Stress Engineer !!
Stress Engineer !!
(OP)
Dear All,
I have one question related to the term used by many in the Industry and Job Market.
Many times I have seen particularly for Aerospace industries term called " Stress Engineer " How does it different then CAE Analyst?
Thanks
Nidhee
I have one question related to the term used by many in the Industry and Job Market.
Many times I have seen particularly for Aerospace industries term called " Stress Engineer " How does it different then CAE Analyst?
Thanks
Nidhee





RE: Stress Engineer !!
corus
RE: Stress Engineer !!
Perhaps you could make it more general with "Completely Awful Engineer" !
I do agree with the point you are making, why replace a title of long standing recognition with a cheap tla (three letter acronymn), but then CAE which I believe stands for "Computer Aided Engineering" is probably very apt to describe a so called analyst who cannot sketch a free body diagram and label the applied loads correctly ! Or in simpler terms an "engineer" who is 100% reliant on computers and cannot perform a hand calculation.
RE: Stress Engineer !!
but seriously, "Analyst" is used sometimes to avoid the professional implications of "engineer" ... around here you have to be a licensed engineer to have a job title of "engineer".
RE: Stress Engineer !!
RE: Stress Engineer !!
A stress engineer on the other hand will calculate and analyse stresses, sometimes with a computer, sometimes not. I believe it will be a profession that will soon die out though unless someone can quickly come up with a TLA for the job.
corus
RE: Stress Engineer !!
I suspect it is already too late! Do you know of any genuine stress men under the age of 40 ?
RE: Stress Engineer !!
Johnhors, with all the due respect, you're being offensive towards MANY "young" professionals who, first under the supervision of "old-school" mentors like the "true" stress engineers you say, and then by themselves, are trying to do the best they can in order to ensure that machines and structures which can VERY easily kill people will never do this in all their potential life.
In the office where I work, a part of a multi-national company, the engineering department is ALL made out of <40-old persons, and the results we achieve are acknowledged not only internally by the "old-and-experienced" gurus, but also externally by the customers.
That said, I agree that removing "engineer" from the significance of the acronym can be misleading, but probably all this is not intentional. A serious tech dept knows what it needs, call it CAE-analyst, CAE-specialist, safety-engineer (yes, I've heard this also!), etc etc etc...
Regards
RE: Stress Engineer !!
I apologise for any offense. The point I was trying to make is that I do see some very clever highly gifted young engineers. However in general they have too much faith or confidence in what their computer is telling them. As a result designs tend to get very highly tuned or optimised with little or no reserve. I never see a quick ball park hand calculation as a sanity check (I'm as guilty as anyone for being lazy on this as well, though I used to do this I now trust experience to tell me if something ain't right).
One thing that catches just about every young stress analyst out (and quite a few old ones as well!) is when they are asked to calculate the normal modes of vibration using their model which was built and meshed to provide stresses. As very few people work in strict SI units, many of these engineers seem surprised that the natural frequencies are incorrect. A hand calculation using SI units is thus very valuable in this case.
Over reliance on computers has caused some very embarassing and costly problems, eg. the "wobbly" millenium bridge, the current A380 debacle. Then consider that Concorde was designed and analysed with minimal input from very primitive computers as was the Saturn V Apollo rocket.
RE: Stress Engineer !!
RE: Stress Engineer !!
No doubt their forbearers made similar comments about the use of log tables and abacuses.
Actually I find it much easier to make mistakes when I am doing hand calculations than using computers.
RE: Stress Engineer !!
i'd spin that into "it's easier to find mistakes in hand calcs"
i've always likened FE to a loaded gun, but perhaps a loaded syringe is a better analogy; only this syringe has a multi-dose system ... you can select medicine (and with the right knowledge, you can select the right medicine) or you can select poison (particularly a poison that feels like the right medicine).
that being said, I don't think we could work today without FE, (there is a baby in the bath water?) we just have to be very careful with it.
RE: Stress Engineer !!
Johnhors, I understand your point and I appreciate your fair-play.
Foundamentally, I agree with most of what has been said.
But I dissociate from the concept of the engineers being too much confident towards "FEA". A too much confident engineer will be so with every calculation instrument he might use. So I really do believe FEA is NOT the problem.
Rb1957 & al., wouldn't it be like comparing nuclear electric power plants with atomic bombs, if you see what I mean (in Italy so much demagogy has already been spent on this question that any Italian reader will immediately notice my polemics...)? Or also, does not a surgeon manipulate very dangerous instruments? But he saves lives, doesn't he?
If I was to calculate with an acceptable precision (nowadays we can't afford "wasting" material) an entire hydraulic turbine BY HAND, not only would it take me three years or so, but most probably I'd have to have the same calculations of mine checked by three or four other persons in order to be sure there aren't mistakes.
Anyway, I'm a bit diverging from the original discussion. Of course an engineer must know when he needs FEA to accomplish his task, and when he'd better use analyticals etc. Stated that anyway ALL THESE are simplified representations of the reality, NOT the reality itself. I personally prefer finding out analytical laws rather than employing FE for everything, but that's only my opinion. And I'm writing here only because I've learnt A LOT from other people and also because I made my "useful mistakes" as you could call them... A design error can be very embarrassing, of course, but it surely tells a lesson that it is hard to forget afterwards...
Best regards to all
RE: Stress Engineer !!
I had a physics professor who did FEA EM field modeling once tell me that to be successful as an FEA person you need to know how to write your own codes or modify existing codes. I believe thats true.
Matlsguy
RE: Stress Engineer !!
Cheers
Greg Locock
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Stress Engineer !!
- either companies will use two persons for a single task
- either they will use the blind executor instead of the engineer (cheaper...
This, however, is valid in any field, not only FEA and not only engineering.
Regards
RE: Stress Engineer !!
Cheers
Greg Locock
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
RE: Stress Engineer !!
-design the product in Soliworks or Unigraphics (for example)
-import the model and do an analysis with Ansys or Abaqus (for example)
-conduct an experiment to verify his assumptions and validate the model (where is needed)
-submit the model to technical engineers to create the technical drawings
-do a "six signma analysis" based on new assumptions
-receive aknowlegments (a rare case) :)
RE: Stress Engineer !!
For whatever reason, some years ago the company placed me in charge of the structural department. And when I find an engineer, young or old, who can't draw a FBD or at the very least predict the results of his computer analysis by way of magnitude and direction, I usher them to the Marketing Department.
If they find their way back, I may have them try one more time; those that don't make it back aren't missed and I hire a real engineer with the prerequisites I like.
Regards,

Qshake
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RE: Stress Engineer !!