Phil, if I may be so bold, not everyone is capable of retaining every single formula in his head. Because of that it is vital to maintain close at hand, texts which cover a wide range of frequently used methodologies. What is wrong with Nui presenting graphs, formulas, etc. from company design manuals if he has been given permission. It makes life easier when you have more data at hand in less resources.
One other thing, not all senior engineers are created equal. In my 24 years as direct, industry assist and/or contract at 8 different companies, I've worked with brilliant engineers and your basic dead wood (I'm in between the 2 extremes, like most senior engineers). The brilliant ones have everything stored in their heads, but are usually incapable of mentoring, because they don't have the patience to deal with someone of lesser brilliance. Obviously, the dead wood should be avoided. And those of us in the middle ground will usually resort to pulling out Bruhn, Roark, Nui, ESDU or one those binders filled with yellowed and worn photo-copied pages from company stress manuals, published papers, previous analyses, etc. and presenting whatever method might fit the situation best to some poor naive newbie, who's just arrived in industry believing that engineering is an exact science.
Good stress engineers are those who work challenging, real world problems under the mentorship of a senior engineer. Therefore, if you're stuck doing stress on real world, but unchallenging problems on your own, you are a lousy engineer. Gee I wish someone had told me that 24 years ago. I might actually be doing something more lucrative and satisfying now.
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