NCEES PE Agricultural and Biological Engineering · USA · NCEES (ASABE is the content partner)
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersNCEES PE Agricultural and Biological Engineering is a licensing and registration exam run by NCEES (ASABE is the content partner), for candidates in USA. Computer-based, 85 questions, 9.5-hour appointment (8.5 hours of exam). Once a year (next: 28 Oct 2026). Closed book with the electronic NCEES handbook and supplied searchable ASABE standards; SI and US customary units.
Source: ncees.org.
Checked against the exam body's published information. Formats and fees change; confirm the current edition there before you book.
Health and safety as engineering practice: noise dose and time-weighted average under OSHA rules, hierarchy of controls, machine guarding, ROPS, confined spaces and toxic gases, heat stress indices and risk assessment.
Designing machines around the people who use them, and measuring the noise, vibration and work load they face.
Our 20 NCEES PE Agricultural and Biological Engineering questions in this subject: 5 easy, 11 medium, 4 hard, across 6 units.
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
These 10 were written to NCEES PE Agricultural and Biological Engineering and are not shown on any other exam's page.
A worker lifts 15 kg sacks from a platform with H = 40 cm, V = 30 cm, D = 60 cm and asymmetry 30°. FM = 0.94 and CM = 0.95. Using the revised NIOSH lifting equation (LC = 23 kg), the lifting index is about
D. 1.67
HM = 25/40 = 0.625; VM = 1 − 0.003|30 − 75| = 0.865; DM = 0.82 + 4.5/60 = 0.895; AM = 1 − 0.0032 × 30 = 0.904. RWL = 23 × 0.625 × 0.865 × 0.895 × 0.904 × 0.94 × 0.95 = 8.98 kg. LI = 15/8.98 = 1.67 (>1, increased risk). Ignoring FM and CM gives 1.49; using only HM gives 1.04; inverting gives 0.60.
Using 90 dB(A), 8 h and a 5 dB exchange rate, a worker is exposed to 92 dB(A) for 4 h, 97 dB(A) for 1 h and 90 dB(A) for 2 h. The daily noise dose is about
C. 124%
T(92) = 8/2^0.4 = 6.06 h; T(97) = 3.03 h; T(90) = 8 h. D = 4/6.06 + 1/3.03 + 2/8 = 1.240 → 124%, above 100%. Dividing total hours by 8 gives 88%; leaving out the 2 h at 90 dB(A), which still counts, gives 99%; using a 3 dB exchange gives 167%.
A worker's measured daily noise dose under the OSHA scheme is 124%. The equivalent 8-hour time-weighted average is about
B. 91.5 dB(A)
TWA = 16.61 log(D/100) + 90 = 16.61 log(1.240) + 90 = 91.55 dB(A). Multiplying 90 by the dose is meaningless; 10 log is the 3 dB (equal-energy) relation; forgetting to divide by 100 gives 34.8. 10 log(1.24) + 90 = 90.9 dB(A), and 90 × 1.24 = 111.6 dB(A).
NIOSH recommends an 8-hour exposure limit of 85 dB(A) with an exchange rate of
D. 3 dB
NIOSH uses the 3 dB equal-energy exchange rate. OSHA's regulatory scheme uses 5 dB. 6 dB is the change for doubling sound pressure, and 10 dB is a tenfold change in intensity.
Outdoors in sunshine, the natural wet bulb temperature is 27 °C, the globe temperature 45 °C and the dry bulb temperature 34 °C. The WBGT is
D. 31.3 °C
Outdoor WBGT = 0.7 Tnwb + 0.2 Tg + 0.1 Tdb = 18.9 + 9.0 + 3.4 = 31.3 °C. The indoor formula gives 32.4; swapping the wet and dry bulb weights gives 35.5; a simple average gives 35.3.
Inside a rice mill with no solar load, the natural wet bulb temperature is 26 °C and the globe temperature 32 °C. The WBGT is
C. 27.8 °C
Indoor WBGT = 0.7 × 26 + 0.3 × 32 = 18.2 + 9.6 = 27.8 °C. Dropping the dry-bulb term of the outdoor formula gives 24.6; swapping weights gives 30.2; 29.0 is the average.
A farm operation records 9 recordable injuries in 300,000 hours worked. Its OSHA incidence rate (per 200,000 hours) is
C. 6.0
Rate = 9 × 200,000 / 300,000 = 6.0. 30 uses the million-hour base; 13.5 inverts the hours; 0.6 is a decimal slip.
Workers entering a manure storage pit may be killed rapidly by
A. hydrogen sulphide and oxygen deficiency
Agitation of stored manure releases hydrogen sulphide, and the confined space may lack oxygen; would-be rescuers are often also killed. Confined-space entry procedures are needed.
On a machinery safety sign, the signal word used for a hazard that will cause death or serious injury if not avoided is
A. DANGER
DANGER is reserved for hazards that will cause death or serious injury; WARNING for could; CAUTION for minor or moderate injury; NOTICE for property-related messages.
The slow-moving vehicle emblem displayed on farm machines travelling on public roads is
C. an orange triangle with red reflective borders
The fluorescent orange triangle with red retroreflective border warns road users that the vehicle travels slowly.
This plan follows where our questions actually fall, so the time goes where the marks are likely to be. It is our reading of the syllabus, not the exam body's weighting.
Read the manual chapters for these first and do every worked question you can find on them.
Aim for one sitting per unit, then mixed questions across them.
Learn the definitions, classifications and standard numbers; these units are more often recalled than worked.
Come back to these after a first pass, untimed, and read every explanation, including for the options you rejected.
Do these early in revision so they are fast on the day.
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