Re: stress analysis

Chris,

At last a voice of sanity. That was something that needed saying.

Jim Chadwick

> >i am interested in learing piping stress analysis , can anybody help in
> >reccomend a few websites where i can learn, or download a few e books
> It's the easiest thing in the world. Just buy FEA software. It'll do
> everything you want. Look for the words 'user-friendly' on the box so you
> don't have to worry about bugs or input checking. Just ask the sales
> person if you're not sure--they're great guys. Don't worry about
> accuracy, either--that's what they pay programmers for. FEA makes all
> that mechanics stuff about stress and strain obsolete, so don't clutter
> up your desk with a lot of books. If the computer makes the number, it's
> right. Just remember that the red places on stress plots are bummers,
> everything else is cool. Make sure you get a big fast computer with a lot
> of megs and stuff and a large monitor. Size counts and chicks dig guys
> with big monitors. The faster the computer the more stuff you can run and
> the less reason you have to waste time with an organized approach. (Hint:
> Big problems make you look good in front of your boss. If you don't
> complain about running out of memory every month or so, people think
> you're not making the models complicated enough and they won't respect
> you.). And always use animation. Any problem worth solving is worth
> animating.
>
> Above all keep away from fab shops. They're dirty and noisy and the
> welders and fitters work with their hands, so their opinion isn't worth
> much. Welding is especially nasty, and there are always silly questions
> about what to do when things don't fit or something isn't quite round.
> You don't have to explain anything weld sizes and procedures and fit-up.
> You're a stress analyst and people do what _you_ say, not the other way
> around. Besides, if you're not wasting time around the shop, you have
> more time to learn to run solid modelling software. CAD is great because
> anything you can show as a solid model has to be right since the computer
> optimized it. With CAD and FEA you won't need much actual information,
> but the Web has everything you could possibly want. Google is
> good--everything you find with Google is right, so don't waste time
> cross-checking.
>
> As you might suspect, I'm being a maybe a teensy bit sarcastic, because
> the question really rubbed me the wrong way. I know a little about stress
> analysis, some of it from books, a lot from watching knowledgeable
> people, some by remembering my own mistakes and a certain amount from
> sweeping up after people who figured they only needed to read a few books
> and visit a couple of web sites to learn FEA. If you want to learn about
> stress analysis and piping design, take some time off and go to school.
> You need to know statics and dynamics, strength of materials, heat
> transfer, fluid flow and something about metallurgy and materials
> science. You'll need to know how to communicate instructions and how to
> spell and write because that's what engineers mostly do, and you'll need
> to know about designing stuff and about mechanical function. Schools
> don't teach much about safety codes, so you can go to seminars or hang
> around people who know about Codes. People don't just build piping
> systems for their own sake, so you'll need to know something about
> process engineering--what particular systems are supposed to accomplish
> and why to use certain types of valves or fittings and not others. Ask
> intelligent questions, do your homework and don't be a pain in the ass,
> and you'll learn a lot.
>
> Christopher Wright P.E. |"They couldn't hit an elephant from
> chrisw@skypoint.com | this distance" (last words of Gen.
> ___________________________| John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania 1864)
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target="newLink">http://www.skypoint.com/~chrisw</a>
>
>
>
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Received on Wed Sep 19 14:14:00 2001