Coal Handling Facility

Valdes Engineering Company was selected by a major material handling supplier to provide the detailed structural and mechanical designs associated with a new coal railcar unloading facility for a power plant. In addition to the unloading building, Valdes designed seven associated transfer structures and seven 72" wide conveyors with an overall length of more than 6,000 feet and operating rate of 4,400 tons per hour.

For the structural analysis and design, Valdes utilized the RISA-3D software package, incorporating the various operating loads associated with the conveyor system as well as the project site's design coastal level wind forces.

In lieu of using "rule of thumb" or general CEMA guidelines for the design of the chutework, Valdes utilized Discreet Element Modeling (DEM) to simulate the flow of the coal to ensure that the chutes will perform as intended, and that plugging, dusting, wear, and several other potential damaging operational problems were fully understood and resolved during the design.

The total installed cost (TIC) of this facility was approximately $30MM.