Industrial Structure

Industrial Structure

A structure designed to fulfill a specific function in industry or to support or house equipment, raw materials, or communication lines. In modern industrial construction, more than 25 percent of the total cost of construction and installation work is attributed to industrial structures. There are more than 100 different types of industrial structures. They are conventionally divided into the following major groups:

1. structures to support and house production machinery, including foundations for equipment and machines, bases for installing industrial apparatus, caissons, and racks.

2. Transportation structures, including overpasses, unloading and crane platforms, and tunnels for conveyors

3. Communication structures, including conduits and pipelines for electrical power networks and for transmitting raw materials, tunnels, power transmission line towers, communication line poles, illumination masts, and chimneys;

4. Tanks for gaseous and liquid products and bulk materials and structures for ventilation, drainage, and water and gas supply systems, including bunkers, gasholders, oil storage tanks, silos, water towers and pressure reservoirs, spray ponds, cooling towers, settling reservoirs, water intake works, and sewage treatment plants;

Industrial structures are most characteristic of the chemical, metallurgical, and mining industries. Their use is  rising as a result of the increasing tendency to place industrial equipment in the open areas outside industrial premises and the increasing concentration of equipment in industrial plants. Most industrial structures are mainly reinforced-concrete and steel structures, including supports, platforms, chimneys, silos, and tanks. In some cases, structures of bonded wood are suitable for platforms and ventilating towers. Increased efficiency in the construction of industrial structures is achieved by using prefabricated and by standardization of the entire structure or its separate elements. Standard designs have been developed for many industrial structures, which make possible the employment of advanced technical ideas and the most efficient use of existing production facilities in the construction industry.