - Director of the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO), and Captain Neville

Wint – National Operations Center and ODPM’s on the ground coordinator.

(Continued on the next page)

T&T team. From left to right: Eng. Datta Balroop, Keron Sooklal, and Eng. Ian Cox.

Page 3

Landslip and Structural Failure, Leeward highway, Rosehill.

Activities

On 1st January 2014, the T&T team along with a group from the St. Vincent’s meteorological office conducted an aerial survey of

the affected areas of the island. This fly over was facilitated by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, National Operations

Center helicopter group. During the flyover, pictures were taken which proved invaluable to the designated response agencies of

St. Vincent as it highlighted previously unknown damage to roadways in remote regions. Following the aerial photographs exer-

cise, Datta and I were assigned to the Roads, Building, and General Services Authority (BRAGSA) while Keron Sooklal was as-

signed to the Ministry of Health. BRAGSA is responsible for the maintenance of St. Vincent’s public infrastructure and conducted

first response relating to the infrastructure. We worked directly with Mr. Kenyatta Alleyne (Manager of Infrastructure Services at

BRAGSA), visiting most of the affected areas over the course of 2 days. Our main assistance to Mr. Alleyne was as additional

technical resources for purposes of assessment. This allowed Mr. Alleyne to concentrate on the job of management as well as

utilise his other in-house resources to continue clean-up operations and conduct emergency repairs. Pictures taken and assess-

ments made were used by BRAGSA to compile a report which was submitted to the Office of the Prime Minister of St. Vincent.

Observations and Root Cause Determination

The flooding created cresting rivers and inadequate flow under bridges that subsequently led to damage and destruction to resi-

dential and community structures, electrical and potable water supply infrastructure, drains, roadways, bridges (top left image),

and landslips (top right image). Unfortunately, there was loss of life. The general causes of the damage and destruction were later

attributed to insufficient drainage capacity for the downpour, blocked river courses, land characteristics (geography, topography

and soil type), poor quality materials and construction methods, lack of planning/ poor siting of both private and public buildings,

and possible failures in design or lack thereof.

Lessons Learnt

The experience gained from the relief effort for the St. Vincent December floods of 2013 were varied. The damage sustained re-

vealed a combination of causes due to the impact of direct weather. It can serve as an example to engineers not only in Trinidad

and Tobago but throughout the region on several fronts. Effects seen could have been minimised or eliminated if better materials

and construction methods had been utilised. This serves to underscore the implementation of minimum standards for construction

of small buildings and other infrastructure such as drains and short retaining walls. Also, the role of engineers must be strongly

reinforced to not end at design, but there must be follow through by having design quality assurance during the construction

phase. This can be achieved in several ways; but the ultimate goal must be to reduce the possible impact of adverse effects of

natural disasters in St. Vincent and by extension the Caribbean region including Trinidad and Tobago.

Bridge Collapse and Gabion Basket Damage, Windward High-way, Caratal.

Page 4

Joint APETT and IEEE Seminar on Motor Power and Controls

Rockwell Automation was the main sponsor for the joint APETT and IEEE IAS

Motor Power and Controls Seminar held at the UTT in April 2014. Mr. Rodrigo

Rieira, an Electronics Engineer with Rockwell Automation, presented a gen-

eral background on the selection process for drives and soft starters which is de-

termined by voltage and full load current. Drive selection also depends on the

nature of the process, where soft starters may be better suited to reduce the me-

chanical forces on the driven equipment at start. For applications such as convey-

or belts which are fully loaded at zero speed, AC drives are better suited as they

allow high starting torques. Apart from their ability to precisely control motor speed

and torque, an AC drive’s real value is in energy conservation. Instead of using a valve to throttle the flow in a process line, while the

motor runs at full speed and maximum capacity, one can eliminate the valve altogether and control with the AC drive. Consider this ex-

ample countless times over (motors dominate the load profile in industrial facilities) across a wide spectrum of industries, and we may

very well have one (of many) solutions in reducing global energy consumption. Mr. Rodrigo Rieira also showed recent advancements in

motor control centres (MCC) where the MCC cubicle can be programmed and monitored from a laptop, with the only element connecting

the laptop to the MCC being an ethernet cable. Facilities engineers can configure the MCC devices to report data at specified intervals,

monitor key events and faults, and use this information to predict failures and plan for maintenance.

APETT Philanthropic project The Asa Wright Nature Centre (AWNC) is a world renowned Bird Watching and Na-

ture Sanctuary located in the Arima Valley. The Centre operates a small hotel/ lodge

of 27 rooms spread in a series of cottages surrounding the main house, staff quar-

ters and operations facilities. The Centre is naturally committed to the highest stand-

ards of environmental conservation and preservation and seeks to maintain these

standards (Ref: http://asawright.org/). On December 6th, 2013, Mr. Peter O’Connor

(Development Manager of the AWNC) contacted APETT requesting pro bono assis-

tance with AWNC’s grey water disposal system (kitchen and laundry wastewater)

which was deemed an ‘archaic system that was no longer functioning efficiently’.

Eng. Fazir Khan volunteered the services

of Alpha Engineering & Design (2012) Ltd.

(Alpha) to assist in this regard. On January

30th, 2014, the President of APETT wrote to

AWNC advising that Alpha would conduct an

investigation and supply recommendations

as an APETT Philanthropic Project. Alpha

visited the site on Feb 15th and completed a

review of the potable water system as well

as their grey and black waste water systems.

The problems were identified and recom-

mendations were made for system modifica-

tion (refer to Schematic) and rehabilitation

works as well as adjustment to some of their

operations within the ambit of sustainable green solutions in keeping with the general objectives of the facility. Some of the recommen-

dations made by Alpha at the site meeting and subsequently while carrying out the assessment were implemented immediately by the

AWNC. The technical report was submitted on May 13th by Alpha to the AWNC Board. The AWNC Board indicated their acceptance

and thanks via letter dated May 20th and indicated their commitment to implementing all the recommendations made therein. Alpha will

review the completed works and continue to engage with AWNC to complete this philanthropic project on behalf of APETT.

Mr. Rodrigo Rieira of Rockwell Automation

Asa Wright Nature Centre

Schematic of proposed modified grey water disposal system