Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations cowski on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Engineering Handbooks 1

Status
Not open for further replies.

302Hugo

Petroleum
Aug 23, 2006
58
Management is going to allow me to purchase a few Handbooks for the office. I'm in the projects/tech services of our pipeline and LACT department. We deal with everything from pipelines, facility piping, structural, tanks, fluid process, pumps, fasteners, HVAC, etc.

In your opinion what are the most important and must have handbooks to have in your library?

Thanks.
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

For pipelines I wouldn't be without:
ASME B31.8
ASME B31.3
API 1104
Cameron Hydraulic Data
Crane Technical Paper 410
GPSA Field Data Book

For the rest of it I tend to go to manufacturer's web sites and manuals (I've found the API pump, compressor, valve standards to be too generic to be useful for an end user)

David
 
For all process related topics, i would recommend: Perry's Handbook.

"We don't believe things because they are true, things are true because we believe them."
 
Crittenden,

I would use the money and get a subscription to Knovel. the you have access to thousands of technical books.

If you were a member of IMechE, IChemE, IEAust you get access to electronic libraries as part of their services. I would check the professional engineering associations and institutions in your kneck of the woods and and see what benefits membership brings.

 
Well I wish I could. But I've probably only have a budget of around $700. That's why I'm trying to figure out what handbooks everyone else uses and likes. I don't want to just google some books and then get them and find out they are useless.

We are a fairly young group with not much technical experience, so I think having handbooks on hand will help a lot.

sheiko...thanks, I was trying to remember what that one was called. I think I will also be getting the Machinery Handbook as well.
 
I would go with:


Pipelines:
Piping and Pipeline Engineering : Design, Construction, Maintenance, Integrity, and Repair - George A. Antaki

Facility Piping:
Pipe Stress Engineering - Peng
Piping and Pipelines - Assessment Guide - Escoe
Facility Piping Systems Handbook - For Industrial, Commercial and Heathcare Facilities - Michael Frankel

ASME B31.3 & VIII-1
Casti Guidebooks:
Structural:
Design of Welded Structures - Blodgett
and/or Design of Weldments - Blodgett
Steel Structures - 3rd Ed - Gaylord & Gaylord

Tanks:
Aboveground Storage Tanks - Myers

Bins:
Design of Steel Bins for Storage of Bulk Solids - Gaylord

Fasteners:
(any of the books by Bickford)
Bolted Joint Engineering - Fundamentals and Applications - Tomotsugu Sakai

HVAC:
ASHRAE Handbooks -
General Mechanical Design:
Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design
 
whoops - missed a couple:

Pumps:
Pumps Handbook - 4th Ed - Igor Karassik

General Process Machinery:
(anything by Heinz Bloch)
 
Crittenden,

a) Fluid Transients in Pipeline Systems by Prof ARD Thorley is a must for waterhammer understanding.
b) The Efficient Use of Steam Oliver Lyle

There are some freebies from industry worth having:-

Nalco give their customers:
1) NALCO Guide to Boiler Failure Analysis
2) Nalco Water handbook
3) NALCO Guide to Cooling Water Systems Failure Analysis

Pump suppliers like Sulzer, GIW, Warman, SIHI etc have excellent books for free as well as sizing software.

I am based in Australia and have been selling my library. i need the space and at this stage in my career concentrating in a more narrow field. Some have gone to Canada. I have attached a list if they are of interest. Shipping has been by sea to keep the cost down.

Email me if you are interested. Contact details on the list.

 
 http://files.engineering.com/getfile.aspx?folder=f2bc2938-431b-489f-b17e-83f038ca4d89&file=20100605_Engineering_Textbooks.xlsx
Crittenden:

Are you a member of ASME? I think it's about $150.00 US, and a lot of what might be of use to you is in a Knovel-powered e-library for members only. Plus, you can buy other books at discounted prices (typically -10% relative to list price).

I recently bought the book:

Pipeline Design & Construction
A Practical Approach
Third Edition
(M. Mohitpour / H. Golshan / A. Murray)

While not a "handbook", it's a good reference. I have also heard of a "Pipeline Rules Of Thumb" book that people speak highly of...I think it's one of the e-books on ASME's website.

Regards,

SNORGY.
 
Before you get anything more specialized you must start with Perry's Handbook of Chemical Engineering, the Machinery Handbook, and the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics.
 
Knovel e-library with ASME gives you access to 75 textbooks.

Knovel e-library with AIChE gives you access to 200+ textbooks.

Both are around $150/year.

Perry's is included in the AIChE subscription.

Best way to go if on a budget or not really. Plus as noted above with my engineering profession I get access to 1200+ textbooks via another crcnetbase.

Happy reading.

 
Knovel e library with IMechE gives you 1500 books
24/7 e library with IMechE gives you hundreds more

IMechE membership is free to mechanical engineering students study for a degree per the Wshington accord.

UK pound is tanking the same way as the US dollar so has not gone up in price.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I'll have to look into these when I get a chance.

Thanks.
 
As your OP list cross discipline you should get your purchasing department to get you a copy of the McMaster-Carr and/or the Grainger catalogues.

Done right these two catalogues cost nothing.
 
Piping:- Piping Handbook, Edited by M Nayar
Piping:- Process Piping Design to ASME B31.3, Becht
Pipeline:- Piping and Pipeline Engineering, Antaki
Process Plant:- Perry's Chemical Engineering Handbook
Structural(depending on your location in the world):- Steel Designer's Manual, Davison, Owen
Structural(depending on your location in the world):- AISC Manual of Steel Construction
Pumps:- Know and Understand Centrifugal Pumps, Bachus
Pumps:- Centrifugal Pumps, Sulzer
Pumps:- Pump Handbook, 4th Edition, Karasik
Pumps:- Troubleshooting Centrifugal Pumps and Their Systems, Palgrave
HVAC:- HVAC Equations, Data and Rules of Thumb, Bell
General Mechanical:- Handbook of Mechanical Engineering Calculations, Hicks
Fasteners:- Introduction to Bolted Joint Design, Bickford

...most or all of which are available, as indicated earlier, by getting a subscription to Knovel

 
If the budget is really tight, don't ignore buying used books. Abebooks.com and Alibris.com are excellent sources for locating tech books. After all is said, the new books become used and basic tech books are really fundamental and useful for years.

Paul
 
If you field is Process Plant Piping Engineering and Design you might want to consider the following:

The books listed here are piping books for process plants and are just a few of the total that may be available. These happen to be the ones I have in my library. I have used all of these during my career while both working and teaching.

Piping Reference Books:
(Basin Data:)
The Piping Guide
(For the Design and Drafting of Industrial Piping Systems)
David R. Sherwood and Dennis J. Wistance, BS, MS
ISBN 0-914-08219-1

(Advanced Data:)
Piping Handbook
Mohinder L. Nayyar, P.E. (Editor in Chief)
McGraw-Hill
ISBN 0-07-046881-8


Piping Text Books:
(Basic Piping:)
Process Piping Drafting
Rip Weaver
Gulf Publishing Company
ISBN 0-87201-761-3
Also available by the same author
Process Piping Drafting “Workbook”

Process Piping Drafting
Terence M. Shumaker
Goodheart-Willcox Company, Inc.
ISBN 1-56637-535-5

Piping Drafting and Design
(Using manual, AutoCAD and Pro-Pipe Applications)
Roy A. Parisher and Robert A. Rhea
Gulf Publishing Company
ISBN 0-88415-657-5
Also available by the same author
Piping Drafting and Design “Workbook”
And
Piping Drafting and Design “Instructors Guide”

(Intermediate Piping:)
Process Piping Design – Volume #1
Rip Weaver
Gulf Publishing Company
Process Piping Design – Volume #2
Rip Weaver
Gulf Publishing Company
ISBN 0-87201-760-1

(Advanced Piping:)
Process Plant Layout and Design
Ed. Bausbacher and Roger Hunt
Auerbach Publishers
ISBN 0-7913-0543-5

Detail Engineering and Layout of Piping Systems
Bob Wilson
Distributor: Espresso Book Machine (Mark Lefebvre)
ISBN - 1-926633-18-0 – (SKU 9781926633183)

Piping Systems Drafting And Design
Louis Gary Lamit
Prentice-Hall Publisher
ISBN 0-13-676445-2

Piping Material Engineering:

Piping Material Guide, Selection and Applications
Peter Smith
Gulf Professional Publishing
ISBN 0-7506-7743-0

Valve Selection Handbook (3rd Edition)
R. W. Zappe
Gulf Publishing Company
ISBN 0-87201-863-6

Valve Selection and Specification Guide
Van Nostrand Reinhold
Ronald C. Merrick
ISBN 0-442-31870-7

Piping Management Books:

Piping Engineering Leadership For Process Plant Projects
James O. Pennock
Gulf Professional Publishing
ISBN 0-88415-347-9

 
LACT and pipeline means you are doing just that. Here is what I think you need, based on 25 years working in the patch:

Cameron Hydraulic Data

Goulds Pump Manual (free)

Crane TP 410

J M Campbell, Gas Processing and Conditioning Vol. 1 and 2. You need this because it has a ton of good info on estimating properties of hydrocarbon fluids, line looping, heat exchangers, etc. It has a ton of good rules of thumb in it. Get it, you won't be sorry. Ignore the fact that it says Gas in the title.

Pumping Station Design

GPSA Engineering Data Book Vol. 1 and 2

A copy of ASME B31.3 plus also either B31.4 or B31.8, whichever one governs your particular pipelines

API 1104

Pipeline Rules of Thumb Handbook

Trust me, that's all you need, plus your college textbooks like thermo and solids/mech mat. Others will disagree and that's OK. I come from, as I said, 25 years in the oil patch, working with LACT units, pipelines, and field facilities, and these are the ones I use every day (or almost).

 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor