Foundations for Industrial Machines

The performance, safety and stability of machines depends largely on their design, manufacturing and interaction with environment. Machine foundations should be designed in such a way that the dynamic forces transmitted to the soil through the foundation, eliminating all potentially harmful forces. This handbook is designed primarily for the practising engineers engaged in design of machine foundations. It covers basic fundamentals for understanding and evaluating dynamic response of machine foundation systems with emphasis is on detailed dynamic analysis for response evaulation. Use of commercially available Finite Element packages, for analysis and design of the foundation, is recommended. Theory is supported by results from practice in the form of examples.

Dr. Krishna Gopal Bhatia has been engaged for over 30 years in the design, testing and review of machine foundations for various industrial projects in petrochemical plants, refineries, power plants and other large facilities. Moreover, he conducted extensive tests on machine foundation models and prototypes, as well as multiple failure analysis studies on various types of machines in this period. He has been active in several big companies, such as Bharat Heavy Electricals, Engineers India Ltd. Moreover, he has fulfilled executive roles at a number of earthquake societies and research institutes. In this reference guide, the author presents practical data and a design philosophy for the improvement of the design of foundations to enhance machine performance by more comprehensive evaluation of site soil data, better understanding of machine data. In this volume, more sophisticated modelling techniques, analysis techniques, structural design processes and construction technologies are proposed, in combination with guidelines for a more intense collaboration between foundation designer and machine manufacturer.