Geoff Clarkson: About the Author
CTO and Founder, UTComp, Inc.
Geoff is the CTO and Founder of UTComp, Inc. His innovative company works globally to help eliminate uncertainty about the condition of FRP assets during production, delivery and in-service, allowing their remaining life to be determined. Geoff completed his engineering degree at the University of Waterloo, Canada in 1982, specializing in Systems Design Engineering.
Throughout his career he has worked in maintenance and project roles in pulp and paper,
mineral processing, water treatment, nuclear energy and chemical processing. In 1998, he established himself as an
independent plant and project engineer for industrial clients and has worked throughout North America as well as
Russia, Mexico, New Caledonia, and other locations. Throughout his work, he found a consistent gap in support for
end users of equipment made from fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP).
Geoff developed the patented UltraAnalytix™ system, an innovative approach to non-destructive evaluation of FRP
which gives end users reliable and valid information about their FRP assets.
His career has enabled the development of a high level of expertise in all aspects of the engineering, design,
inspection and evaluation of FRP. Since 2006, Geoff has focused his attention on the development of non-destructive
tools for evaluating FRP and providing useful reliability information to end users. Geoff is an Associate Member of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers (NAFE).
In 2019, he was awarded the Ernest C. Manning Innovation Awards’ David E. Mitchell Award of Distinction in
recognition of his pioneering work in developing a safe, non-destructive method for evaluating the reliability of
composite materials.
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Published Articles
Even with significant work to establish standards and codes for FRP vessel design, failures still occur, some of which could have been prevented or mitigated by following a systematic external inspection program.
This article describes the construction of corrosion-resistant fiber reinforced polymer (FRP), commonly used for pressure vessels and piping in the chemical processing industry, and the practices used for inspecting corrosion-resistant barriers.
This article is written to provide a brief case study of an acoustic emission test of an FRP storage tank. A method combining acoustic emission with ultrasonics is proposed to ensure reliable long term operation.
With no industry consensus documents in existence that provide guidance for determining FFS of FRP, this article provides a case study that illustrates how an existing European design standard on GRP tanks can be used to calculate expected changes in FRP for FRP vessels.
This article, part two in a series, provides a case study of an inspection and evaluation of a Fiberglass Reinforced Polymer (FRP) column using nondestructive ultrasound readings on the outer surface of the FRP.
Discover a new ultrasonic inspection approach that provides quantified mechanical integrity and conservative remaining service life information on fiberglass reinforced plastic equipment.
