DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT FOUNDATIONS

Abstract

In Industrial Sector like Oil & Gas, Refinery & Power plants different types of Equipment’s play a major role for process requirement. Majority of Equipment’s are categorized into Horizontal Vessels, vertical vessels, Exchangers, large storage tanks, pumps, turbo generators etc. These are further classified into Static Equipment’s and Dynamic Equipment’s based on rotations and vibrations. The Sizing of the Equipment’s shall be designed based on process requirement, location and Elevation shall be decided by Piping discipline and Equipment details will be decided by Mechanical Discipline. Equipment Foundations design is major challenge for Structural Engineers to withstand process loads and Environments loads for different load combinations in terms of safety and economy. In order to carryout Foundation design for different loads and load combinations for optimum design several research carried out by using Finite Element Analysis with different software like SAP, ANSYS, STAAD Pro etc. Stack like structures are chimneys, Vertical Vessels which are having Height to Diameter ratio (H/D) is more than 20 are self-standing Equipment’s and the Foundations are independent Foundations. Most of the Vertical Equipment’s foundations are Octagonal in shape for Constructability point of view and economy point of view. In the present project, Equipment Foundations coming in Industrial Sector are studied and a Chimney Foundation has been analysed by using STAAD.pro software and Designed by using Internationals codes as per American code of institute and Saudi Arabian Best Practise(SABP-Q-003) Foundation is modelled as 4-noded rectangular mesh in 3D model and Stresses arrived from Analysis by using STAAD Pro are compared with Allowable stress based on codal provisions and Reinforcement is designed accordingly.