18-07-2013

Civil Design Help

Foundation Design Philosophy for Flare Stack

Home
Vertical Vessel/Tower
Horizontal Vessel
Tube & Shell Exchanger
Rotating Equipment
Storage Tank on Ring
Beam
Equipment on Skid
Pipe Rack
Transformer Pit
Anchor Bolt
Stack Foundation
Help & More Help

In this page , I will discuss about the Guyed stack Foundation only. Self standing stack is almost similar to vertical
vessel / tower. Hence, for those types, you can refer vertical vessel / tower foundation page.
Guyed Stack:

Feed Back
About me
Site Link

From the above sketch you can see the stack, Guy sets and Deadmen. Each guy set has 3 guys connected with the
stack at a particular level at one end at 120 degree apart and other end connected with Deadman. This deadman is
nothing but a mass concrete foundation, which is counter acting the guy tension.
So now, you can easily understand that you will design two types of foundations, one for stack and another for guy
support i.e. Deadmen.
To start the foundation design, you need to follow the below steps:
Step-1 : Review of Stack drawing (Vendor Equipment Drawing)
You need to review stack drawings from foundation design point of view and check whether you have all the
following information:
For Stack:
Stack Dead weight
(De)
Stack underside base plate level
Anchor bolt location (Bolt circle Dia) with respect to center of stack and also bolt offset with respect to Plant
North line.
Anchor bolt supporting detail ( Anchor bolt size and detail of anchor chair) and Base plate detail
Wind Shear and Moment
Seismic Shear and Moment (if the Project site is at Seismic zone)
Temperature load (TL)
Snow load (SL)
For Deadman:
Location of all the deadmen with respect to Stack center line
Bottom level of Guy wire fixing base plate
Tension at Guy wire support due to wind
Tension at Guy wire support due to seismic
Tension at Guy wire support due to Temperature
Tension at Guy wire support due to Snow and Ice load
Anchor bolt detail (size, location and projection) and Guy wire fixing (detail of fixing base plate) detail with
deadman.
Step-2 : Verification of foundation location, elevation and external fittings loads
You need to review Plot plan, Equipment location drawings and 3 -D Models and check whether you have all the
following information:
Verify the area available for foundation.
Verify Foundation location, Elevation and finished grade level
Pipe supports and Nozzle loads on stack (Dp)
Location and size of Platforms around the Stack
Location of miscellaneous skid mounted equipment around the stack
Locations of underground pipes
Electrical and Instrument duct banks Locations and extent of adjacent foundations
Verify the location and extent of new/existing foundations not shown in 3D model or plot plan.

http://www.civildesignhelp.info/stf.html

1/3

18-07-2013

Civil Design Help

Step-3 : Pedestal Sizing Criteria:
For Stack:
Concrete pedestals supporting Stack shall be sized according to the following criteria:
Face-to-face pedestal size shall be the larger of the following:
Bolt circle + 175mm
Bolt circle + 8 x bolt diameters
Bolt circle + sleeve diameter + 150mm
Diameter of baseplate + 200mm
Bolt circle + 2 x (minimum bolt edge distance)
Pedestals shall be octagonal in shape for ease of construction. For ease of forming, use multiples of 25mm for each
octagonal side.
For Deadman:
Concrete pedestals connected with Guy wire shall be sized according to the following criteria:
Face-to-face pedestal size shall be the larger of the following:
Bolt c/c distance + 175mm
Bolt c/c distance + 8 x bolt diameters
Bolt c/c distance + sleeve diameter + 150mm
Baseplate size + 200mm
Bolt c/c distance + 2 x (minimum bolt edge distance)
Pedestals shall be rectangular in shape for ease of construction. For ease of forming, use multiples of 25mm for each
rectangular side.
It is desirable to make the pedestal deep enough to contain the anchor bolts and keep them out of the mat.
Step-4 : Anchor Bolt Check:
Design of anchor bolts shall be based on the following considerations. Corrosion allowance should be considered
when required by the project design criteria.
For stack
Tension Check:
The maximum tension force in the anchor bolts (Tmax ) may be calculated according with following formula:
Tmax = 4*M / (Nb x BCD) - (De) / Nb
Where, M = total maximum moment on foundation
BCD = Bolt circle diameter
Nb = no. of anchor bolt
The above formula provides a conservative value of Tmax compared to the concrete transformed section method.
Shear Check:
When anchor bolts are utilized to resist shear, the unit shear per bolt shall be calculated as follows:
Vmax = V / Nb where, V = total shear force on anchor bolt.
When over sized anchor bolt holes are provided in the vessel base plates or when anchor bolt sleeves that are not
grout-filled are used, anchor bolts should be designed to resist tension only.
Frictional resistance to shear between the vessel base plate and the concrete or grouted bearing surface shall be
utilized to resist shears induced by wind or by other static loads. Frictional resistance shall not be employed to resist
shear induced by seismic loads. For seismic-induced shear, adequate mechanical means shall be provided to resist
horizontal shear, either by means of properly detailed anchor bolt / bolt hole arrangements or through a combination of
anchor bolts, shear lugs, or other anchorage devices. The static coefficient of friction between steel and concrete or
between steel and cementitious grout shall be considered as 0.4 or specified in project design criteria.
For Deadman Foundation
At deadman anchor location, anchor bolts shall be checked for Tension only. If concrete around the anchor bolt is not
sufficient enough to resist tension in anchor bolt from ductility point of view, provide additional reinforcement around
the anchor bolt to transfer the force from bolt to foundation mat by non-contact splicing method (ACI 318 appendix-D)

http://www.civildesignhelp.info/stf.html

2/3

18-07-2013

Civil Design Help

the anchor bolt to transfer the force from bolt to foundation mat by non-contact splicing method (ACI 318 appendix-D)
Tension Shear Interaction check:
When anchor bolts are subjected to combined shear and tension loads, the design shall be based on satisfying
interaction formula (say ACI 318 appendix-D ).
Please note that anchor bolt edge distance, spacing and load capacity shall be as per project design criteria.
Step-5 : Load combinations for foundation sizing / Pile loads and Foundation design:
You need to create the load combination per your project design criteria.
Please note that the weight of the foundation and the soil on top of the foundation shall be included as dead load in all
the load combinations.
Now from above steps, you have learnt the following:
Different types of loads on Stack foundation and on deadman anchor foundation
Different criterias for the pedestal sizing
Maximum tension and shear force on each anchor bolt
To complete the foundation design, your work will be to create following calculation sheets:
A calculation sheet for anchor bolt embedment length check (ex: ACI 318 appendix-D).
A calculation sheet for foundation sizing (considering soil bearing pressure, Sliding, Buoyancy and overturning)
or pile load (tension, compression and shear on each pile) calculation and check with soil consultant for
acceptable values.
A calculation sheet for foundation and pedestal reinforcement calculation per your project design criteria.
I hope this page will be very helpful to you to understand the basic foundation loads of Stack and Deadman
anchor.
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. Please do not print or copy of this page or any part of this page without written
permission from Subhro Roy.
Disclaimer: This page is prepared based on experience on Civil Engineering Design. All definitions and most of the
explanations are taken from different text books and international design codes, which are referenced in the contents. Any
similarity of the content or part of with any company document is simply a coincidence. Subhro Roy is not responsible for
that.

http://www.civildesignhelp.info/stf.html

3/3