PEC EPE Part-I flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Paramountcy of public welfare

The principle that public safety, health and welfare take precedence over obligations to clients, employers or personal gain when the two conflict in professional decisions.

Conflict of interest disclosure

A written declaration of any financial or personal interest that could bias professional judgement, made to the client or employer before the affected work proceeds.

Standard of care

The degree of care and skill a reasonably competent professional would exercise in the same circumstances at the time the service was performed.

Four elements of negligence

A successful negligence claim requires a duty of care, a breach of that duty, causation of loss, and actual damage; all four must be proven.

Competence limitation duty

A professional must decline or refer work outside their demonstrated competence rather than accept it, unless supervised or trained to reach the required standard.

Whistleblowing escalation

Reporting serious harm through internal channels first, then to the regulator or authority, when the risk is grave, imminent and internal remedies have failed.

Sealing and signing responsibility

Applying a signature or professional seal certifies personal review and responsibility for the document's content, which cannot be transferred to an employer.

Confidentiality exceptions

Client information may be disclosed when required by law, court order or statute, or when necessary to prevent serious harm to life, health or environment.

Factor of safety

The ratio of material strength or resisting capacity to the applied working stress or load; the allowable stress equals strength divided by this factor.

Beam bending stress

The flexural stress at a section is σ = Mc/I, where M is bending moment, c is distance from the neutral axis, and I is second moment of area.

Bernoulli equation

For steady, incompressible, frictionless flow along a streamline, p/γ + V²/2g + z remains constant, expressing conservation of energy per unit weight.

Darcy-Weisbach head loss

Pipe friction head loss h_f = f(L/D)(V²/2g), where f is the friction factor, L pipe length, D diameter and V mean velocity.

Three-phase power

Real power in a balanced three-phase circuit equals √3 times line voltage times line current times power factor; apparent power omits the power factor term.

Carnot efficiency

The maximum thermal efficiency of any heat engine between two reservoirs is 1 − T_cold/T_hot, with both temperatures expressed in kelvin.

Galvanic corrosion

Corrosion of the more active (anodic) metal when two dissimilar metals are joined in an electrolyte; small anode area relative to cathode accelerates attack.

Closed-loop transfer function

For forward path G and feedback path H, the closed-loop response is G/(1 + GH); the roots of 1 + GH = 0 determine stability.

Section modulus

The ratio S = I/c of second moment of area to extreme fibre distance, used to compute maximum bending stress directly as σ = M/S.

Liquefaction susceptibility

Loose, saturated, uniformly graded sands are most prone to losing shear strength during earthquake shaking, causing settlement and lateral spreading.

Incorporation by reference

A standard becomes legally enforceable when a statute, regulation, contract or permit cites it, even though the standard itself was written as voluntary consensus.

Governing code edition

The edition of a standard cited in the permit, regulation or contract at the time of design governs, not necessarily the most recently published edition.

Shall versus should

In standards, 'shall' states a mandatory requirement, 'should' a recommendation, and 'may' a permission; specifications must preserve this distinction.

Authority having jurisdiction

The organisation or official responsible for approving equipment, installations or procedures and for enforcing the applicable code requirements.

Load and resistance factors

Paired multipliers applied to loads and to resistances in limit-state design; they are calibrated together and must not be mixed between code families.

Hold and witness points

Agreed stages in an inspection and test plan where work must pause for authority review, or where the authority must be notified before work continues.

Non-contractual statutory duties

Health, safety and environmental obligations imposed by law remain with the duty holder regardless of how a contract allocates risk or indemnities.

Inspection and test plan

A controlled document listing inspection activities, acceptance criteria, responsible parties, and hold or witness points for a construction or manufacturing scope.

Executive summary content

A one-page standalone statement of the problem, method, key quantitative findings and recommendation, readable without reference to the main report body.

Measurement uncertainty statement

A report must state the uncertainty of measured values and its confidence level, and must distinguish measured, calculated and assumed data clearly.

Reproducible calculation record

A calculation shows inputs, governing equation, substitution and result with units, plus software name, version and validation status where software was used.

Citation and attribution

Every borrowed figure, table, equation, standard clause or data set must be referenced, and verbatim text must be quoted and attributed to avoid plagiarism.

Document control fields

Issued documents carry version number, author, checker, approver, date and revision history, and superseded issues are formally withdrawn from use.

Traceable recommendations

Each recommendation must be supported by evidence in the report and must state limitations, residual risk and any required follow-up action.