Equipment Foundations
Heavy plant equipment represents a significant capital investment for facility owners. Over the life of a facility, the supporting foundation structures can degrade for a variety of reasons. Equipment foundations constructed in the 50s, 60s and 70s were designed largely based on a rule-of-thumb approach that called for a massive concrete foundation approximately four to five times the mass of the supported machine. This design approach ignores the effect of other variables that influence the foundation structural response and can result in a foundation design incompatible with the machine forces, producing higher than acceptable responses leading to structural cracking. Equipment forces exerted on the foundation may change over time due to bearings wearing out, unbalanced rotors/impellers, or equipment anchors/guides binding up which may result in excessive vibration, equipment anchorage failure, and foundation structural cracking.
When upgrading facility equipment, owners may choose to re-use existing equipment foundations. Although this option may be appealing for cost and schedule considerations, incompatibilities between the new equipment and the existing foundation can result in unacceptable vibration, structural cracking, or even structural failure.
Heavy equipment foundations are one of our specialties! engNoveX can help facility owners make decisions that are based on both sound structural design and cost efficiency. engNoveX team members have designed new foundations—and designed repairs and modifications to existing foundations—for all types of heavy equipment, including gas turbine generators, steam turbine generators, turbine-driven boiler feed pumps, compressors, pumps, fans, crushers, ball mills, heat exchangers, and spherical vessels.
What We Do
Our work—from assessments to plans, consultations, and onsite support—put the facility owner on the path to restoring the foundation and equipment to their intended performance.
For equipment foundation repairs, we typically conduct an onsite condition assessment of the equipment foundation. With data on hand, we evaluate various repair options and a design solution. Our work will address equipment manufacturer design criteria (when available) and industry standards taking into account all design conditions.
For equipment upgrades, we evaluate the existing foundation relative to the new equipment loads and, if required, design foundation modifications to ensure a proper equipment–foundation interface and structural performance. We also consider construction aids that can improve equipment installation and equipment commissioning time.
After designing our solution, engNoveX delivers engineering drawings, specifications, and/or reports. All our designs are backed by formal engineering calculations.
Our team also works with the owner’s constructor prior to site work to ensure the repair solution is clear and provides onsite to support during implementation.
Capitalizing on our experience and technical depth to deliver innovative and construction-friendly solutions.
www.engNoveX.com
Phone: (240)397-7575 x702 | Email: info@engnovex.com