Nice looking legs Joshua. The project is like a rocket launch or a major building. Everything covered in every detail. The environment 9 m up will be cooler for sure and probably more balanced in the day as well as the night. The uplift will be severe in a big wind so I imagine you have some deep concrete under there.
Thanks Ray, to hold down the structure, there is about 11.5 tonne of concrete... 8 legs with each having a concrete pile poured underneath it, 600mm diameter and 2000mm deep at least, should give me just over 4m3 in total for the outer frame.
I suppose the structure itself must weigh a few tons also.
Good deep piers below the weather sound good. I suppose it would be a little over the top drilling for rock in that flat stable location but a nuisance if you hit it.
I see each meerkat SKA dish has 8 concrete piles 5-10m deep and that is to stay perfectly located . So you are getting up there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joshua Bunn
Thanks Lads,
Thanks Ray, to hold down the structure, there is about 11.5 tonne of concrete... 8 legs with each having a concrete pile poured underneath it, 600mm diameter and 2000mm deep at least, should give me just over 4m3 in total for the outer frame.
Been a full on 2 weekends.
I got the 8 holes drilled for the outer frame, 4 holes drilled for the inner frame and 8 holes drilled for the solar panel frames. They were all concreted aswell. Good to have that done.
Used a long rope from the telehandler to find north
Josh
Last edited by Joshua Bunn; 10-08-2020 at 07:10 PM.
Pretty sure those solar panels won't blow away Joshua. Every now and then an epic project comes up on this forum. The last one for me was Stefan Buda's telescope. Now this beauty! Love it and looking forward to seeing the end result.
Cheers, Richard
Nothing quite like finishing a set of drilled and filled pier footings. Must be very satisfying. I like your set out technique with the welded bar. Did you batch the concrete on site ?
You've got some serious gear, hydraulic auger attachment and all.
Your site looks very exposed with the wind. You've mentioned the solar panels catching up. How bad does it get there? Are the footings going to be enough or are you going to hand some kind of weight under the tower to minimise sway and vibrations?
Marc, yes it's quite a windy site, but placing it up high on a mound I'm hoping it will help with seeing conditions. The outer frame can sway a bit that's not a problem, the inner frame which is the Square pyramid (my "pier") does not touch the outer frame at all and there is not much of a sail area for that to catch the wind.it is held down well and extremely rigid. As for vibrations on it, we will see. I can always clad the outer frame to deflect wind away from the ones frame.
Marc, yes it's quite a windy site, but placing it up high on a mound I'm hoping it will help with seeing conditions. The outer frame can sway a bit that's not a problem, the inner frame which is the Square pyramid (my "pier") does not touch the outer frame at all and there is not much of a sail area for that to catch the wind.it is held down well and extremely rigid. As for vibrations on it, we will see. I can always clad the outer frame to deflect wind away from the ones frame.
Not really worried about the tower itself as it doesn't present a big surface area to the wind but your box at the top will. Just thinking of keeping the center of gravity of the whole build as low as possible. If your solar panel frame was enough to move with no panels on it must be blowing a gale out there. Imagine with panels.
Yes, the box at the top does, but I have used the correct amount of anchoring (concrete mass to depth) so it will stay put, and the frame, well that's strong enough. The solar panel frames moved because they were not concreted in yet 🙂