Have you ever inserted two long noodles into a bowl full of spaghetti, making sure the inserted noodles didn’t touch any of the other noodles? We have, to a point, completed that task.Â
We provided structural engineering design and construction detailing services for new elevated mechanical pipe rack structures inside an active and crowded Swedish Hospital boiler house. Design prioritized minimizing steel framing and fabrication costs while providing for a custom and predominantly field-bolted rack solution, connecting the racks to the precast structural walls of the boiler house.Â
The schedule was shortened, and owner costs reduced by scanning the boiler room using Laser Imaging, Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) equipment. Â The boiler house was scanned, resulting in a very accurate point cloud model of the current conditions. That model was pulled directly into Tekla Structures, allowing the steel pipe racks to be manipulated in the virtual Tekla environment. Design conflicts were called out in the virtual design space and adjusted before any fabrication or installation took place. Contract documents, shop drawings and fabrication data were created from the Tekla Structures Model and used for coordination between the design team, the fabricator, and the mechanical contractor.Â
The project was completed on time, without RFIs from the contractor, resulting in saved costs for the owner. Incorporating the LIDAR point cloud model of current conditions within the virtual design environment of Tekla Structures lead to no unknown conflicts with the installation.Â
