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Beauregard Gustafson

You may say, Who is Beauregard Gustafson? I have never heard of anybody by that name. You are right, you may have never heard of him by his full formal name but you know him by his pseudonym (alias or nom de plume).

Beauregard Gustafson is better known as Beau-Guss (pronounced ˜bo-gus" (1)). He is famous for his often wild and inaccurate statements and ideas often considered not genuine; counterfeit; spurious; or a sham.

Beau-Gus is quite a versatile individual. He seems to get around to almost every profession, industry, trade and craft. He appears to be the classic 'Jack of all Trades, master of none'. As he moves from one environment to another he leaves a trail of false hoods and ideas that can get people in trouble.

You can not always recognize a Beau-Guss statement or solution from the real thing because they all seem to sound logical. They also seem to be new and different from the current tried and true method which has a long standing success record.

The best defense against these new sounding Beau-Guss ideas is to do some research and find out if the new idea has undergone any actual field testing.

• Who did the tests?
• How many tests were done?
• What were the variable of the tests?
• Did the actual testing cover the evaluation of all the different variables?

Beau-Guss has made his way to the Piping field on a number of occasions and has left his questionable foot prints. The results of these visits (and the invalid ideas) often leave people in a state of outright confusion which results in wasted time, effort and revisions to designs because of the miss-direction.

The list of Beau-Gus Piping Ideas includes the following (along with my judgment of them):

1. Two Fittings (2 elbows, an elbow and a Tee, an elbow and a Weld neck flange, etc) cannot be welded directly together, they must have a Pup Piece between them. (False)
2. Pump Suction and Discharge lines (implied every pump suction & discharge line) should be fitted with a Flexible Connectors to reduce Forces on the Nozzles. (False)
3. Pump Suction lines (implied every pump suction line) needs to have 10 pipe diameters of straight run between the reducer and the nozzle flange (5 diameters was later accepted as an alternative). (False)
4. Pump Discharge lines (implied every pump discharge line) needs to have a minimum of 10 pipe diameters of straight run from the nozzle flange to the reducer or first elbow. (False)
5. Pump Discharge lines (implied every pump discharge line) shall be fitted with two Check Valves (CkV). These CkV shall be different types and shall have a minimum of 10 pipe diameters straight run upstream of the first CkV, 10 pipe Diameters straight run upstream of the second CkV and 5 pipe diameters straight run down stream of the second CkV. (False)
6. Strainers in pump suction lines and Steam Turbines supply lines should have a minimum of 10 diameters straight run upstream and down stream. (False)
7. Pipe Racks (ISBL and OSBL) shall be sloped (graduated elevations) so Steam lines and Flare Lines will drain in the direction of flow. (False)

I am sure there are others examples of Beau-Guss thinking out there. If you know of any others please feel free to add them to the list.

(1) Word Origin: from bogus apparatus for making counterfeit money

About the Author

{cb:James O. Pennock has more than forty-five years in the process plant design profession. He has been involved in both home office and job site assignments on refinery, chemical, petrochemical, power and other projects. His experience ranges from entry level designer to engineering manager. Much of this was with Fluor. He is also the author of the book "Piping Engineering Leadership for Process Plant Projects." He is now retired, living in Florida, USA and does only occasional consulting work. Mr. Pennock can be contacted via E-Mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..}