This is in the intersection of pressure vessels and tanks, but I suspect this is a better place to discuss.
I've got a client asking if they can bury large scale 50,000+ gal LPG Tanks as a fire/explosion mitigation measure and to justify smaller setbacks. I don't like buried tanks generally...
What the heck is the failure mechanism of a soil or granular material when the passive plane is interrupted. If I've got granular material that's say 4 feet deep and it's going to see lateral load from the left, but there's a concrete wall 3 feet away to the right, how does that work? It can't...
Hey All,
Anyone have literature on how to convert ASCE wind and seismic inputs to approximate Eurocode equivalents? I'm trying to help a client that's having products engineered and manufactured in Europe for use in North America. The supplier has a set design methodology that is fit for...
I'm looking at a situation where someone is cutting back a beam upper flange. New plates are being welded perpendicular to the web a few inches down to replace the flange and then the upper flange is being removed for a distance. The math all makes sense when you're looking at the final in...
Has anyone got a good reference on the design of at grade pipelines. I'm thinking about the rough systems that are typically used in mines for things like tailings and process water. I've seen a lot of different practices over the years that vary from basically completely unrestrained to giant...
Hi all,
Does anyone have good references regarding vibration design of rotating equipment skids? I have done a fair number of them, but it's generally from first principles, and I also generally have the option to lay things out in a way that makes things easy (i.e. I can keep equipment low...
Does anyone know of a good small firm or sole practitioner engineer that does thermoplastic and FRP tanks within the North American context? I've got a client who's doing work in them and I'm hoping to point them towards some options. I know all sorts of steel tank people, but I've seen people...
Hey all,
We've had some similar conversations before, but I'm taking a look at some standard process skids and similar items and want to see other people's opinions. What would you do for standardized loadings? As a starting point let's assume we're talking about the US.
My instinct is that...
I have a client bringing skidded equipment into Canada from Europe. I'm doing a quick evaluation of the vendor's design methodology to make sure it generally complies with local requirements. They're using Canadian design codes and EN rated steels. I'm not overly concerned, because they're...
Hey all, got a weird one. I'm going to go poke around in the field and dig some holes, but I've been asked for some opinions on a steel building from probably the 50s. It's a single storey portal frame building. They've done an underground scan and it doesn't look like there's an obvious...
Hi all,
I'm looking at some work from a local company that does fabric roofed buildings/shelters. I am hesitant in general, but they also seem to treat wind and snow reasonably, which is always the big concern with these types of buildings. I also know they've used reputable engineers in the...
Hi all,
I'm evaluating a bunch of software at the moment, and since SAP 2000 is one of the few pieces of analysis software where you still get an actual perpetual license, and it takes the Canadian codes seriously, it has a step up on most other things.
That being said, I'm struggling on...
Hey all,
I have an undocumented raised floor system that a client wants to put new equipment on. The style used in data centers, etc. I've done this before and I basically have to measure all the sections, treat them as cold formed steel sections and then validate the capacity.
I then...
This is a topic every year or two, but it seems worth asking again because there's some moving targets on the cloud side of things.
I have never had more than one or two clients in a year and haven't really thought about invoicing or accounting too much as a result. I'm ramping that up...
Has anyone run across spreadsheets of the wind/snow/rain etc values in the Canadian Building codes as tabulated data? I have never been able to track it down. Obviously it must have been a step in the creation of the document, but I can't find anything shared other than the base data used for...
I'm taking a look at SkyCiv. It's interesting, because being able to do work on my laptop in locations where I don't have a great computer seems like a plus. Also, being able to license it for a month now and then might be a good thing. However, I jumped into the free trial and I'm not...
Hi all,
I'm sure I'm not the only one in the industrial space who gets pretty regular questions in the form of "Can I do xxx with a shipping container". My answer is often "probably, but it's not really the best solution."
Sometimes, though, it's just mounting small things to a container...
I have a fun situation. We are looking at the foundation design for a very large moment frame supported fabric shelter (no sidewalls) on a site adjacent to the water with poor ground conditions. The geotech folks are going to mitigate some of the liquifaction issues, but it's still not a...
Hey all,
I was just having a think about vertical double wall storage tanks with anchor chairs for overturning based on seismic loading. I don't know if I've seen this detailed before. Has anyone hit this situation? Presumably the chairs have to get welded to both the primary and secondary...
I just got a question about a severely gouged aluminum square tube member that's part of a telescoping boom. There's a reasonably big area that's been gouged out at the corner of the tube in one location. There's no measurements at the moment, but it looks significant enough to me that it'll...
