Lee Howard Sheldon
20276 SW Lela Lane
Beaverton, Oregon 97006
(503) 356-8302
LSHELDON2@frontier.com
SUMMARY
Licensed as a Professional Engineer, holding a Master of Science Degree and with extensive experience in the mechanical, environmental, and civil aspects of hydroelectric power and also experienced in shipyard engineering. Primary expertise is due to more than 30 years experience in the design, procurement, installation and testing of hydraulic turbines, including having been head of the turbine design section of the US Army Corps of Engineers (COE). Additional experience is from managing the construction of twenty hydroelectric projects for the US Department of Energy (DOE). Authored publications include almost two-dozen technical papers and a college textbook on hydropower engineering, as well as being a member of a technical publisher’s advisory board. Presentations include organizing a number of seminars and conferences and teaching at the university level. The shipyard experience is by virtue of having achieved the designator as a Naval Reserve Engineering Duty Officer (EDO) and working in the construction, alteration, conversion and repair of naval ships.
SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCES
· Developed a technique to determine the optimum manner to share load among generating units in a powerhouse so that the total or combined efficiency is maximized.
· Managed the research and development program for the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which successfully introduced several new technologies, including variable speed – constant frequency generation.
· Managed the construction of twenty hydroelectric projects around the country to demonstrate the economic viability of small-scale hydropower.
· Developed new equipment and a number of new diagnostic techniques to evaluate hydraulic turbine performance.
· Designed and developed state of the art fish screening systems and other environmental enhancements for hydropower.
· Developed and published the academic instruction materials for university courses, as well as conferences and seminars on hydropower.
· Received the first Naval Reserve designator as an Engineering Duty Officer in the state of Oregon.
CAREER EXPERIENCE
May 2, 2008-Present
Consulting engineer in private practice. Also, Adjunct Professor of Fluid Mechanics and Basic and Advanced Hydropower Engineering, Oregon Institute of Technology, Wilsonville, Oregon.
2002-May 1, 2008, US Army Corps of Engineers, Hydroelectric Design Center, Portland, Oregon
Reemployed on a term basis as a senior hydro mechanical engineer in the Hydroelectric Design Center of the US Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate and test new methods of measuring flow rate in hydraulic turbines and to develop new computer software programs to maximize the combined generating efficiency of multiunit powerhouses.
1998-2002, ENRON Engineering & Construction Company, Houston, Texas
Employed as an engineering specialist in hydropower to economically evaluate potential hydroelectric projects for acquisition.
1994-1998, Kleinschmidt Associates, Pittsfield, Maine
As a senior hydromechanical engineer with an engineering consulting firm, worked extensively in the forensic analysis of hydraulic turbine failures. In addition, was involved in the study and design of hydraulic turbine installations, field testing of hydromechanical equipment, site development, optimization studies, hydraulic modeling, and performing analytical studies related to advanced hydropower-generating concepts.
Temporarily assigned for one year to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which has a long-term program to replace 80 turbine runners at more than a dozen projects. Worked in the hydromodernization program by reducing and analyzing all the field test data and preparing the turbine efficiency and performance test reports.
1982-1994, Bonneville Power Administration
Positioned as the senior hydropower engineer in charge of the technical direction and administration of BPA’s research, development, and demonstration program in hydropower. This included performing analytical studies, evaluating proposals, negotiating and administrating contracts, monitoring laboratory research, and conducting field tests and prototype evaluations.
As part of this position, worked extensively in the environmental aspects of hydropower. This included: designing and studying models of fish ladders, designing turbines to aerate discharges, developing the hydraulic analysis of the Eicher Fish Screen, designing other state of the art fish screening systems, optimizing the efficiency of both hydraulic turbines and entire powerhouses to facilitate downstream migration, conducting workshop sessions on fish passage through turbines, and serving on the technical committee of DOE’s Advanced Hydro Turbine System Program Committee.
1979-1982, US Department of Energy, Idaho Operations Office, Idaho Falls, Idaho
Served as the project manager for the construction of twenty hydroelectric demonstration projects located throughout the nation.
1971-1979, US Army Corps of Engineers, Hydroelectric Design Center, Portland, Oregon
As head of the turbine design section, performed site development and optimization studies, water hammer analyses, contract management, field-testing and oversaw construction and equipment installation. Additional duties included preparation of equipment specifications, procurement of turbines, pumps, valves, and related mechanical equipment. During the course of employment, worked on the design, construction, capital improvement, and/or O&M of every Corps hydropower project in the Pacific Northwest.
1969-1971, US Army Corps of Engineers, Division Hydraulic Laboratory, Bonneville, Oregon
Worked on the design, construction, operation and evaluation of hydraulic models of various civil structures, rivers, canals, conduits and outlets.
1963-1986, US Navy, Active and Reserve Duty
Early active duty and reserve activities in the US Navy included: hydrography, amphibious forces, Seabees, submarines, and inshore undersea warfare. When promoted to the rank of Commander, simultaneously earned the designator of a fully qualified Engineering Duty Officer. Consequently, before retiring from the Navy, spent fifteen years in shipyards on the construction, conversion, alteration, and repair of naval ships. Having been a boiler officer on active duty, received a subspecialty designation in ship’s hulls and propulsion systems.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Science in General Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, 1963.
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, California State College at Los Angeles, 1969.
LICENSES
Registered as a Professional Engineer, Mechanical, Oregon, #7150, July 1971, and Mechanical, Washington, # 51451, April 2014.
HONORS AND AWARDS
Elected to membership in Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Honor Society), 1962.
Elected to membership in Phi Kappa Phi (Scholastic Honor society), 1968.
Secretary of the Army Energy and Water Management Award for New Technology in FY 2006.
AFFILIATIONS
Current member of the Publisher’s Advisory Board of Hydro Review, published by HCI Publications.
Current member of the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Hydro Turbine System Program Committee.
Past chairman of the Hydro Working Group of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).
PUBLICATIONS
1. “Cost Analysis of Hydraulic Turbines,” International Waterpower and Dam Construction, June 1981.
2. “Field Testing and Optimizing the Efficiency of Hydraulic Turbines,” International Waterpower and Dam Construction, January 1982.
3. “Model to Prototype Efficiency Step-Up for Francis Turbines,” presented to and published in the Transactions of the ASME Second Symposium on Small Hydro-Power Fluid Machinery, November 1982.
4. Co-author of “Determining the Net Head Available to a Turbine,” presented to and published in the Transactions of the ASME Second Symposium on Small Hydro-Power Fluid Machinery, November 1982.
5. ”An Analysis of the Benefits to be Gained by Using Variable Speed Generators on Francis Turbines,” presented to DOE/EPRI Variable Speed Generator Workshop in Denver, Colorado, May 1983.
6. One of four contributing authors to the text Hydropower Engineering, published by Prentice-Hall, Inc., in 1983.
7. “An Analysis of the Applicability and Benefits of Variable Speed Generation for Hydropower,” presented to and published in the Transactions of the ASME Third Symposium on Small Hydro-Power Fluid Machinery, December 1984.
8. “Performance Differences: Turbine Models and Full-Scale Prototypes,” Hydro Review, Summer 1985.
9. “Installation of a Marine Thruster as a Hydroelectric Turbine at Eagle Creek National Fish Hatchery,” BPA Final Report DOE/BP-22105 1, November 15, 1986, available from the National Technical Information Service.
10. “Flow Measurement by Three Different Methods: Winter-Kennedy Piezometers, Traveling Screen, and Weir,” presented to and published in the Transactions of the EPRI/BPA Hydraulic Turbine Testing Workshop/Seminar, York, Pennsylvania and Portland, Oregon, June 1987.
11. “Performance Differences Between a Model and a Homologous Prototype,” presented to and published in the Transactions of the EPRI/BPA Hydraulic Turbine Workshop/Seminar, York, Pennsylvania, and Portland, Oregon, June 1987.
12. “Can a Marine Thruster be Used as a Hydroelectric Turbine?,” Hydro Review, Special Waterpower ’87 issue, August 1987.
13. Co-author of “Pump Turbines, Trends and Status,” presented to and published in the Transactions of the International Renewable Energy Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, September 1988.
14. Co-author of “Variable Speed Pump/Turbines,” Hydro Review, Special Waterpower ’89 issue, August 1989.
15. “Q&A, Is Your Hydrogenerator Speeding? A Look at Overspeed, Runaway Speed,” Hydro Review, Special Waterpower ’95 issue, July 1995.
16. “Optimizing Efficiencies of Multi-Unit Hydro Plants,” presented to and published in the ASCE Transactions of Waterpower ’95, July 1995.
17. “Q&A, The Choice Between Reaction and Impulse Turbines,” Hydro Review, February 1997.
18. “Diagnostic Evaluation of Turbine Efficiency Profiles and Data,” presented to and published in the ASCE Transactions of Waterpower ’97, August 1997.
19. “Reviewing the Approaches to Hydro Optimization,” Hydro Review, June 1998.
20. “Modern Errors in Winter-Kennedy Piezometers,” presented to and published in the Transactions of the Second International Group for Hydraulic Efficiency Measurement (IGHEM) Conference, Reno, Nevada, July 1998.
21. “The Bernoulli Theorem: Sharing its History and Application,” Hydro Review, August 2000.
22. Co-author of, “Draft Tube Velocity Head Correction Factor,” presented to and published in the HCI Transactions of Waterpower ’05, July 2005.
23. Co-author of, “Improving Turbine Efficiency Calculations through Advanced Velocity Measurements,” Hydro Review, June 2007.
24. “A New Form of a Calibration Equation for the Winter-Kennedy Piezometer System,” presented to and published in the HCI Transactions of Waterpower XV, July 2007.
25. “Optimizing the Generating Efficiency of Entire Powerhouses,” presented to and published in the HCI Transactions of HydroVision 2008, July 2008.
26. “New Method to Determine Turbine Absolute Flow and Absolute
Efficiency Data,” Hydro Review, July 2010.
27.“A New Method to Extrapolate a Single Head Index Test Kaplan CAM Curve into a Full Head Range Family of CAM Curves,” presented to and published in the PennWell Transactions of HydroVision 2011, July 2011, and published in Hydro Review, October 2011, and Hydro Review Worldwide, March-April 2012.
28. "Calculating Water Startup Time for Spiral Cases of Hydraulic Turbines," HydroReview, March 2013, and presented as a poster gallery at HydroVision 2013.
29. Bass, Curtiss, Sheldon, and Parker, "Optimizing Multi-Unit Powerhouses: Method to Compute Unit Selection and Load Sharing," HydroReview, June 2013.
30. "A New Calibration Equation for the Winter-Kennedy Piezometer System," HydroReview, October 2013.
31. "Dimensionally Homogeneous Form of the Chezy and Manning Equations," HydroReview, April 2014.