Mech
HVAC
Area of practice · Donald W. Parnell, PE
Ductwork layout, commercial-building mechanical design, clean-room facilities for aerospace and pharmaceutical use, and refrigerated production-line design.
Sheet Metal
Commercial ductwork layout
Early HVAC work was performed for Hamlin Sheet Metal, laying out ductwork for commercial facilities. This was contractor-side design: routing supply and return duct through the building structure, sizing runs and fittings, and resolving conflicts with structure and other trades so that the sheet-metal shop could fabricate and install from the drawings.
Commercial Buildings
Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing design
Mr. Parnell worked on at least twenty commercial building facilities for HagerSmith Design, a multi-disciplinary architecture and planning firm based in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, since 1978. These projects carried a substantial mechanical, electrical, and plumbing component, with HVAC design coordinated against the architectural, structural, electrical, and plumbing systems of each building.
Aerospace
Clean-room facilities for spacecraft processing
In facilities engineering at United Launch Alliance, Mr. Parnell performed design work on clean-room facilities supporting the Orion spacecraft program. United Launch Alliance launched Orion’s first flight test on a Delta IV Heavy from Cape Canaveral in 2014. Clean-room work at this level involves controlled airflow, filtration, pressurization, and temperature and humidity control designed to particulate-count classifications, and required advanced HVAC design applications beyond conventional commercial practice.
Pharmaceutical
Clean-room facilities for pharmaceutical manufacturing
Through Peak Engineering, Mr. Parnell worked on clean-room facilities for pharmaceutical clients in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. As with the aerospace work, these facilities required advanced clean-room design: classified air cleanliness, pressure cascades between spaces, HEPA filtration, and tight environmental control appropriate to regulated pharmaceutical production.
Refrigeration
Automated refrigerated production lines
In Austin, Texas, Mr. Parnell worked for Wight Engineering on automated ice-cream production lines, building the Glacier 2000 refrigerated assembly lines. This work combined refrigeration and cold-chain design with equipment layout and process flow for continuous, automated frozen-product manufacturing.
About this record. This site is a working record of professional experience, maintained to verify subject-matter background. Areas of practice are reached from the menu above. The record is expanded as additional work history is documented.
Donald W. Parnell, PE | North Carolina PE No. 33878