SAVING MATERIAL AND TIME Larsen & Toubro Ltd opted for Tekla’s BIM software for modelling and detail drawing preparation for the 496 square meters Sinter Plant unit in Chennai. STORAGE BUILDING: NUMBER CRUNCHERS 85 meters long, 8 meters wide and 25 meters high Sinter Storage capacity: 8400 cubic meters in volume Total RCC quantity: 7800 Cubic meters Project Duration: 4 months design to delivery Tonnage of rebar usage: 1150 MT arsen & Toubro Ltd chose to use Tekla’s BIM software for modelling and detail draw- ing preparation for the 496 square meters Sinter Plant unit in Chennai. The Sinter Storage Building, complicated Reinforced Cement Con- crete technological building houses a large amount of process equipment in- cluding belt conveyors, vibratory feed- ers, rack-pinion gates, hoists and stone box arrangement made of 1800 Metric ton structural steel ‘The Sinter Storage Building is a massive RCC building with an RCC raft founda- tion. This building consists of 11 ba each bay having the ability to hold 760 cubic meters of sinter having a density of 18 MT cubic meters. Every bay accom- modates one structural steel, stone box structure with bolted construction which restricts the freefall height of sinter and thereby helps sinter quality to remain unchanged. Above the foundation level, the elevated building is supported by 24 freestanding columns of which each car- ries a1900 MT combined load. Larsent and Toubro did the entire rebar detailing, including conflict check, effec- tively by using Tekla software. Junction locations of the foundation raft, columns Sa and at upper levels of the bottom slab, side walls, roof, slab and integration of the side walls with beams and column projection all along the height have ‘massive rebar arrangements with lots of interfaces from each component rebar. Many structural steel insert plates had been fixed all along the Sinter Storage building at the soffits and the insides of hopper slabs and at the side walls and beams. The interface check for all these inserts became a herculean task for the design engineers. A team of two design engineers, ‘one designer and two modelers tack- led the challenge by modelling with Tekla software for approximately 2500 man-hours. The entire accurate and constructable 3D model of this unit, integrated with rebar arrange- ‘ment, equipment, piping, cable trays and access routes, all needed details. ‘The potentially huge task of checking the interface of various components to avoid clashes was actually smooth with Tekla's 3D modelling software and was done in much less time than it would have been without Tekla — and with fall accuracy. The software helped manage the large file size smoothly while the team worked on the model. “We also shared the Tekla 3D mod- el with the field project manager and construction personnel, so they could have an accurate idea of the structure and good reference for their work. The operations persornel are using this information to plan concrete pours,” notes Arun Kr Verma, Chief Engineer- ing Manager (Civil and Structural), En« gineering Design and Research Centre, Larsen & Toubro Limited. ‘Tekla provides a BIM (Building Infor- mation Modeling) software environ- ‘ment that contractors, structural engi- neers and detailers and fabricators of all materials can share. Tekla BIMsight is a free professional tool for construction Project collaboration. Anyone can com- bine models, check for clashes and share information using the same easy-to-use 3D environment. With Tekla BIMsight project participants can identify and solve issues already in the design phase.