3666. Weight Distribution for On-Shore Modules

Paper

Abstract

Weight Distribution analysis has not been a common practice in the On-Shore Modular Engineering and Construction industry. In the past, most on-shore projects have used ‘stick built’ (built on-site) construction methods. Today, however, many on-shore project facilities are being built off-site using modular construction methods and are then transported to the project site.
The on-shore modular transportation phases may include: Loadout (loading the module on a barge from the fabricator’s yard), On-barge (transporting module from one location to another via the barge), Offload (offloading the module from the barge to a pier and/or staging area), Stacking (combining multiple modules, lifting and stacking), Land Transport (transport from pier, staging area, or barge to final setting location – may be many kilometers, see Figure 1), and Setting (final setting in place and/or lifting into place). Analysis is required by the barge contractor and SPMT contractor to verify the stability of the load while in their custody. The company provides the contractors with the weights and center of gravities (CoG’s) of the module for each phase. Offshore projects have used modular construction for many years, but the modules do not have a large land transportation phase (typically Loadout, Offloading, and/or Stacking).
I asked our Self Propelled Modular Transporter (SPMT) contractor if they would like me to produce a plot of how the weight is distributed along the major axis (lengthwise) of the module. They had not seen this done before and were interested. This demonstration forms the basis of this paper. The software code that was developed for this analysis used Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) within Microsoft Excel. A simplified approach was made using lower level summary data such as available in the weight report, not the lowest level detail from the CAD model (PDMS). This data includes the weight and CoG’s of each item in the weights database.