Re-use of Furnace Foundations on Shell Moerdijk Plant (NL) - Process to accommodate extra loads on the piled foundation plate

In early 1970s, Shell built 16 industrial furnaces for the Shell Moerdijk Chemicals Plant. Each pair of furnaces included 60 m high steel structures, based on a 14 x 16 m2 concrete plate with a 4.5 x 14.5 m2 “outrigger.” The foundation plate is supported by 50-piece 380x380 mm2 precast concrete piles. In the Shell Skyline Project, Shell renews 8 of these 16 furnaces, by re-using the furnace foundations. For the cracking furnaces, the upper part (convection section and steel structure) of the existing furnaces will be removed and replaced with a larger, heavier and higher convection section and steel structure. For the rejuvenated furnace not to exceed weight, a limit was set at 960T for a furnace pair. Over the past 6 years, a wide variety of partners worked closely together in order to serve the Skyline project with the correct input to accommodate the new Skyline module structure on the existing foundations and make the project successful. Therefore, extensive studies and investigations, as well as geotechnical and other various calculations, have been undertaken to accommodate the new furnace modules on the existing furnace foundations. These studies were mainly focused on: Integrity status of foundation Increase of the bearing capacity of the foundation, linear and non-linear Rigorous weight control in all phases of the projectKeynote addres