Refinery column scaffolding

Performance

Several challenges were to be mastered:

• Due to the short lead time, not all the necessary information about existing site conditions were available.
• In addition, there were two containers to be lifted through the scaffold, so there was a need to create a path.
• The column itself was not strong enough to take the extra wind loads due to the scaffold.
  

Solution
To gain more insights about the site conditions, 3D scans were carried out. Those 3D scans were then stitched together to make the best possible design. This allowed for a very accurate solution and minimized clashes. BrandSafway has an industry leading 3D scanning team for applications like this.

To face the challenge of lifting two containers through the scaffold during the turnaround, the scaffold was designed in a way that the upper part would be stabilized by truss beams. By doing so, the area of the scaffold blocking the lift of the containers could temporarily be removed.

Furthermore, the column would not be strong enough to hold the extra wind loads due to the scaffold, as the max. allowable bending moment at the bottom of the column was 2000 kNm. The scaffold would introduce a bending moment of about 3100 kNm at the bottom, which was too much. To solve this problem, it was decided that the upper 12 meter of the scaffold would be disassembled when the wind speed would reach 54 km/h, thus reducing the bending moment to 1950 kNm <2000 kNm.