Schools & Higher Education

Manchester University, Steam Main Extension

Overview:

The prestigious project had an extreme set of complex engineering and structual design requirements due to the concerns raised by WML Consulting (Project Structural Engineers) at the design stage. Both the main consultant Jacobs and WML needed assurances that the anchor forces that need to be contained when providing a high pressure steam bearing thermal expansion solution would not have an adverse effect on the existing brickwork and concrete floors & walls.

Stourflex’s design accommodated the requirements of both the Logstor preinsulated pipework and the consultants and our calculations showed the forces which were generated by and needed to be contained when the expansion joints were installed, Stourflex also introduced Sikla to the project to carry the pipework both underground and in the existing trenches, by utilising Sikla’s Simotec Ultraglide pipe shoes (Stourflex type JP155) mounted on engineered siFramo frames, we were able to substantially reduce the anchor forces that would have been generated by traditional supports.