Designing rectangular block foundations for vibrating equipment

Method considers both the effect of damping and coupled modes using timehistory analysis
K. Chakravarti, Petrofac International Ltd., Sharjah, UAE

Unless there is a process/ functional requirement for placing rotating equipment foundations at certain elevations, they are normally reinforced concrete block foundations on the ground or elevated framed structures. Normal practice. In general, civil engineers choose one of the two methods for designing reinforced concrete block foundations for vibrating equipment, each having its own advantages and disadvantages: Barkan's method1 Arya, O'Neil and Pincus' method.2

Barkan's method is simpler and is used in most countries, especially third-world and middle-east countries. It accounts for the coupled mode of vibration, i.e., longitudinal translation with pitching and lateral translation with rocking, but does not account for material and soil damping of the foundation system. The effect of damping for soil-supported foundations is often substantial and should not be neglected. Ignoring damping makes the design conservative. Ayra, O'Neil and Pincus' method accounts for material and soil damping, which makes it more cost-effective and popular with engineering companies, but it does not account for the coupled mode of vibration. Thus, the actual vibration scenario can not be correctly idealized with the help of this method. At the end of the analysis, amplitudes in all modes are suitably added by other methods to get resultant amplitude. Suggested method. Due to the disadvantages of the existing methods, a third method is presented that offers the advantages of both methods without the disadvantages. Steps of the proposed method are:

Hydrocarbon Processing / August 2008

Supplied by the NIOC Central Library

1. Required soil data: Weight density, Mass density, (May be calculated based on weight density) Shear wave velocity, Vs Dynamic shear modulus, Gdyn (May be calculated based on shear wave velocity, Gdyn = Vs2 ) Poisson's ratio, .

2. Required foundation dimensions and shape parameters: Foundation base length in plan, fx l Foundation base breadth in plan, fz l Foundation embedment depth, h Height of combined foundation with equipment from the foundation base, S.

3. Foundation and equipment weight, mass and mass moment of inertia about the centroid at the base level: Weight, W Mass, m = W/g Mass moment of inertia about longitudinal (X axis at base level, ) Mass moment of inertia about transverse (Z axis at base level, ) Mass moment of inertia about vertical (Y) axis at base level,

4. Calculating effective footing radius:

5. Calculating embedment coefficients:

Hydrocarbon Processing / August 2008

Supplied by the NIOC Central Library

6. Equivalent soil spring constants:

7. Calculating mass or inertia ratio:

8. Calculating embedment factor for damping

Hydrocarbon Processing / August 2008

Supplied by the NIOC Central Library

Values of n with respect to values of B for rocking and pitching modes:

For equations under sections 4 to 9, see reference 2. 10. Total damping: Total damping ratio, , (subject to a maximum of 0.2 or 20% as per standard industrial practice) = geometric damping + internal damping (may be assumed to range from 2% to 5%). So far, whatever calculation steps have been shown are common with the method suggested by Arya, O'Neill and Pincus. Henceforth, a different analysis procedure will be adopted that is "timehistory analysis" by the Wilsonmethod.

11. Formation of mass, stiffness and damping matrices: Vibration in "vertical" and "yawing" modes are comparatively simpler, since they are normally not coupled with any other mode. Under normal conditions, "rocking" mode is coupled with "transverse translation" and "pitching" mode is coupled with "longitudinal translation" mode. For simplicity, consider a foundation model that is subjected to horizontal periodic force in one direction and periodic moment in the same direction (about an axis perpendicular to the direction of force, Fig. 1).1

Hydrocarbon Processing / August 2008

Supplied by the NIOC Central Library

Fig. 1

A foundation model that is subjected to horizontal periodic force in one direction and periodic moment in the same direction.

Now, the equilibrium equation for translation is:

The equilibrium equation for rotation is:

Hence, matrix notation of the simplified case in two degrees of freedom is:

Hydrocarbon Processing / August 2008

Supplied by the NIOC Central Library

Similarly, for six degrees of freedom: Mass matrix, M:

Stiffness matrix, K :

Since C =

(mK )1/2,

Hence,
Hydrocarbon Processing / August 2008 Supplied by the NIOC Central Library

Damping matrix, C:

12. Force vector formation: The unbalanced "force vectors" for drive, gearbox and driven equipment need to be formed separately with frequencies and phase differences as: For drive:

For gear box:

For driven equipment:

Hydrocarbon Processing / August 2008

Supplied by the NIOC Central Library

Total force vector:

where is the phase difference. Once M, C, K and {Ft)} are available, the dynamic equilibrium equation may be formed as: ( [M]{x} + [C{x} + [K]{x} = {Ft)} ] ( This equation may be solved by the Wilson- method of time-history analysis, steps of which follow:3 13. Time step, 14. Considered: t, is selected preferably as 60/Highest rpm 8

15. The effective stiffness matrix is formed as:

16. For each time step:

For the first step, and for the next steps and of previous step

Hydrocarbon Processing / August 2008

Supplied by the NIOC Central Library

Effective load at time t +

t is:

Calculated displacements, velocities and accelerations at time, t + t, are:

These steps are to be repeated up to the desired number to get governing values of deflection or velocity amplitude. Absolute maximum amplitude of the nozzle connection point or any other point of interest is calculated at a certain instant combining the effects of all the modes.

All the steps may be programmed in software to get the displacement, velocity and acceleration for all the six degrees of freedom in tabular form. Graphs may be plotted from such tabular results of dynamic analysis. Figs. 2 and 3 show displacement and velocity amplitudes of the nozzle connection point of a sample case.

Fig. 2

Displacement amplitude.

Interested readers may obtain the Excel spreadsheet (with macro) for the method from the author (e-mail: kxchakra2002@yahoo.co.uk). HP

LITERATURE CITED
1 2

Barkan D. D., Dynamics of Bases and Foundations. Arya, O'Neill & Pincus, Design of Structures and Foundations for Vibrating Machines. 3 Klaus-Jurgen Bathe, Finite Element Procedures.

Hydrocarbon Processing / August 2008

Supplied by the NIOC Central Library

The author Koushik Chakravarti is a lead civil and structural engineer in Petrofac International Ltd, Sharjah. Previously he was with Bechtel, New Delhi. He focuses on the unresolved problems faced in day-to-day structural engineering in the hydrocarbon industry.

Hydrocarbon Processing / August 2008

Supplied by the NIOC Central Library