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This webinar was co-sponsored by ASCE's Structural Engineering Institute (SEI) and ASCE Continuing Education

Instructor:  Alexander Newman, P.E., F.ASCE

Course Length: 1.5 Hours

Purpose and Background

Machinery and equipment typically found in industrial and process facilities often exert dynamic loads on their foundations. Designing these foundations is quite complicated, much more so than the design of the foundations that support buildings and statically loaded equipment. (The latter is addressed in the companion ASCE webinar, Design of Foundations for Equipment Supports.) This topic is rarely, if ever, included in the engineering college curricula, and the engineers are left to learn on the job. Yet the stakes are high: The failure of an incorrectly designed machine foundation can lead to damaged equipment and to expensive downtime.

Many engineering firms that specialize in the design of industrial facilities and heavy-equipment foundations have developed a wealth of in-house design standards, but this information is not available to others. As a result, and because of the design complexity involving dynamic analysis and specialized software, some engineers have used simplistic rules-of-thumb without understanding the limitations of such shortcuts.

The purpose of the webinar is to provide an overview of the practical methods used for the design of dynamically loaded machine and equipment foundations. The attendees will learn about the differences between the foundations for statically and dynamically loaded equipment, which design data should be provided by the equipment manufacturer, which design procedures are available, and when making simplified assumptions is appropriate. The presentation includes a number of short calculations that illustrate various facets of the design.

The structural engineers who design foundations for heavy machinery generally need input of multiple parties. Among them are the equipment manufacturers who provide the dynamic properties of their products and the geotechnical consultants who provide the soil parameters needed for the analysis of soil behavior under dynamic loading. The presentation describes how their data fits into the overall foundation design. The audience is encouraged to ask questions throughout the webinar, which concludes with the final Questions and Answers opportunity.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Recognize of the differences between the foundations for statically and dynamically loaded equipment
• Greater comprehension of available foundation systems for supporting dynamically loaded machinery and equipment
• Familiarization with the design procedures available for the machine and equipment foundations subjected to dynamical loading

Webinar Benefits

• Explore the contemporary machine-foundation systems
• Discover the available methods of designing foundations for dynamically loaded equipment
• Find out when simplified design assumptions are appropriate and when sophisticated software must be used instead
• Find out how isolation systems can minimize the response to dynamic loading
• Use an opportunity to ask the instructor questions

Assessment of Learning Outcomes

Students' achievement of the learning outcomes will be assessed via a short post-assessment (true-false, multiple choice and fill in the blank questions).

Intended Audience

Structural and civil engineers seeking to increase their knowledge of designing foundations for dynamically loaded machines and equipment.

Webinar Outline

• Introduction to machines and equipment
• Types of foundations for dynamically loaded machines and equipment
• Design criteria and methods
• Tips for practical foundation design
• Conclusion, final Q and A

How to Earn your CEUs/PDHs and Receive Your Certificate of Completion

To receive your certificate of completion, you will need to complete a short on-line post-test and receive a passing score of 70% or higher within 1 year of purchasing the course.

How do I convert CEUs to PDHs?

1.0 CEU = 10 PDHs [Example: 0.1 CEU = 1 PDH]