Process Exhaust Gas Structural Design and Support

The scope of this project was the structural design and detailing of hot exhaust gas ductwork as well as their support structures. LVTA was brought on as a structural design consultant, mechanical duct detailer, and structural steel detailer hired by the steel fabricator for this design-build contract in a much larger plant expansion. Included in this scope was detailing the duct sections in shippable cans and modules for both efficient fabrication and field assembly, engineering and detailing all support and access steel, including instrument access at one of the support towers, near the bag house inlet and at the stack. Key challenges in this project include the following:

• Selecting and designing proper supports to accommodate the thermal growth of the ducts in multiple directions
• Designing and constructing the proposed false duct end where the duct changed from vertical to horizontal in the middle of a span between two supports that could not be relocated. LVTA value-engineered a transition from duct to truss to accommodate this constraint, eliminating the proposed false duct end
• Providing the necessary field adjustment to allow to for fabrication and erection tolerances
• Coordinating the necessary interface design and geometrical information between consultants with adjacent scope