The Rio Tinto Amrun project, which included the development of the award winning Chith Export Facility and Amrun bauxite mine, has now been in operation for one year. ASPEC is very proud of our long involvement with the project, which commenced in 2013 and which has recently achieved the important milestone of completing the first year of operation of the rail mounted machines at the facility, with great success.
This article provides general project information on the design and installation process of a shaft liner and its supporting concrete and steel structures.
Systems audits are conducted to assess the suitability of the processes that maintain the structural integrity, safety, and reliability of machines such as shiploaders, stackers and reclaimers.
Steel wire rope forms an important part of many machines and structures. The wires and strands are designed to slide in relation to each other, distributing the complicated applied stresses more effectively. This article provides general information on steel wire ropes, guidance on their care and maintenance and discard criteria.
PIANC recently published WG184 Design Principles for Dry Bulk Marine Terminals in March 2019. PIANC formed WG184 as no current guidelines existed for the planning and design of specialist marine terminals for the import and export of bulk solids.
ASPEC has expertise in performing structural inspections, analysis and strengthening of jacking points on stackers, reclaimers and shiploaders to facilitate maintenance activities. This article highlights some design considerations for slew bearing change-out jacking points in accordance with AS4324.1.
Control systems on mobile equipment have advanced greatly in recent years and large SCADA datasets are available to analyse the machine performance. ASPEC has been processing and translating the SCADA data into engineering information, which is then used to carry out machine health checks to validate machine performance as part of asset management reviews.
Innovative strategies were required when presented with a variety of challenges for this large scale building foundation design. These include future proofing the foundation design for changes in design loading, as well as implementing efficient constructability solutions due to the challenging site environment.
The design of modular buildings for process plants involves complex loading scenarios that are not covered by Australian Standards, and requires the use of advanced structural analysis tools and techniques. This is illustrated by the case study of a furnace building discussed in this paper.