The development of any country depends on the
rate of industrial growth. Currently, there is a race in industrial projects worldwide. The
development of the industry depends on the development of the energy reserve by
investment in projects of oil and gas exploration, onshore and offshore, which
require new facilities or rehabilitation of existing facilities. At the same
time, there are projects that are running in parallel to deliver electricity
from electrical power stations or through nuclear power plants.
The term industrial structures means all the reinforced concrete
and steel structures from a small factory to a nuclear plant. My book (www.amazon.com/author/elreedyma) provides an overview of industrial project management,
design, construction, and eventually providing a maintenance plan. Industrial
projects, in most cases, are huge and can cost a billion dollars for one
project, so the client, engineering firm, and contractor are in the same boat
until they achieve project success through a strong management system and
technical competence.
In these types of projects, all the engineering
disciplines are working together, but, unfortunately, the structural or civil
engineers are usually the last ones to obtain the exact data from the other
disciplines and the first ones to start on site. Therefore, it is a challenge
for the structural engineers to work fast and efficiently in this type of
project. So it is required a strategy plan and professionalism in dealing with these projects.
It is important to regular familiar ourselves
with up-to-date methodology and industry technical practice and guidelines to
design, construct, and maintain the reinforced concrete and steel structures in
these industrial projects. The other challenge that faces structural engineers
is that most of the undergraduate courses they studied in college focused
mainly on real estate projects and housing. However, the characteristics of
industrial projects are different, as it needs from the project and
construction manager to lead the project and to successfully achieve the
owner’s requirements.
On the other hand, the structure engineer
should be familiar with the codes and
standards that are usually used in industrial projects which is really few and is not famous rather normal building codes and standard and the most applicable
methods used in the design of the steel and reinforced concrete structures that
serve the static equipment, tanks and towers, and vibrating equipment.
Dr. Mohamed A. El-Reedy
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