Source & Citation Policy — Where the Numbers Come From

Content last reviewed 2026-09-11 · page regenerated 2026-10-12 at build.

Engineering software earns trust by being explicit about what it computes from where. Piping Toolset enforces that with an architectural rule, not a style guide: equations live in code; copyrighted table values never do — with one narrow exception, enumerated in full in §3.

1. Citation policy

• Every calculator cites its governing method by standard and paragraph/equation number (e.g. ASME B31.3 ¶304.1.2 Eq. (3a)) — on the calculator card, on its landing page here, and in generated reports.
• Code equations and public-domain engineering methods (Kellogg guided cantilever, Euler buckling, WRC closed forms) are implemented in open code you can verify against the cited source.
• Code table values — allowable stresses, quality factors, Y/y coefficients, gasket factors — are either inputs you supply from your governing edition, or (on paid tiers) autofilled from the embedded datasets enumerated in §3, always with the standard, edition, table and line cited on the card and in the report. Pages on this site never reproduce them.

2. The data firewall

Reference data flows through a dedicated data service where every dataset carries a mode flag with a strict progression:

user_supplied  →  derived  →  licensed_embedded

• user_supplied — the default. You key in the value from your own copy of the standard.
• derived — computed or restructured from freely published data, with attribution (e.g. pipe-support catalog selection data, used with "confirm with the manufacturer at order time" disclaimers).
• licensed_embedded — shipped inside the app, verified and validated. Datasets served through the data service are gated by an explicit source allowlist in code, which refuses to serve a licensed_embedded dataset whose source is not on it. Reference tables compiled directly into a calculation module are held to the same policy and are enumerated individually in §3 — that list is the complete inventory of embedded standard data, not a sample.

3. Embedded standard data, in full:

Everything outside that table stays user-entered, and the free tier always retains full hand-keyed input — embedded data adds autofill with citations, it never removes a capability. The B31.1/B31.3 allowable-stress autofill ships a first slice of the most-specified material lines (every autofilled value cites its table and line number, and interpolation never extrapolates past a line's tabulated range); material lines outside the slice, and the BPVC Section II-D tables behind the vessel calculators, remain values you supply from your governing edition until the next program phase embeds them.

4. Validation sources

• Hand derivations — recorded case-by-case in the fixture files (see validation methodology).
• PVP Suite validation set — 112 checks from a legacy validated toolset; driving inputs reverse-derived and locked as fixtures for seventeen calculators.
• Published worked examples — e.g. the expansion-loop coefficient rule (6.225·√(ΔL·D)), reproduced by the general form within 0.03% and locked as fixtures.
• Purchased codes and standards — embedded standard data cross checked to source documentation.

5. No runtime AI — and what telemetry exists

There is no LLM, no retrieval system, and no AI-generated number anywhere in the calculation path. Every result is a deterministic function of your inputs, and the same inputs produce the same outputs, forever — that is what makes a calculation report auditable.

Site pages carry Google Analytics for anonymous usage measurement (page views and which calculators are opened). All advertising signals are disabled, analytics consent is denied by default in the EEA/UK, and calculator inputs are never transmitted — every free calculator runs entirely in your browser. The paid features that need a server (PiperFEA solves, cloud-saved designs) send only what you submit and say so where you use them.

6. The standards themselves

Every number on this site traces to a published standard you can obtain from its issuing body. The editions your project invokes govern; these are the official listings (each link verified live 2026-08-11):

• ASME B31.1 — Power Piping
• ASME B31.3 — Process Piping
• ASME B31.4 — Pipeline Transportation Systems for Liquids and Slurries
• ASME B31.8 — Gas Transmission and Distribution Piping Systems
• ASME B16.5 — Pipe Flanges and Flanged Fittings
• ASME BPVC Section VIII, Division 1
• ASME BPE — Bioprocessing Equipment
• API Standards — API 610 (Tables 5a/5b nozzle loads embedded per §3; other allowables user-supplied), RP 14E, 580/581
• AISC Steel Standards — AISC 360
• DNV-RP-F101 — Corroded Pipelines
• EJMA — Expansion Joint Manufacturers Association

7. Corrections

Found a citation error or a number you cannot reproduce? Report it — a confirmed discrepancy becomes a fixture case first and a fix second, and both land in the calculation changelog.