Through an intensive two-year series of debates, meetings, presentations, and reviews, a total of twelve issues on the materials and fabrication aspects of technical problems in the pressure vessels and piping industry were identified. The twelve issues are: (1) The role of engineering judgment and the computer in the management of material property data; (2) Curve-fitting vs. modeling for formulating design rules; (3) New material property data: Terminal vs. incremental tests; (4) Variability of data: Standards for applications; (5) On-line monitoring of critical components to improve reliability; (6) Upgrading welders' skill and educational level: How and why; (7) Reliability of nondestructive evaluation; (8) Characterization of the subjective component of inservice data; (9) Should there be a methodology for failure analysis; (10) Accelerated development of a more rational basis for nonlinear fracture mechanis; (11) Safety factors in Fatigue Design: Arbitrary or Rational; (12) The ASME Code and product liability: Should compliance create a rebuttable presumption of proper design. This report contains extended abstracts of the twelve issue papers and summaries of reviewers' comments.

Excerpt from Critical Materials and Fabrication Issues for Pressure Vessels, Piping, Pumps, and Valves The basis for the opinion expressed here is the complex variety of data available on Mechanical Properties of Materials, not only with respect tot he manner in which it is obtained, but also in consideration of the interpretation to be placed on it in using it. There are many factors which affect the properties of materials, even when supplied to a standard specification. These factors include, among others, metal processing; chemical composition; product form, size, and thickness; heat treatment; and fabrication operations. The behavior of the material in its end use product is affected by the environment in which it is used and the operating conditions to which it will be subjected. The accumulation and analysis of data representative of the various materi al specifications and conditions of fabrication and use is a complex activity. A computer can be a very effective tool in aiding the engineer to evaluate and analyze the data for establishing design stresses for Code use or other design use. However, the judgment of the engineer is required in the management of this data to properly determine the appropriate analyses, selection of parameters, and criteria for design stresses suitable for the intended application. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.