Bob Hawboldt: Hydraulic Specialist and Racing Enthusiast

Hearing Bob Hawboldt speak on the subject of computation fluid dynamics or hydraulic transients, one is struck by the ease with which he translates such highly technical subjects into words that even the layperson can understand. His ease with presenting comes from his obvious passion for the subjects, a passion developed as a university student. “I enjoyed the classes in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and turbomachines,” Bob reflects. Encouraged by his university professors, Bob went on to pursue a Masters degree in thermal-fluid sciences after completing his undergraduate degree. He then accepted a position with the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies as a Ph.D. student. Here, he developed an experimental study in hypersonic shock wave-boundary layer interactions using a hypersonic gun tunnel, overcoming the challenges of rebuilding the used gun tunnel without the operations manual.

Reflecting on the challenges of graduate studies, Bob states, “Other than scars on my back from daily floggings, I did get something out of grad school. It is where I developed my analytical skills. I learned that there are millions of ways for things to go wrong, or for problems to present themselves. These problems, coupled with the environment that I was working in, allowed me to develop problem solving skills. This experience has had great effect on my approach to engineering today.”

From nuclear reactors to pipelines and pump stations

Upon completing his Ph.D., Bob planned to continue in academia--to conduct research and teach. However, an opportunity arose with Atomic Energy of Canada in Saskatoon. Bob joined Atomic Energy of Canada in 1993 to complete the preliminary design of the CANDU 9, a new generation of CANDU. “The work was particularly exciting because we were working on analyses of a brand new plant without a lot of the historical restrictions that apply to working plants,” Bob advises. “With this flexibility, we were allowed to try some approaches to nuclear power plant safety. I was responsible for modelling the containment system, so I had a great deal of interaction with the other safety analysts and the various design groups. It was fun work.”

In 1999, Bob was looking for a career change, and met Dan Hogan, recently retired Vice President of our Saskatchewan operations. Bob says, “Dan offered me a position with Associated Engineering even though he did not know exactly what I could do for the company. He thought there may be potential for things to develop and took a chance on me. I consider myself very lucky to have met and worked with Dan.”

Since joining Associated Engineering as a Project Manager and Senior Mechanical Engineer, Bob has indeed developed a role for himself as a hydraulics specialist. He has been a key player in developing our expertise in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), transient analysis, and hydraulic analysis. Computational fluid dynamics and hydraulic transients sound far removed from designing nuclear reactors, but Bob states, “It’s all fluid dynamics.”

Since joining the company, Bob has worked on projects across Canada, including a CFD analysis of the City of Saskatoon Water Treatment Plant Raw Water Intake and Pump Station, Hydraulic Transient Analysis of a forcemain and pump station in Niagara Falls, and Hydraulic Transient Analysis of pipelines in Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Yorkton, and in Hamilton. Bob reflects, “One of my favourite projects involved an analysis of the fill valve behaviour at the City of Saskatoon Acadia Reservoir. The analysis was interesting because it involved using plant data to construct a model that would account for the complete system hydraulic behaviour as well as the cavitation behaviour of two parallel control valves. A subsequent test showed that the model accurately predicted the system behaviour for non-cavitating and cavitating flow conditions.”

Racing Enthusiast

Outside of the office, Bob’s other passion is cycling and mountain biking. In the early 1980’s, Bob got involved in triathlons. He entered a few provincial cycling road races for training. These initial races spurred Bob’s passion for cycling. “I thought, ‘this is a pretty simple sport – whoever can stand up to the most pain wins!’” The following year, Bob trained for cycling, planning to continue with triathlons if cycling didn’t work out. He has been bike racing ever since. Over the years, Bob added mountain bike racing and cyclocross to his road racing interest.

Bob’s favourite race was the National Cyclocross Championships in Vancouver in November 2003. Bob trained hard for the race, even with temperatures in Saskatoon falling below 10 degrees Celsius in the two weeks before the race. When Bob and the Saskatoon team got to Vancouver, daytime highs were about 12 degrees Celsius and the course at Jericho Park was excellent. On the day of the race, it was 5 degrees Celsius and there was just enough mud and ice on the course to make bike handling interesting. “I am sure that I must have had a smile on my face for the whole race, in spite of my uncomfortably high heart rate.” The race ended with a bit of strategic riding and Bob’s sprint to the win in his category.

Bob and his wife (Bette Boechler) also enjoy skiing (Nordic and telemark), canoeing, camping, and hiking. Bob has been a Board Member of the Saskatchewan Cycling Association and has just finished two years as President. He is also involved in the Alpine Club of Canada, Saskatchewan Section.

Goals for the future

Bob’s goal is to continue his work in advanced engineering analysis such as hydraulic transients and computational fluid dynamics. He acknowledges such analysis may not be appropriate for every project, but is one of a great set of tools in the engineers’ toolbox. “We have developed an understanding of when to use these analyses, and when other alternatives may be more practical,” Bob advises. “When used, analysis can provide additional value and cost saving to a project. Our ability to provide non-standard solutions to unusual problems sets Associated apart from our competition.”

Reflecting on his decision on a career in consulting engineering, Bob states, “The advantage of consulting engineering is that we always have interesting problems to work on, whether it be the analysis of pumps, pipelines, valves, or plant hydraulics. When I complete an analysis and the results accurately predict the real system, it just doesn’t get any better!”