This course is a broad overview of one field of civil engineering, namely onshore structural design. The different structures involved in a plant facility is discussed along with the design of the supports. The basic structures include: horizontal vessels, vertical vessels, above ground steel storage tanks and pipe racks. A birds eye view of different plant facility types is simplified. This has been made possible as plants, petrochemical and industrial facilities comprise of similar structures, although for different purposes. Thus for someone new to this field of civil engineering, this course takes one to a professional level.

The course starts off with an elevated view of plant, petrochemical and industrial facilities. With this view, a summary of the similarity between the different facilities is described. Afterwards, considerations for the layout design of a plant facility is covered. Then focus shifts to atmosphere for explosion, ATEX zones.

Next up is the design of supports for horizontal vessels. For this course, horizontal vessels are subdivided into 2 types. Heat exchangers and horizontal vessels. The different load cases and the side of the horizontal support to be designed is highlighted. Afterwards, vertical vessels are designed for. For vertical vessels, the two important supporting components are the pedestal and the footing segments. The criteria for selection of either a square or an octagonal pedestal/footing is described.

Afterwards, the design of above steel storage tank is done. Unlike the horizontal and vertical vessels which are supplied by a manufacturer, the above ground storage tank is in whole designed by a structural engineer.

The course closes with a look at pipe rack configuration design and load estimation. The pipe rack is basically a frame structure. How to generate the distance between the frames is covered in the course. As well as selection of structural members and estimation of load.

Included in the course are downloadable manual calculation sheets. These calculation sheets are to be studied and then the steps replicated for the calculation assignment. References to code have been done in a stepwise manner to aid understanding of manual calculations and the relevant codes of practice.