Nortech Solutions Group Ltd. provides professional engineering design, project and construction management assistance services to the oil and gas, process, petrochemical, chemical, iron, steel and energy industries both in the U.K. and internationally. Nortech works closely with clients to develop and deliver a project from Concept Engineering (CE), Basic Engineering (BE) and Detailed Engineering (DE) with the production of Approved For Construction (AFC) deliverables across a number of market sectors.
Identifying goals
Nortech was selected to engineer and design a new plant for Jersey Gas, a liquefied petro gas importer owned by International Energy Group.
Jersey Gas’ original manufacturing plant could not efficiently operate based on the seasonal differences in energy demand, and at peak times it was running with minimum spare capacity. The new plant needed to avoid these challenges, and rise to demands, allowing the existing gas holder to be withdrawn out of service and the associated land to be sold for further development. The main drivers for the project were to improve the security of supply and to remove the need for thebgas holder.
Existing plant information was to be retrieved in CloudScan and Navisworks formats, of which only simplistic data models had been produced. Octave solutions were used for more complex plant and construction design to ensure the completion of the project according to a tight delivery schedule.
Overcoming challenges
A tight time schedule and limitations to the available data model affected the engineering and design process. Nortech needed a solution to ensure clash-free design with efficient 3D design capabilities, the ability to produce and revise isometrics and the ability to create bills of materials.
Nortech chose Forte 3DWorx and Autodesk Navisworks for their familiarity and AutoCAD®-based 3D design capabilities.
The 3D design began with the creation of piping specifications along with existing, modified and new piping catalogues. The piping modelling commenced after the creation of the specifications.
Forte 3DWorx was also used for the structural, civil and mechanical design. After this, all the isometric drawings were produced with Isogen, enabling automated isometric creation tailored to Nortech’s needs. Piping support details and generic 3D design were also created with Hexagon tools. Moreover, the 3D design was transferred into a fully dimensional 2D format for fabrication purposes.
Aspect Pipe Stress was used for pipe stress analysis throughout the project. The interoperability of Aspect Pipe Stress and Forte 3DWorx enabled quick and highly successful information transfers between the solutions. This provided an effective and cost-saving way to easily define a piping system analysis model.
Realizing results
Working with Forte 3DWorx and Navisworks gave Nortech’s engineering department an overall view of the 40-plus separate 3D files and helped the team keep track of the design processes. The models could be easily viewed within Nortech as well as readily shared with the client.
Forte 3DWorx was used to:
Create piping and structural design in both 3D and 2D formats
Automatically generate accurate isometrics
Define pipe support details
Create layouts and bills of materials
Moving forward
Following the successful Jersey Gas project, Nortech has implemented Forte 3DWorx in the majority of its projects, predominantly for piping design. Octave’s tools are currently used on a wide range of brownfield topside projects, including caisson replacements, FEED studies and complete projects across a number of North Sea offshore facilities.
