Reduced project cost significantly while delivering a high-quality structure via off-site fabrication

About the customer

Beck Engineering Ltd. has been a leading provider of civil and structural engineering design services to the heavy industry, oil, gas and construction sectors for 50 years. As an early innovator, the company has been at the forefront of modular design and construction to help customers reduce costs for large-scale projects.

Their challenge

Beck Engineering was tasked with designing a 32-meter-tall steel access tower for maintenance and operational access around a reactor process vessel. The installation site posed challenges due to its remote location and the high on-site construction and erection costs. To address these challenges, Beck Engineering adopted a modular design approach to allow for off-site fabrication. Once the fabricated modules were transported to the site, the remaining structure could be stick built and erected using bolted connections, eliminating the need for costly welding in remote locations. Additionally, modular construction enabled superior precision in fabrication and a faster on-site erection process. This strategy required the modular stair tower to be designed to withstand lifting, transportation and in-service loading conditions.

Assembling steel modules at the installation site.

Our solution

Due to the off-site fabrication of the two modular components, various approaches were necessary for the design. Typically, transportation loads do not govern the design of a structure. However, the Beck Engineering team had to consider possible rapid decelerations (longitudinal forces), high-speed turns (transverse loads) and potential impact loads during transport. The bracing, which ensured the modular component’s required stiffness for climatic, seismic and operating loads, also had to prevent twisting and plastic deformation during lifting and transportation.

Both upper and lower modules were assessed using Simcenter™ S-Frame™ software and Simcenter S-Frame Steel software for multiple linear and nonlinear analysis and design studies. Leveraging Simcenter S-Frame efficiently managed numerous models and using Simcenter S-Frame Steel provided quick visual feedback for the steel member design in an integrated, iterative workflow. Quick access to results facilitated prompt identification and examination of support reactions, forces and structural behavior for further analysis.

Simcenter S-Frame and Simcenter S-Frame Steel provide fast analysis and design results within a powerful model management environment.

Results

Construction is generally a project’s largest expense. By shifting it off-site, fabricating modules in a shop and transporting the assembled pieces to the site, project costs were significantly reduced while delivering a higher-quality structure. Leveraging Simcenter S-Frame and Simcenter S-Frame Steel offered simulation tools for the analyses required to design for operation, erection and transport loading conditions. Their integrated workflows allowed Beck Engineering to efficiently manage and interpret steel design results for individual and combined models. By using Simcenter S-Frame and Simcenter S-Frame Steel, Beck Engineering confidently modeled, analyzed and designed the modules,
ensuring stability, strength and serviceability throughout the structure’s life.

“Beck Engineering has relied on Simcenter S-Frame for over twenty years because it has so many capabilities, is user-friendly and has efficient workflows that help us interpret analysis and steel design results,” says Justin Nally, lead structural engineer at Beck Engineering Ltd.