Mining Structures reference

[atrizzy]

Does anyone know of a good resource/book for brushing up on the design of mining/heavy industrial structures, common issues and considerations, etc?
My partner has an 'in' with a significant amount of potential work and I'd like to ensure there's nothing I'm missing before agreeing to take it on.

So far example projects I've seen look a little... let's say... robust... from the structural/foundation side. Could be the case since the structure portion is likely a small percentage of the budget for industrial projects when compared with commercial or residential work.

My background is primarily in architectural building design and some utility/lines/stations/generation work as well.

Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[Shu Jiang PEng SE]

I am a licensed P.Eng and P.E. working in Mining industry for ten years. I recommend you "South Africa National Standard - Design of Structures for Mining Industry".

 

[OHIOMatt]

In this world, the maximum loads that you see are real and happen frequently, like daily or multiple times a day/hour, unlike like snow load or floor live load that happen, be definition, infrequently. You also have to consider dynamic loadings as well as incidental collisions from trucks and falling objects. MSHA has some good information regarding the inspection of existing facilities.

 

[dhengr]

Atrizzy:
There will always be plenty that you are missing, until you’ve been doing that kinda design for 20yrs., then ‘plenty’ changes to ‘a bunch.’ Look at textbooks and handbooks on heavy construction, civil engineering, civil construction and structural engineering. They will at least give you some direction and some list of ref. works, at the end of each chapter. Then good sound engineering judgement and experience, keeping your eyes open every time you see that kind of equipment and structures, for whatever you can glean from the looking and questioning. Those clients won’t generally nickle and dime you to death about your structures and their costs, within reason, of course. Their structures are robust, they collect dust and bird dung, and aren’t painted every other year, if ever again. They have plenty to worry about, plenty of equip. problems, etc, without worrying about their equip. support structures too. Unlike working with Archs. and GC’s you are not always asked to skinny it down to save a nickle. They want it to be trouble free and last a long time, out in the elements.

 

[miningman]

The OP seems to be based on the west coast of Canada which still has a number of large operating mines. I have 40 years experience in this and based on the statement " projects I have seen , seem a lttle robust" my advice is to be VERY carefull entering this field without some input from experienced mining personnel. I am not familiar with the South African reference , but even if it is a really usefull reference , I think we can assume it makes no reference to snow, ice, or permafrost. The clients will not thank you for a design that does not take into consideration the extreme physical abuse that operators impose daily on their machinery. Even experienced engineers often fail to appreciate how severe this can be. And if any of these structures are underground , you can add at least another 50% to your anticipated design parameters.... not to mention the consequences of over confident blasting personnel.

 

[ajh1]

My son works as a metallurgist at a gold mine in Colorado. They erected a new processing building about a year ago. The first time they started it up it vibrated so bad they had to shut it down. Eventually, the local code officials slapped extreme limitations on it for both wind and snow loadings to the point it was unusable. My understanding is that they had to do some major upgrades/reinforcing before it could be deemed operational on a regular basis. The mine is at 10,000 ft elevation so snow is not a small factor.
I did power plant design early in my career and we regularly added anywhere from 4k to 100k per member as what was termed collateral loads, really more contingency loading when the process folks overloaded an area after structural design was more or less complete. In the world of heavy industrial (and mining ranks right up at the top of that) heavy is good and heavier is probably better.

 

[Shu Jiang PEng SE]

I agree with miningman.

My point is that south African mining code presents special loads/load combinations for reference. These loads may govern the structure design.

 

[atrizzy]

Thank you all for your answers. Of course I'm not planning on getting in over my head. I have done a variety of heavy industrial designs in the past, though my focus has not been in that field.