Structures that Power 

Thermal Power Station, WaiGaoQiao, China

Alstom Power Boiler GmbH became familiar with Tekla during the Wai GaoQiao coal power station project in China. Until then, the company had been using other plant design and engineering software and knew little about the finer details of modelling with Tekla Structures. A subcontractor involved in this project had been among Tekla’s customers for some time. As a result of this collaboration, it became necessary to confront the issue of data compatibility between Tekla Structures and the software that Alstom was using. The flexibility of Tekla Structures was used to maximum effect, ensuring seamless cooperation which led to the entire project being concluded successfully and on time.
 
Intergraph software was used to plan the systems, and external 2D software was used to handle the parts for the basic engineering. Workflow inconsistencies initially led to the parts being rejected in the planning process, which Tekla Structures managed to deal with later on. In this project, the ability to import Microstation format (DGN) reference models and to carry out highquality importing and exporting of object-oriented SDNF files was of great help. This was a decisive advantage for planning and modelling extensions to the existing construction. In conclusion, this kind of data compatibility guarantees success in international projects. After the work on the Chinese coal power station project was successfully completed, the modelling licences were transferred to Germany and have since been used by the company in Stuttgart.

Diesel Production Line, Porvoo, Finland

The diesel project at Neste Oil’s Porvoo refinery entailed building a new production line comprising a residual oil unit and a hydrogen unit. Significant extensions and modifications were made to the refinery’s existing process units and infrastructure. With the new production line, which started up at the end of 2006, Neste Oil gained the capacity to produce cleaner motor fuels from heavier and more sulfurous crude oil than before.
 
Costing close to 600 million euros, Neste Oil’s refinery investment was a significant building project. The engineering and contracting work for the project totaled approximately 1.5 and 3 million hours respectively. 25 hectares of land were cleared for the project, around five of which are covered by the actual process infrastructure. New buildings cover almost 13,000 square meters, and approximately 19,000 cubic meters of concrete and 5,000 tons of steel were used in the project as a whole. During the peak design stage, more than 400 people were working on the project at Neste Jacobs and in several Finnish engineering offices.
 
This was the first building project in which structural design incorporating concrete structures was implemented from start to finish using 3D building information modelling. Intelligent data transfer between systems enabled the parallel development of the plant and structural design. The project also saw the creation of a joint design environment for use by several design firms, which was based on the Tekla Structures system. Collision detection and pipe support design were areas that received particular attention in the development of the structural design. In total, 12,000 tons – or approximately 200 kilometers – of pipe were fitted during the project, some fabricated abroad from costly and specialised materials. All the structures, steel and concrete, were designed from start to finish with Tekla Structures and the system was used to produce all the required outputs.

Gas-to-Liquid plant, Escravos, Nigeria

This project, built in Nigeria but modelled and fabricated in the Middle East by IMCC Abu Dhabi Group, consists of 9 process modules and 14 piperacks that will be shipped to the Escravos site, which is located about 100 kilometers southeast of the Nigerian capital Lagos. These modules will be used in the proposed Gas-to-Liquid plant that will be capable of converting natural gas into premium environmentally friendly fuel, diesel and naphtha products. The detailed engineering of the plant started in August 2006 using Tekla Structures software. The challenge IMCC faced during this project was the amount of revisions that were made to the drawings; this had an impact on both engineering and production. Tekla Structures was used in the generation of all shop drawings for the process modules and piperacks. This includes primary, secondary and tertiary steel parts (such as stairways). According to IMCC, it is easy to generate bill of materials, weights and surface area from the Tekla model. Tekla Structures also generates NC files for plate cutting plans. In the case of production problems, it is easy to verify issues like clashes in the 3D model. 

North Field Offshore Facilities, Doha, Qatar

The QPD Full Field Development project consists of 3 jacketed platforms and 2 jack-up barges converted to production and leaving quarters platforms for AL Karkara and North Field Offshore Facilities in Doha, Qatar. These platforms will be used in the proposed oil and gas production for the State of Qatar. Detailed engineering of the project with Tekla Structures software took from August 2004 to September 2005. The amount of revisions made to the drawings was again the challenge that impacted both engineering and production. Tekla Structures was used in the generation of all shop drawings for the jackets, boat landings, topsides, helidecks and bridges. This includes primary, secondary and tertiary steel parts (such as stairways). According to IMCC Abu Dhabi Group, it is easy to generate bill of materials, weights and surface area from the Tekla model. Tekla Structures also generates NC files for plate cutting plans. In the case of production problems, it is easy to verify clashes between the mechanical and structural model in Tekla Structures. 

Sawmill Soda Recovery Boiler, Gruvön, Sweden

This project consisted of a soda recovery boiler and an electrostatic precipitator building for Stora Enso’s Gruvön Sawmill in Sweden, which operates as part of Stora Enso Timber’s Nordic Production Group. A recent investment in modern technologies provided the mill with some of the highest quality production and processing capabilities in Sweden. The buildings were taken into service in May 2000. Approximately 2,000 tons of steel was used and approximately 20,000 workshop (part) drawings were produced.
 
The implementation of the project within the specified time frame would not have been possible without an advanced model-based design system such as Tekla Structures. From a project management point of view it was essential that all the data created during the design process was centralised into a single Tekla model which was always up-to-date. The multi-user capability of the software made it possible to keep to a tight project schedule. The transmission of the 3D model to other designers made it significantly easier to detect any overlap between structural components, and the DSTV (CNC) files made workshop manufacturing considerably easier, since it was possible to provide the workshop with a number of different catalogs and lists. The Tekla model could print out illustrative 3D drawings from various directions. Whenever the construction site or the workshop required more detailed information, it was easy to obtain the data directly from the model, without the need to search through paper drawings that had been archived.

Power Generation Plant, Huasco, Chile

The city of Huasco lies 700 km north of Chile’s capital, Santiago. It is here that electricity provider Empresa Electrica Guacolda S.A. plans to commence operation of its newly built coal-fired power generation plant in September 2009. The collaboration partners on the construction of the plant were Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), one of Japan’s leading heavy industry firms, and Edyce, which was responsible for on-site fabrication. By jointly accessing data using Tekla Structures, the two firms managed to overcome their respective time differences, distances and language barriers to achieve a remarkable improvement in the transfer of operational data. In the initial design stages, MHI utilised the linking function to bundle Tekla Structures and Staad Pro software. By doing so, the two companies were able to exchange data, such as loads and boundary conditions, and to effectively integrate design techniques from structural analyses to draughting work plans, which resulted in enhanced design efficiency. High-scale precision in terms of PDS data compatibility also made managing the project data, including the piping, all the more effective.