M.K. Au-Yang Honored by ASME For Contributions to Pressure Vessel and Piping Technology

NEW YORK, July 2, 2012 – M.K. Au-Yang, P.E., Ph.D., a resident of Lynchburg, Va., and consultant, will be honored by ASME for his contributions and leadership in the area of coupled fluid-structural dynamic analysis; and for contributions to ASME codes on flow-induced vibration analysis and heat exchanger testing.  He will receive the Society’s S.Y. Zamrik PVP Medal.

The Pressure Vessel and Piping Medal was established in 1980.  Renamed the S.Y. Zamrik PVP Medal in 2010, it is bestowed for outstanding contributions in the field of pressure vessel and piping technology including, but not limited to, research, development, teaching and significant advancements of the state of the art.  It will be presented to Dr. Au-Yang during the ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, which is being held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 15 through 19.

Au-Yang is presently an independent consultant in flow-induced vibration, fatigue and wear.  He has 44 years of experience in fluid-structure interaction problems, flow-induced vibration, acoustics, scale model testing, and failure analysis of plant systems and components.  From 1968 through 1995, he held various positions at Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Technologies (Lynchburg, Va.).  In 1996, he joined Framatome ANP (Lynchburg, Va.) and worked as an advisory engineer until his retirement in 2001.

Among his accomplishments, Au-Yang developed comprehensive vibration assessment programs to meet U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Guide 1.20 requirements for different pressurized water reactor designs, including those for the next generation of nuclear reactors.  He performed scale model flow tests for the Babcock & Wilcox 205 FA reactor and the New Production Reactor.  Au-Yang also carried out root cause analyses of problem plant components including excessive steam generator tube wear, piping vibration issues and broken thermal shield bolts.  He developed sleeves and stabilizers for steam generator tube repair and the UltraCheck® nonintrusive check valve diagnostic system.

Au-Yang is the author of Flow-Induced Vibration of Power and Process Plant Components: A Practical Workbook (ASME Press, 2001); and 50 technical papers, 29 of which were published in international journals.  He is editor/co-editor of 26 ASME publications on specialized topics in dynamic, vibration, noise and wear analyses of power plant components, including Technologies for the ’90s (ASME Press, 1993).  He holds two patents.

An ASME Fellow, Au-Yang founded the Pressure Vessels and Piping Division’s (PVPD) Subcommittee on Fluid-Structure Interaction (1981) and was chair of the Technical Committee on Fluid-Structure Systems (1994-98).  He was a member of the ASME Committee on Operations and Maintenance of Nuclear Plants and chaired the Work Group on Heat Exchangers and Reactor Internals (1995-2001).  He was also a member of the task force responsible for writing ASME Boiler Code, Section III, Appendix N on dynamic analysis of nuclear power plants; and a member of the Condition Monitoring Subcommittee.  Additionally, he wrote ASME codes for steam generator vibration monitoring and testing, flow-induced vibration analyses of heat exchanger tube banks, dynamics analyses of coupled fluid-shells and neutron noise monitoring of reactor internals.

Au-Yang also was associate editor of ASME’s Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology (1984-90; 1993-96).  He served as chair of the Pressure Vessels and Piping Division (2005-06) and chaired the 2005 conference.  He was co-instructor (1998-2010) of the ASME Continuing Education Institute’s short course titled Flow-Induced Vibration With Applications to Failure Analysis, which was given two to three times a year.  He has been recognized with more than a dozen certificates of appreciation, PVPD’s Outstanding Service Award (1995) and Outstanding Paper Award (2000), and ASME’s Dedicated Service Award (2006).

Au-Yang earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Hong Kong in 1962.  He earned his master’s degree in mechanical engineering and his Ph.D. in physics at the University of California at Berkeley in 1963 and 1968, respectively.  He is a registered professional engineer in Virginia.

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