Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Absolute Pressure
The measurement of pressure relative to the pressure in a vacuum.
It is equal to the sum of the pressure shown on a pressure gauge and atmospheric
pressure.
Further Reading
Accuracy
The closeness of the agreement between the result of the measurement and the con
ventional true value of the quantity.
Further Reading
ALARA
As Low As Reasonably Achievable.
Most often used in reference to chemical or radiation exposure levels.
Further Reading
ALARP
As Low As Reasonably Practicable.
Applied to the reduction of risk by taking measures to reduce risk until the cos
t of further measures is grossly disproportionate to the benefits they would del
iver.
Further Reading
Alliance Contract
A contract that generally relates to a specific and discrete set of services suc
h as design or maintenance.
Not as extensive as an Integrated Service Contract.
Further Reading
Anneal
The process of using heating and slow cooling to toughen steel (or glass) by red
ucing its brittleness and internal stresses.
Further Reading
Annubar
A device that uses Pitot tubes to measure the gas flow rate within a pipeline.
Further Reading
API
Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient
Further Reading
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange established to achieve compat
ibility between various types of data processing equipment.
Further Reading
ASCII Code Toolbox Page
ASME
American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Professional organisation focused on technical; educational and research issues
of the engineering and technology community.
Further Reading
ASTM
American Society for Testing and Materials.
Further Reading
ATEX
EU Directive 94/9/EC covering equipment and protective systems for use in potent
ially explosive atmospheres.
Further Reading
Hazardous Area Toolbox Page
ABRASIVE EROSION - Erosive wear caused by the relative motion of solid particles
which are entrained in a fluid, moving nearly parallel to a solid surface.
ABSORPTION TOWER - A tower or column, which effects contact between a rising gas
and a falling liquid, so that part of the gas may be taken up by the liquid.
ACCEPTABLE WELD - A weld that meets all of the requirements and the acceptance c
riteria prescribed by the welding specifications.
ACCUMULATOR - Storage tank which receives liquid refrigerant from evaporator and
prevents it from flowing into suction line before vaporizing
ACID CLEANING - The process of cleaning the interior surfaces of steam generatin
g units by filling the unit with dilute acid accompanied by an inhibitor to prev
ent corrosion and by subsequently draining, washing, and neutralizing the acid b
y a further wash of alkaline water.
AERATION - Exposing to the action of air, like blowing air through water before
discharging to a river.
AIR CONDITIONING -The process of treating air to simultaneously control its temp
erature, humidity, cleanliness, and distribution to meet the requirements of the
conditioned space.
AIR GAP -The space between magnetic poles, or between the rotating and stationar
y assemblies in a motor or generator.
AIR VENT - Valve, either manual or automatic, to remove air from the highest poi
nt of a coil or piping assembly.
AIR-COOLED CONDENSER - Heat of compression is transferred from condensing coils
to surrounding air. This may be done either by convection or by a fan or blower.
ALLOY - A substance having metal properties and being composed of two or more ch
emical elements of which at least one is a metal.
ALTERNATING CURRENT (AC) - Electric current in which the direction of the curren
t alternates or reverses. In a 60 Hertz (cycle) current, the direction of curren
t flow reverses in 1/120th of a second; most commonly used current.
ALUM - Is an aluminum sulfate or filter alum. Acts in the range of 5.0 to 8.0 pH
.
AMERICAN STANDARD PIPE THREAD - A type of screw or thread, commonly used on pipe
fittings to assure a tight seal.
AMERICAN WIRE GAUGE (AWG) - A system used in the United States for measuring the
size of solid wires.
AMPERAGE - An electron or current flow of one coulomb per second, past a given p
oint in a circuit.
AMPERE - The unit used for measuring the quantity of an electrical current flow.
One ampere represent a flow of one coulomb per second.
AMPERE HOUR - A term used for rating battery capacity. As stated, an ampere for
an hour; ex: 5 amperes for 20 hours = 100 amp hour on a 20 hr rating.
AMPERE TURNS - A term used to measure magnetic force. It represents the product
of amperes, times the number of turns of the coil, in an electromagnet.
AMPLIFICATION - The process of obtaining an output signal greater than the input
signal, through auxiliary power controlled by the input signal. The process of
increasing the strength, current, power, or voltage, of the signal.
ANGLE VALVE - A type of globe valve design, having pipe openings at right angles
to each other. Usually one opening on the horizontal plane and one on the verti
cal plane.
ANTIFOULANTS - Are materials which prevent fouling from depositing on heat trans
fer equipment. Materials that prevent deposits forming; include anti- oxidants,
metal coordinators, and corrosion inhibitors. Compounds that prevent deposition
are surfactants. They act as detergents or dispersants.
ANTI-OXIDANT - An additive for the purpose of reducing the rate of oxidation and
subsequent deterioration of the material.
API GRAVITY (API DEGREE) - A measure of density used in the US petroleum industr
y.
ARMATURE - the rotating part of an electric motor or generator. The moving part
of a relay or vibrator.
ARMATURE TESTER - Any device used for locating faults or defects in the armature
winding.
AROMATICS - A group of hydrocarbons of which benzene is the parent. They are cal
led "aromatics" because many of their derivatives have sweet or aromatic odorous
.
ATMOSPHERE - Is the mixture of gases and water vapor surrounding the earth.
ATOM - The smallest complete particle of an element, which can be obtained, yet
which retains all physical and chemical properties of the element.
ATOMIC NUMBER - The number of protons found in the nucleus of an atom, of an ele
ment.
AUTOMATIC EXPANSION VALVE (AEV) - A type of metering device that senses low-side
pressure and modulates in order to maintain low-side pressure constant.
AUTOMATIC EXTRACTION UNIT TURBINE - Bleeds off part of the main steam flow at on
e, two, or three points. Valved partitions between selected stages control the e
xtracted steam pressure at the desired level. When extracted steam flowing throu
gh the unit does not produce enough shaft power to meet the demand, more steam f
lows through the turbine to exhaust. Located between steam supply and process st
eam headers.
AUTOMATIC GOVERNING SYSTEM - A system which correlates steam flow, pressure, sha
ft speed, and shaft output, for any one turbine unit.
AVAGADRO'S HYPOTHESIS - States that equal volumes of different gases, at the sam
e temperature and pressure, will contain equal numbers of molecules.
AVAGADRO'S NUMBER (N) - The number of elementary units such as atoms, formula un
its, molecules, or ions, that constitute one mole of the said particle.
AVERAGING ELEMENT - A thermostat sensing element which will respond to the avera
ge duct temperature.
AXIAL FLOW COMPRESSOR - Uses rotor blades shaped like airfoils, to bite into the
air, speed it up, and push it into the subsequent stationary blade passages. Th
ese passages are shaped to form diffusers, that slow up the incoming air, and ma
ke it pressurize itself by catching up with the air ahead of it.