Intern report

0

Vacation Work Report

Samuel Chuah Teong Jyn

ID: 21642303

0

Executive Summary The summer break was utilised to attend the internship program. Internship was an eye-

opening experience where engineering knowledge is applied critically to solve problems by providing

the most economical solutions in terms of limited space, construction time constraint while complying

with the authorities’ requirements. Co-operation between engineers and draftsmen are necessary to

translate designs into drawings. These drawings are necessary for submission to authorities, tendering,

contractors to construct and for the client’s reference. Engineers are grounded to ensure that they

understand the fundamentals of technical knowledge through manual calculations before being

exposed to softwares. Experience gained from the application of these tools will certainly be an asset

in future projects.

Moreover, several sites were visited to gain an insight about various plant operations. The aim

is to understand the importance of planning and site layout by taking into consideration client’s

logistics, labour utilisation and future expansion plans. Another significant aspect that must be

observed at the site is the health and safety of workers. Usually, the client would require the

contractor’s workers to undergo a safety induction course conducted by a safety officer before they

are allowed to be deployed at site. During construction, it is compulsory for workers to wear a safety

helmet, safety boots and goggles to avoid any undesirable accidents form happening. Where work has

to be done at high elevation, workers are required to wear a safety harness.

0

Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 0

Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. 1

Background ............................................................................................................................................. 1

Project Management .............................................................................................................................. 2

Projects Participated ............................................................................................................................... 3

Mewah Datu Palm Oil Refinery Complex ............................................................................................ 3

Cargill .................................................................................................................................................. 5

Miscellaneous ..................................................................................................................................... 5

Personal Assessment .............................................................................................................................. 7

Appendix ................................................................................................................................................. 8

1

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to M/s Rekanan Jurutera Perunding for providing me the

opportunity to have the industrial training during the 12 weeks summer vacation period. I had gained

invaluable experience from my supervisors who are professional engineers of Institution of Engineers

Australia, United Kingdom and Malaysia to design and implement various projects. I would like to

thank my supervisor, Ir. Chuah Kean Huat for teaching me the practical structural design skills and Ir.

Chew Ching Chong for guiding me throughout the entire duration of my internship. Besides that, I

would like to thank my colleague and engineer, Mr. Tam Wai Kin for checking my calculations and

assisting me on the use of software in structural analysis and modelling.

Background

M/s Rekanan Jurutera Perunding is a chartered civil and structural engineering consultancy firm

which has been involved in projects both locally and internationally since 1966. The company

provides conceptual planning, management, design and supervision of construction works. Services

provided by the company can be summarised as follows:

Building, Civil and Structural Consultancy

Technical Consultancy For Local and Overseas Clients

Auditing and Validation of Design

Technical Support for Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Management (EPCM)

and also Commissioning (EPCC) Services

Co-ordinating Mechanical and Electrical, Process and Speciality Services

Implementation and Administration of Contract

M/s Rekanan Jurutera Perunding has wide experiences in industrial, commercial, residential,

institutional, civil works, agricultural developments, rehabilitation, and appraisal projects. The firm is

actively involved in the design and construction of palm oil refineries and other plants for downstream

palm oil products like biodiesel and oleo-chemicals. The company also planned and designed

factories for the manufacturing of semiconductor, electronics and electrical appliances, automotive

assembly plants as well as warehouses.

2

Project Management

Construction projects in Malaysia are mainly divided into two categories, namely, traditional or

turnkey. Traditional is still the most popular. Under this category, the client engages a civil and

structural engineer consultant. Documents comprising architectural drawings and material

specifications are prepared and submitted to relevant authorities for approval. Similar documents are

used for the tender to secure reasonable prices for construction. A tender report is compiled by the

engineer for a technical review before the final negotiation between contractor and client on the prices.

The consultant will award the tender on the instruction of the client for the building construction to

commence once approval is obtained from the authorities. The responsibility of the civil engineer is to

ensure that all drawings and specifications are complied with during the construction at site. Once the

building is completed, the contractor hands over the completed building to the owner or client. The

building is fit for use once the certificate of completion and compliance is issued by the engineer. The

following flow chart summarises the procedure.

Authority Submission &

Approval

Subject to

Approval

Consultant: Architect/ Civil & Structural Engineer

Client

Drawings

Documents for Tender Specifications

Tender Report

Technical Review

Negotiation Client & Contractor

Consultant Awards Tender

Contract Administration

Handing Over from Contractor to Client

Certificate of Completion and Compliance

Authority

Inspection

3

Projects Participated

Mewah Datu Palm Oil Refinery Complex Participation in this project was throughout the duration of the internship. Experiences gained

were site visitation, desk top calculations and usage of design software. Knowledge in mechanics of

solids and concrete structures are necessary to design the hydrant pump house. In addition, knowledge

in steel design is required to analyse the portal frame in the biomass boiler house.

The project is located in Lahad Datu which is to the east of the Borneo Island in Sabah, East

Malaysia. A site visit took place on the first week of the internship. Upon my arrival at the site, I

noticed that the site had been cleared of all vegetation.

To mitigate flooding downstream of the site, a water

detention pond was excavated as required by the law.

Earth drains were provided along the perimeter of the

site to capture the rainwater runoff to discharge into

the detention pond. This provision is also to trap the

sediments caused by rainwater runoff on the exposed

soil surface from causing siltation downstream of the

site. At the main drain discharge from the site, gabion

mattresses were designed to dissipate the flow and to

reduce erosion. This small but important structure

forms part of the good management practice (GMP) as

required by the local drainage authorities.

Various rock types were observed at the site which includes conglomerate, basalt and granite.

The presence of basalt and granite which are igneous rocks provides an indication of the history of

volcanic activity in the ground. Sedimentary rocks called conglomerate is basically a mixture of rocks

and sand cemented and compacted by lithification process. Such geology of the substrata presented a

challenge in the design of foundation. Basing on the borehole logs, it was decided to provide piles for

the foundation.

Figure 1: Gabions to reduce erosion

Figure 2: Conglomerate rock excavated Figure 3: Piling at site

4

At the site, I was instructed to check the pile locations to ensure that they conform to the

construction drawings. It was noted that cylindrical spun pile were originally proposed because it

provides better shaft resistance in clay soil conditions. However, due to economic reasons, the client

preferred to use square RC piles. I was assigned to check the pile capacity due to the effects of

eccentricity. Eccentricity occurs when the pile was driven more than 75mm away from its designated

position as specified on the construction drawings. Deviation can occur when piles are driven due to

wrongly pegged positions, displaced pegs or due to piles hitting a boulder or hard strata below. Basing

on the analysis it was found that the pile capacity is sufficient to withstand the additional moment,

with the worst eccentricity recorded at 98mm.

During the third week, a briefing was given to allow me to familiarise with various materials

used in construction. Among these materials is a gabion. Gabions are stones stacked and placed in

galvanised iron cages as a retaining structure to prevent soil erosion. Other materials are Webforge

grating and Bondek formwork which are commonly used as flooring for palm oil refineries.

Aluminium lourvers are sometimes installed instead of windows for natural ventilation in the building.

To enhance ventilation at the roof, ridge ventilators that work on Venturi’s principle are provided

along the apex of the roof. Supplier’s catalogues are helpful sources of information to aid the design

process by providing the self-weight, sectional properties and dimensions data.

Design tasks were assigned during the last two months of internship. I was assigned to design

the hydrant pump house consisting of steel roof truss, non load-bearing masonry, reinforced concrete

slab, beam and column. British Standard is the accepted code of reference for structural design in

Malaysia. Hence, the reinforced concrete slab, beam and column of the hydrant pump house were

designed according to BS 8110:1997. Loads such as pump machinery point load and non-load bearing

masonry are taken into account during the designing process. The concrete members are provided

with sufficient steel areas to cater for stresses due to bending moment and shear forces.

Besides that, I had the opportunity to use various softwares in the office to analyse structures

more efficiently. Softwares such as Tedds and Fastrak which are developed by CSC, a British

Engineering Software Company are used throughout the duration of training to aid design. Tedds can

be used to determine accurately the amount of steel necessary to withstand bending moment and shear

failure in RC beams. The roof truss is analysed using Fastrak which is a software used to check the

adequacy of steel truss members and steel columns.

Week 8 is devoted to design the steel structure of the biomass boiler house. The size of the

roof purlins necessary to support the roof sheeting is evaluated so that a proper size of lipped C

channel can be used. It is noted that the size of the lipped C channel is based on the serviceability

requirements. The portal frame analysis is necessary to determine the column and rafter size. Since

the bending moment is critical, universal beam is used for the column instead of universal column.

Castellated universal beam was used for the rafter with a long span of 30.4m. The advantage of using

the castellated beam is to minimise the weight of the rafter and also to allow any utility pipes to run

through. However, the cost of fabricating castellated beams is easily 20% higher compared to the

ordinary universal beam.

5

Crane gantry girdlers are designed to move heavy loads within a factory. I was assigned to

determine the size of the crane runner beam and stanchion. Loadings acting on the runner beam

include the crab, crane gantry girdler and beam self weights as well as the lifting load. A 25% impact

load is added as a precaution to the acceleration of the lifting load when it moves from rest. The load

transfer from crane runner beam to the stanchion is analysed by calculating the reactions acting on the

crane runner beam when one of the wheel loads is over the support. The stanchion is designed based

on the bending moment due to eccentricity and the axial loading from the reaction on the crane runner.

Cargill

The client wishes to upgrade the existing refinery by adding a high

pressure boiler and pre-heater tanks with a flooded weight of 93

tonnes. Therefore, the building height needs to be raised to

accommodate the vessels. Shallow foundations such as pad

footing are required to support the additional loads. I was involved

in this project for two weeks beginning from week 6 to 7. The

scope of works includes tender preparation, site visitation and

checking architectural drawings. The tenders submitted by

contractors are checked for arithmetic errors and rates of major

construction materials. I went for site inspection and check

whether there are any obstructions affecting the construction.

Miscellaneous Engineering involves the application of knowledge in various fields. I was assigned to create

an excel spreadsheet to calculate the pile capacity based on Effective Stress Analysis method, also

known as β-method. A comprehensive knowledge in Microsoft Excel and Geo-engineering was useful

to create such a spreadsheet. The objective of this task is to reduce the time needed for repetitive

manual calculations and hence, increase the efficiency of analysis.

On the 26th of January (Week 9), I visited an automobile assembly plant which was completed

by the firm several months ago. The site belonging to M/s Tan Chong Motors is located in Serendah,

Selangor. The area was reclaimed from a former mining pond. The purpose of the visit was to discuss

the installation of additional machinery in the manufacturing complex. Basing on the discussion with

the client and the contractor, the proposed work requires a tight schedule of four days to construct the

RC ground beams needed to transfer the load from the new machine to the existing piles. The

manufacturing complex is divided into four main sections namely warehouse building, body shop

building, paint shop building and the trim and chassis building. The proposed site for the new

machine is situated in the body shop building.

Figure 4: Upgrade of existing refinery

6

After the site meeting, I had the opportunity to tour the assembly plant which starts from the

warehouse building. Crates of vehicle components are stacked and stored in the warehouse. Each

crate weighs 300kg on average. Due to adverse subsoil conditions, piles were designed to support a

floor load of 1.5 tonne per square metre. The steel materials are transported to the body shop building

for assembly by forklifts. The assembly process is semi-automated and many trenches were provided

to install the tracks and cables. Besides the self-weight, the roof trusses were designed to support

some robotic machinery. The slender columns supporting the roof truss is restrained by the platform

of the machinery and encased with concrete.

Next, the car steel frame is hot-dipped galvanised and painted in the paint shop. The resulting

wastewater from these processes is channelled to the wastewater treatment plant to remove dissolved

heavy metal ions and nitrates. Car components are installed within 20 stations in the trim and chassis

building. Components like steering wheel, dashboard, tyres, car seats, gear box and engine are

installed by the workers while the conveyor belt is moving slowly. This is to ensure that the workers

install the assigned car parts promptly on schedule. Finally, the finished car product is washed and

tested on the track.

Figure 6: Car frames lined up in paint shop building

Figure 5: Tan Chong Motor Assembly Plant, Serendah, Selangor

7

Personal Assessment

Internship was an eye-opening experience where engineering knowledge is applied critically

to solve problems by providing the most economical solutions in terms of limited space, construction

time constraint while complying with the authorities’ requirements. I have learned the tender process

and the design of structures. Co-operation between engineers and draftsmen are necessary to translate

designs into drawings. These drawings are necessary for submission to authorities, tendering,

contractors to construct and for the client’s reference. The project management style implemented by

the firm is very practical to me since it provides a clear understanding of the responsibility of

engineers and contractor engaged by the client. Engineers are grounded to ensure that they understand

the fundamentals of technical knowledge through manual calculations before being exposed to

softwares. Experience gained from the application of these tools will certainly be an asset in future

projects.

Moreover, I was privileged to visit several sites and gained an insight about various plant

operations. This experience will provide me an understanding about the importance of planning and

site layout by taking into consideration client’s logistics, labour utilisation and future expansion plans.

Another significant aspect that must be observed at the site is the health and safety of workers.

Usually, the client would require the contractor’s workers to undergo a safety induction course

conducted by a safety officer before they are allowed to be deployed at site. During construction, it is

compulsory for workers to wear a safety helmet, safety boots and goggles to avoid any undesirable

accidents form happening. Where work has to be done at high elevation, workers are required to wear

a safety harness.

Furthermore, I realised the importance of several units learned such as design of steel,

concrete, solid mechanics and geo-engineering in applying to the civil and structural consultancy. I

can also foresee that the work experience will give me the edge to obtain a better understanding in

future subjects such as project management and building structures. From this short-term experience, I

have acquired the basic skills in project management where teamwork is of paramount importance.

All these experiences will spur me on to pursue a carrier as a consulting civil and structural engineer

in the future.

8

Appendix

Appendix 1: Mewah Datu site location

Appendix 2: Hydrant Pump House architectural drawing

9

Appendix 3: Hydrant Pump House structural drawing

Appendix 4: Steel structure analysis of Hydrant Pump House using Fastrak software

10

Appendix 5: Structural detail of portal frame

Appendix 6: Sketches on portal frame joint

11

Appendix 7: Roof purlin manual calculation