Foundation Drawing Standards
Foundation Drawing Standards
(OP)
I'm looking for information on creating Foundation Drawings for large machinery.
This is a drawing that would be given to a Civil Engineer to design the floor that the equipment will be placed on. I'm the machine designer and need a way to comunicate with a Civil so they can design the floor requirements.
I have seen a number of different ways to do this but I would like to find out if there is an acceptable, standard way to create these drawings.
This is a drawing that would be given to a Civil Engineer to design the floor that the equipment will be placed on. I'm the machine designer and need a way to comunicate with a Civil so they can design the floor requirements.
I have seen a number of different ways to do this but I would like to find out if there is an acceptable, standard way to create these drawings.





RE: Foundation Drawing Standards
I've seen six (6) inches of cement, but thought this may be pushing it a bit. My shop uses the previous with a bit of silicon in the aggregate to reduce the probablility of future cracking. So far, so good but there is never any guarantee against cracking since the foundation continues to settle beyond the 30 day cement cure requirement.
Hope this points you the right way.
Kenneth J Hueston, PEng
Principal
Sturni-Hueston Engineering Inc
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
RE: Foundation Drawing Standards
The machine builder should have a lot to offer.
RE: Foundation Drawing Standards
RE: Foundation Drawing Standards
- Location and size of bolt holes
- Location and size of bearing areas
(well dimensioned cut-sheets usually take care of the above, but it is alarming how many cut-sheets don't have this basic information spelled out.)
- Vertical, lateral and overturning loads due to wind, earthquake, and dead and live load, preferably in a tabular form. These loads are to be calculated at to the machine/concrete interface.
- For vibrations, you must provide information on what's causing the vibration and preferably an idea of the forcing function. Where is the center of mass? Is it a rotating mass? Reciprocating compressor or engine? What is the mass of the rotating portion? Where is the CG of the rotating portion? What are the frequencies to be used? How fast does the machine start up/shut down? If it passes through an excitation frequency quickly on its way up or down, it may be acceptable. Ideally, if it's a large machine, you should confer with an experienced machinery foundation guy as the machine/soil interaction can make or break the design.
Also, please note that if you cannot give, or don't know how to give the wind and earthquake loads, a good structural can calculate these if given the general shape and projected areas as well as the center of mass.
I've done some of these foundations and done troubleshooting for some that were causing problems. This is one case where getting it right the first time is very important.
And I couldn't resist picking on Cockroach a little: I wouldn't put my machines on cement. That fine powder won't approach a 28MPa strength. Now, if you mix it with the appropriate amounts of water and aggregate, it becomes concrete and it's a different ball game...
RE: Foundation Drawing Standards
BigInch
-born in the trenches.
http://virtualpipeline.spaces.msn.com
RE: Foundation Drawing Standards
SP-78: Foundations for Equipment and Machinery
http:/
There are several papers included in SP-78 on different topics. Some papers resort to rules of thumb like "foundation should weigh 3X (or 4X or 5X or 10X) the machine weight." Other papers show how and why the footprint dimensions and CG height are far more important.
RE: Foundation Drawing Standards
On all our large machines we isolated the foundation of each machine even though the shop floor was 12" thick. The weight multiple of the block was always 10x or better.
In one of our compressor buildings we had 5 IR 5CVE Steam Driven Hyper Compressors with each having an isolated base with a weight multiple of 20x.
RE: Foundation Drawing Standards
BigInch
-born in the trenches.
http://virtualpipeline.spaces.msn.com