SAWE Mass Properties Engineer’s Handbook Update

Over the past couple of years, the Southeast Region Chapter has been working to reformat the Handbook with the primary goal of improving the legibility of all text and figures. This post will give everyone an idea of our approach and current status as well as a look to the future.

Goals for this revision:

  • Use a consistent set of fonts and layout based on the SAWE Standards and Practices format.
  • Provide clarity to variables in equations.
  • Improve scanned images where possible.
  • Address some limited updates to the data (e.g. aircraft fuels, oils, etc.).
  • Reorganize some sections for better flow of information (e.g. Mass Properties Measurements section).
  • Add reference numbers for formulae, figures, and tables where possible.
Sample of the New Mass Properties Engineer’s Handbook

Current Status:

  • 15 of 20 sections delivered to the Technical Committee, and 2 sections in final edit.
  • 73% of approximately 400 draft pages completed with 54% delivered to the Technical Committee.
  • The Marine and Mathematics sections have been saved till last, and we are looking for help.

I would like to thank my team for all of the hard work and time they have volunteered to this effort. We hope to finish this revision in the very near future.

Future Vision:
Once we get this version complete I would like to propose that we revamp the Handbook to be more of a quick reference by moving most of the verbose text to newly created textbooks. We would keep general, cross-industry properties and equations in the front of the book, followed by sections for each industry (i.e. Commercial Aircraft, Ground Vehicles, Marine, Military Aircraft, Missile and Space, and Offshore). For instance the Commercial Aircraft section might include:

  • Definitions of Weight terms.
  • List of FAA and other countries guidelines on mass properties.
  • Standard weights for payload/passengers (by country/airline?).
  • Rules of thumb for departure weights.
  • Typical inventory items to account for during aircraft weighing (shortages/surpluses).
  • Tip-back prevention methods.
  • Engine weights for common engine types.
  • ?

Feel free to comment on this idea, and provide suggestions of quick reference items that would be useful in each of the industry sections. This blog forum is a great way of gathering and discussing any ideas that are out there on this topic, so please let me know what you think.

Thanks!

Author: Damian Yanez

SAWE Fellow, Certified Expert Mass Properties Engineer, Former SAWE International President

One thought on “SAWE Mass Properties Engineer’s Handbook Update”

  1. Can not wait for the finished article. Find the handbook a useful source of information, but not easy to use.

    In the revamp, might be worth looking to include properties specific for electric powered vehicles, eg batteries, considerations.
    There are more and more in development with very little reference material.

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