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Engineering Practice

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Air Coolers Versus Shell-and-Tube Water Coolers

As shown here, economical cooling is often achieved with a combination of both air and water cooling. Design considerations are also presented here For the last 40 years, air-cooled heat exchangers have become an indispensable part of many chemical, petroleum-refining,…

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Accelerating Six Sigma Research with the Definitive Screening Design (DSD) Technique

DSD is a new design-of-experiments (DOE) technique that is expected to bring huge benefits when using a Six Sigma optimization strategy Statistical tools are deeply ingrained in the Six Sigma methodology to optimize processes and products during chemical process industries…

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Cost Engineering: Equipment Purchase Costs

A methodology and examples for estimating equipment costs are presented Engineers have the responsibility to create projects having attractive returns on investment and to create economically sound designs — designs that produce high-quality, competitively priced products. This requires the technical…

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A Shortcut to Optimize Pipe Diameters by Economic Criteria

This methodology can be used not only for laminar flow, but also for the complete turbulent flow region In recent decades, the impact of energy costs on the transport of fluids has led to a significant reduction in fluid velocity…

Recommended Fluid Velocities in Pipelines

The recommended velocities for fluids’ transportation must be updated periodically to obtain the optimum value of the pipe diameter in the current economic conditions To arrive at the optimum diameters for pipes, the heuristic criteria of recommended velocity has been…

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Engineering & Construction (E&C): Modeling Integration Enables Optimized Execution

As E&C companies strive to develop Building Information Modeling (BIM) 6D models for the owners and operators of CPI facilities, strong efficiency gains benefit all parties Truly transformational change is upon the engineering and construction (E&C) industry, and some consider…

Experimental Methodologies to Verify Distillation Simulations

Presented here are practical considerations concerning the equipment and methods used for experimental verifications of simulations The use of process simulation tools for modeling distillation columns is invaluable for designing plant-scale columns. However, it can be difficult to know if…

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Calculate the Wetted Surface Area of Pressure Vessels

This article provides a comparative study of two approaches to protect ASME semi-elliptical pressure tanks from overpressure in the event of a fire Calculating the wetted surface area is a crucial step to protect American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME)…

Protecting Sensor Data Transmitted Wirelessly: A Grounds-Up Approach

Do not assume security is extensive enough to protect your critical data and processes. Take a layered security approach using different tactics to establish best practices for protecting network data Almost daily, the headlines tout the latest data breach that…

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Get the Most Out of an Owner-Contractor Alliance

This article provides guidance for setting up a robust alliance between plant owners and EPC contractors to minimize risk and maximize synergies during complex, capital-intensive projects The most meaningful collaboration pathway among plant owners and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC)…