Goals
Within the framework of the project “Field engineering service for the Yarigüí development project – Auxiliary Stations / Island VI” owned by Ecopetrol, the construction of the TK-750 tank of the auxiliary station is proposed.
With a capacity of 6227 barrels, 10.67 m in diameter and a total height of 10.97 m, the foundation of the tank must be designed to support 1,100 tons of cargo. In terms of
foundations is an engineering challenge, considering that the geological geotechnical environment of the site where the project is located has a high degree of complexity.
Additionally, since it is an existing oil infrastructure, there are multiple limitations in terms of space and constructability, which challenge foundation methodologies.
conventional due to the poor maneuverability of the oversized equipment required for the execution of these foundations.
CONVENTIONAL SOLUTION
Due to the high load magnitudes and the geotechnical deficiency of the soil, an arrangement of 30 piles built in 12” diameter galvanized steel pipe, at 30 m depth, was initially designed. Due to their configuration and the low efficiency of the soil-pile interface, the load capacities of these were scarce and therefore it was necessary to significantly increase their length in order to increase their friction capacity.
SOLUTION WITH HELICOIDAL PILES
Con un excelente trabajo de ingeniería fue posible reformular la propuesta. Considerando todos los escenarios de carga critica posibles a partir de 78 pilotes helicoidales de 15 m de longitud, diseñados para 45 Ton de carga ultima, se logra obtener una solución mas eficiente para el desafío que plantea la cimentación del tanque TK‐750. Con un modelo más redundante y a partir de una cortina externa de pilotes inclinados es posible atender las solicitaciones de diseño crítico, garantizando los factores de seguridad normativos.
LOAD TESTS
As a quality assurance policy, at Axiatech we aim to perform load tests on all our projects, thus allowing us to guarantee our value engineering.
At the beginning of the installation process, we performed a production load test on one of the system's piles following the premises of ASTM D3689. The pile was brought to the service load (23.3 tons) for the most critical load scenario, obtaining a deformation of 9.1 mm at a rate of 0.022 inches/ton; a result that allows us to guarantee that the safety factor for the project is 2.26, 11.5% higher than that estimated in the engineering analyses.
Helical Piles are the solution
suitable for foundation of tanks
fluid storage…
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