Lyle Breaux, P.E.

Lyle is a Principal Engineer with the Rotating Equipment, Vibration, & Dynamics team at Equity Engineering.  Since launching his career in 1999 with a brief stint working in aerospace & defense research, Lyle’s professional focus has been on fixed equipment vibration consulting for the energy and process industries.  Early in his career, he also gained brief but invaluable experience as an owner-user refinery engineer.  In 2005 he joined Stress Engineering Services, Inc., started up the firm’s Vibration Consulting Practice, and quickly established a reputation in the industry for helping plant operators solve difficult and unusual vibration problems.  During his 20 years with Stress Engineering Services, he served as a Principal and Vibration Practice Lead through 2017, after which he transitioned to part-time Staff Consultant and remained associated with the firm until 2025.

In 2007, Lyle was among the first engineers in the oil & gas industry to study flow-induced vibration of subsea piping facilities – an emerging integrity threat at the time.  He served as the project lead in developing and implementing new technical approaches for assessment of subsea piping vibration, and also served as technical reviewer for the Energy Institute Publication 3370 “Guidelines for the Avoidance of Vibration-Induced Fatigue Failure in Subsea Systems.”

Lyle is recognized for his leadership in the development of fitness-for-service technology applied to piping vibration.  As the principal investigator of the new Part 15 of the API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 Fitness-For-Service standard, he pioneered many of the assessment methodologies and the technical basis for Part 15.  He also authored the new Part 15 of the API 579-2/ASME PTB-14 Fitness-For-Service Example Problems Manual.  Lyle’s work on the new Part 15 has been praised by his colleagues on the FFS Joint Committee for setting the bar in integrating new and innovative technologies into the existing API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 Fitness-For-Service standard.

Lyle’s recent career has shifted focus to mentoring and training, working to prepare a new generation of engineers embarking on careers in industrial vibration consulting.  He received widespread acclaim for his public and private training courses on the new Part 15 of the API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 Fitness-For-Service standard.  He has delivered numerous seminars and presentations on topics related to fixed equipment vibration at conferences and trade shows including API, ASME, EPRI, AFPM, IPEIA, and Vibration Institute.

From 2006-2021, Lyle held the ISO 18436-2 Category 4 Vibration Analyst certification.  He has served as a voting member on the ASME/API Joint Committee on Fitness for Service since 2015.

Publications:

1. Matta, L., Breaux, L., and Szasz, G., “FFS Approach to Assessment of Vibrations Caused by Compressor/Pump Pulsations,” IPC2024-133966, Proceedings of the ASME 2024 International Pipeline Conference, Calgary, AB, Canada, September 2024.
2. Harper, C. and Breaux, L., “Using ASME B31J Stress Intensification Factors (SIFs) to Improve a BS 7608 Fatigue Analysis,” PVP2024-122678, Proceedings of the ASME 2024 Pressure Vessels & Piping Conference, Bellevue, WA, July 2024.
3. Bifano, M.F.P., Breaux, L., Feller, A. J., and Brodzinski, R., “New Fatigue Screening Criteria for the Fitness-for-service Assessment of In-Service Process Piping Vibrations,” PVP2018-84847, Proceedings of the ASME 2018 Pressure Vessels & Piping Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, July 2018.
4. Breaux, L., McNeill, S., Szasz, G., “A Screening Method for Random Piping Vibration,” Proceedings of the Vibration Institute National Technical Training Symposium, 2017.
5. Breaux, L., McNeill, S., Szasz, G., 2016, “Fitness-for-Service Assessment of Piping Subject to Random Vibration,” PVP2016-63695, Proceedings of the ASME 2016 Pressure Vessels & Piping Conference, Vancouver, BC, Canada, July 2016.
6. Urthaler, Y., Breaux, L., McNeill, S., Luther, E., Austin, J., and Tognarelli, M., “A Methodology for Assessment of Internal Flow-Induced Vibration (FIV) in Subsea Piping Systems,” OMAE2011-49795, Proceedings of the ASME 2011 30^th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, June 2011.
7. Breaux, L., 2010, “Flow-Induced Vibration in Process Equipment,” Proceedings of the Vibration Institute 34^th National Technical Training Symposium, Chicago, IL, 2010.
8. Breaux, L., “Random Vibration Signal Processing,” Proceedings of the Vibration Institute 34^th National Technical Training Symposium, Chicago, IL, 2010.

Conference & Training Presentations:

1. Piping Vibration Fitness-For-Service Assessments, ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Division, tutorial presented by L. Breaux and M. Bifano at the Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, PVPD-102, July 2023, Atlanta, GA.