Project 01

Introduction:
3.1 I worked as a Mechanical Engineer with Power Factor Electromechanical Works LLC Dubai,
United Arab of Emirates (UAE) during the period of 23rd March 2014 to the 30th January
2016. Power Factor is a subsidiary of the Al Arif Contracting Company LLC, a service
provider of the engineering and contraction industry in UAE for over forty years. Power
Factor carries out Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) system installations, testing
and commissioning work of the Al Arif projects. The company also provides the facility
management services in Dubai with a combined workforce of more than one thousand five
hundred team members. This career episode report is based on my personal experiences
gained by installation of a central chilled water air conditioning and mechanical ventilation
system for Sharafi Hotel at Al Barha, Dubai. The project was initiated on the 15th April 2014
and the testing and commissioning work was commenced on the 20th January 2016.
Background:
3.2 The client of the project was Rose Garden Hotel Apartments, a subsidiary of the Sharafi
Group of companies. The hotel was perfectly designed to accommodate the most demanding
business and leisure travelers by offering comfortable and modern facilities. The hotel was
four star rated and it was located on Dubai's famous Sheikh Zayed road neighboring the Mall
of the Emirates, a renowned shopping destination in Dubai. The project architect, structural
and MEP consultant was Al Hashemi, one of the leading design consultancies in UAE,
having more than thirty years of experience in the built environment industry. The facility
was a ten storied building comprising of 168 guest rooms, two restaurants, a mini market,
two gymnasiums, a swimming pool, two spas, a commercial kitchen and car park facilities.
The two basement floors were car parks and the ground floor consisted of the two
restaurants, the mini market and the kitchen. All the guest rooms were built in the first six
floors. Also a health club floor consisted of the gymnasiums and the spas. The swimming
pool was at the roof top floor beside a mechanical service area.

3.3 The main objective of the project was to provide a reliable air conditioning system to the
entire facility while focusing on the regulations governed by the Rose Garden group of hotels
including their key commitments for energy efficiency, carbon footprint reduction and
sustainable building operations. The client was also deeply concerned on the products and
workmanship quality, workplace safety, budget and the project timeline.
3.4 The organizational structure for the project team is as below.

Client
(Sharafi Group of Companies)

Director - Facility Management

(Rose Garden Hotel Appartments)

Project Manager Project Manager

(Al Hashmi) (Al Arif Contracting LLC)

Senior Consultant Senior Consultant Senior Consultant Project Manager

Project Engineer
(Civil) (Mechanical) (Electrical) (Power Factor)

Resident Site Mechanical Engineer Electrical Plumbing

Engineer Engineer (My Self) Engineer Engineer

Supervisor Supervisor
Supervisor Supervisor Supervisor
(Piping) (Ducting)

Project Project Project Project Project

Team Team Team Team Team
3.5 As the Mechanical Engineer my responsibilities included preparation and obtaining the
consultant’s approval for shop drawings, coordination drawings, material submittals and safe
work method statements. Execution of the Air Conditioning and Mechanical Ventilation
(ACMV) system installation, coordination with the other service engineers to deliver the
project at scheduled deadlines, labour and material handling, ensuring health and safety at the
workplace were also part of my duty. I was also responsible for working with the senior
consultants to carryout materials and site inspections, attending the weekly site meetings,
raising progressive payments, approval of sub contactors’ payments and carrying out testing
and commissioning of the system.

Personal Engineering Activities:

3.6 My first challenge was to improve my communication skills, as most of the workers were
from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, they generally spoke in “Hindi” at the workplace.
During the first three months I managed to significantly improve my knowledge of “Hindi”
and it was helpful for me to adapt to a multi-cultural community. I also studied about the
Dubai Civil Defense regulations for fire security of a commercial building and the Labour
law governed by the Dubai Labour Department.
3.7 I participated at the project kick off meeting with Al Arif where we discussed about the work
plan, project team, communication and documentation protocols, health and safety, MEP site
office facility, material and equipment storage facility, site security and project payment
structure. Afterwards I contributed at the MEP project meeting to establish the MEP work
plan, identify the site staff and labour requirement.
3.7 I worked closely with a draftsperson to prepare the air conditioning and ventilation shop
drawings for each floor of the building including equipment schedules, pipe sizes, duct sizes,
grills, diffusers, louvers, thermostat locations and sectional drawings. The given pipe sizes,
duct sizes in tender drawings were confirmed with the requirement of the offered equipment.
A de-coupler line between the primary and secondary chilled water pumps were sized based
on the minimum water flow rate required by the chillers. Schematic drawings for the chilled
water distribution system, pipe risers and duct risers were also prepared. All the shop
drawings were based on the tender drawings and those were drawn at 1:100 scale. The detail
drawings for the pump room, equipment installations, pipe and duct hanging details were
drawn at 1:50 scale, as specified in the project specifications.
3.8 Material submittals were prepared for the offered equipment and materials, confirming
consistence to the technical specification. Specific submittals were prepared for air cooled
chillers, a Fresh Air Handling Unit (FAHU), Air Handling Units (AHUs), Fan Coil Units
(FCUs), primary and secondary chilled water pumps, chilled water pressurization unit,
ventilation fans, pipes, ducts, valves and accessories, insulation materials, diffusers, grills,
manual and motorized volume control dampers, fire dampers and access panels. I worked
closely with a quantity surveyor who worked in the project at tendering stage, in order to
collect technical documents from the suppliers when preparing the material submittals.
3.9 I also prepared safe work method statements for the site activities such as pipe work
including welding, duct work including fire rated duct, equipment installation, testing
balancing and commissioning of the system.
3.10 The calculation of primary and secondary chilled water pumps were carried out in order to
ensure that the pump selection was matched with the actual chilled water pipe layout and
offered equipment. The pumps head were determined through calculating summation of the
total friction losses for the index run including friction losses of valves and fittings,
evaporator pressure drop and coil pressure drop at tail end equipment. The chilled water
pump operating pressures were established considering both dynamic and static heads. The
schematic drawing of the chilled water distribution system was used to establish the location
for the Differential Pressure Switch (DPS). The location was 2/3 of the index run and it
provided feedback for the variable frequency drivers (VFD) in secondary chilled water
pumps.
3.11The expansion vessel capacity of the chilled water pressurization tank was determined
through a capacity calculation considering actual parameters including total chilled water
volume, water temperature and system operating pressure.
3.12 Outdoor air and exhaust air flow rates of the offered FAHU were confirmed according to
the ANSI/ASHRAE standard 62.1-2010, standard for acceptable indoor air quality. External
Static Pressure (ESP) was calculated for the FAHU, AHUs and the ventilation fans including
staircase pressurization, smoke extraction and kitchen exhaust. ASHRAE duct data base
calculator was used for the ESP calculations.
3.13 The initial design of using heat recovery option of the chillers for the central hot water
system was changed after a discussion with the senior mechanical consultant, project
manager, plumbing engineer and chiller supplier. It was ensured that rated hot water
temperature at a calorifier was introduced to a new heat exchanger in between the chiller and
the calorifier with new circulation pumps.
3.14 The Prepared shop drawings and material submittals were submitted for the consultants’
approval along with the calculations including pump head, working pressures, FAHU flow
rates and the ESP calculations. I submitted three copies of each document and maintained
transmittal logs in order to control the documentation.
3.15 The samples of grills, diffusers, louvers and thermostats were submitted to the architect’s
approval. The powder coated colours of grills, diffusers and louvers were defined by the
architect according to the RAL colour index. Additionally, I submitted material samples for
the consultant’s approvals including black iron pipes and fittings, galvanized iron duct
material, pipe and duct insulation material, acoustic insulation material, both manual and
motorized volume control dampers and fire dampers.
3.16 After some revisions according to the consultant’s comments, I had approvals for all the
shop drawings and material submittals. I personally reviewed the material quantities which
were taken by site supervisors, based on the approved shop drawings. The equipment and
material were ordered with approvals from the project manager and with association of the
purchasing department. The long lead items including chillers, FAHU, AHUs pumps and
FCUs were prioritized in order to meet the scheduled deadlines.
3.17 The material inspections were raised along with the approved material submittals, approved
samples (if any), factory test reports, proforma invoices and the delivery orders. The
equipment were approved by the consultant subjected to testing and commissioning.
3.18 Personally I contributed in developing coordination drawings which helped in eliminating
physical conflicts in equipment installation and routing of ducts, pipes with other MEP
services. I provided electrical power requirement of ACMV system to the Electrical Engineer
with required locations. I also worked with Building Management System (BMS) Engineer
to identify locations of filed devices including sensors, transducers, actuators and BTU
meters. The control strategy of smoke extraction fans, staircase and corridor pressurization
fans were discussed with the Plumbing Engineer in order to integrate them with the fire
alarm panel. In the event of fire, smoke extraction fans are intended to run with corridor
pressurization fans at adjacent floors. The staircase pressurization fans were designed to
maintain a fifty Pascal air pressure difference in between the corridors and staircases in order
to keep the fire evacuation path clear for the building occupants and to keep access to the fire
fighters. Outdoor air and exhaust air fans at car park areas were also integrated with the fire
alarm panel since the two speeds of exhaust air fan are intended to run at a higher speed in
the case of fire.
3.19 I closely worked with the Al Arif site engineer and supervisors to keep the required wall
and slab openings for ACMV system as per the approved builders work drawings. I also
raised consultant’s inspections on slab openings in order to release mechanical work
clearance for the slab casting. Concrete plinths which were required for the Chillers, FAHU
and pumps were also provided by civil contractor based on the detail provided.
3.20 Once I had clearance from the civil and plumbing work, I commenced installation of FCUs,
AHUs, duct work and chilled water piping work from the second basement floor. After a
discussion with the project manager and the company labour in charge, I decided to work
with an external sub-contractor for the duct work as it was not available for the workers from
the company. However all piping work was carried out by the company workers including
welders, pipe fitters and helpers. Apart from the personal tools of workers, all equipment
were provided by the company based on my requisition including welding machines,
grinding and cutting machines, gas cutters and pipe threading machines.
3.21The installation work commenced at the guest rooms after a completion of the mock-up
room installation and approved by the client, architect and the consultants. The mock-up
room FCU and grills were purchased separately, after discussions with the project manager,
purchasing department and the suppliers.
3.22 I attended the weekly site meetings where discussions of weekly site progress, coordination
issues, practical difficulties, material and site inspection issues, health and safety, variation
work and the progressive payments were held. ACMV work schedule, material and
equipment orders and request of additional staff were prepared based on the site progress and
the deadlines. The deadlines were set according to the site progress and practical issues such
as hold points. Therefore, the weekly site meetings were much useful to maintain the project
progress at scheduled deadlines.
3.23 The site inspections were carried out after completing the work in each floor and raised
separately as equipment installation, pipe work, valve package installation, pressure test and
duct work. The pressure tests for the chilled water pipes were carried out, 1.5 times greater
than the operating pressure of the system. The by-pass valves at FCUs and AHUs were used
to disregard testing pressure impact on cooling coils.
3.24 As the three chillers (7000 Kg each) were placed at the roof top, I hired a special crane to
lift the chillers as the tower crane at the site was not capable of handling such a weight. After
discussions with the client, the project manager and under authority of the Dubai civil
defense and police, the road nearby the site was closed for three hours to ensure the safety of
the work environment.
3.25 I allowed employees to work overtime depending on the urgency of work and paid them
accordingly. Annual leave approval was also provided from my end considering the site
work situation, company regulations and legal background. I worked with them without bias
in respect of religion, national origin, race and age.
3.26 I raised Requests for Information (RFI) and Confirmations of Verbal Instructions (CVI)
when the instructions provided by the client or consultant was not sufficient or unclear. I was
also responsible to carry out prompt action of remedial work raised by Non-Conformity
Reports (NCR) by the consultant. Separate logs were maintained for the RFI,CVI and NCR
as document control procedures.
3.27 As a project engineer, I was responsible for workers’ health and safety aspects during the
working hours. My responsibilities included ensuring that all employees were using
appropriate personal protective equipment during working hours including safety helmets, hi-
viz vests, safety shoes, eye and ear protection. The condition of such personal protective
equipment were regularly inspected. Safety work method statements were followed on risky
activities including equipment lifting and handling. It was also ensured that the employees
were well trained and had experience on handling their tools. Additionally, it was confirmed
that the workers were not working outside in mid-day (12.30 PM to 3 PM) during the
summer (June to September) as it was not allowed by the labour law.
3.28 In order to reduce the outdoor air pollution and to meet the environmental regulations
Electrostatic precipitator in the kitchen exhaust was used. Heat recovery wheel at FAHU was
used to pre cool the outdoor air using the wash room exhaust air, and this was used to reduce
the humidity level of the outdoor air supply.
3.29 I completed the installation and commenced testing and commissioning work with a third
party commissioning agent. They commenced work at the site after commissioning the
chillers by the chiller supplier. By this time I had resigned from Power Factor as I had
completed my contract with them. However, the main benefits to me from this project were
learning project management strategies, project planning, working in a multi-level, multi
-disciplinary and multi- cultural community and learning about heat recovery chillers and
applications. Learning about ACMV systems to adapt with high rise buildings including stair
case pressurization, smoke extraction and primary and secondary chilled water circulation
systems was also beneficial. I also learnt the importance of having FAHU in high humid
climates such as the Dubai climate. It was satisfying to me because engaging with this
project was a prominent peak of my career.