Notebook, engineering

FIGURE 3-12 A page from a well-prepared engineering notebook. 

An engineering notebook is the documentation of all of the steps and calculations for and an evaluation of the engineering design process for a particular item. 

Describe the importance of a well-documented engineering notebook to both the design team members and their company. 

Engineering notebook A notebook containing dated entries detailing experiments performed, results obtained, and ideas conceived. For patentable ideas and findings the entries should be read and dated by a non-involved person. Also called a Laboratory notebook. 

The Laboratory Notebook Page. Most engineers, scientists, and technicians make a record of their work. A common form of record... 

Bott, T. R. (1990) Fouling Notebook (Institution of Chemical Engineers, London). 

Advanced materials ate vital to daily life in our world of high technology [1,2]. The notebook computer I am drafting this very sentence on illustrates the marvel of advanced materials engineering. It is smaller than a typical issue of the Journal of Chemical Physics and weighs less than five pounds yet it outperforms the very much bulkier personal computers used only a few years ago, let alone the old IBM electric typewriters. 

Now let us look finally, and directly, at Watt s experiments on steam and how they related to his steam-engine work. A small notebook in the Watt archives, most of it in Watt s hand, contains notes about steam experiments, conducted in... 

Watt s notebook in 1765 recorded studies of the boiler of Jonathan Sisson s engine ...I saw no boyler so perfect... as the common tea kitchen [kettle]. Here the fuel is always in contact with the sides of the boyler containing the water... . This is consistent with the view that the significant factor in producing steam is to ensure the maximum proximity of heat (fire particles) and water. The Notebook is reproduced in Robinson and McKie (eds), Partners in Science, the section in question being on p. 435. 

However, a job is a job, and you set out to do what you can. You find an elemental analysis in the engineer s notebook indicating that the gas formula is C5H12O. On another page of the notebook, the off-gas flow rate is given as 235 m /h at 116°C and 1 atm. You take a sample of the gas and cool it to 25°C, where it proves to be a solid. You then heat the solidified sample at 1 atm and note that ii melts at 52 C and boils at 113 C Finally, you make several assumptions and estimate the heat removal rate in kW required to bring the off-gas from 116°C to 25°C. What is your result ... 

Do you have a new solution to an operations, maintenance or design problem Share it with other engineers by sending it in to Plant Notebook. 

How do you submit an article Keep it brief, include an example and an illustration, if possible, and send it to Plant Notebook Editor, Chemical Engineering, 1221 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. 

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