Pushing the Boundary of Engineering Design of Met-Mast and Telecom Masts

KAEG started 2019 by delivering the engineering design of a 110m lattice tower for telecommunication and meteorological operations in mainland Europe.

This design included the application of detailed wind action on the structure accounting for terrain roughness, orography, turbulence, and structural dynamic factor. However, in addition to the typical environmental load combinations of wind and ice, National regulatory standards required that the lattice tower also satisfy earthquake (seismic) loading.

The design and analysis considered tower important class IV (typical for uninterrupted emergency services response and communications) to ensure that the tower remains operational during and after seismic events.

The design was delivered to accelerated schedule and in accordance with EN 1998-4:2004 and EN 1998:6-2005. This was a challenging but successful project with excellent client feedback on how KAEG team handled and delivered itemised scope to high professional standards.

Contact our expert team at: info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs.

KAEG Visit to Helping Hand Charity

KAEG visited the Charity Helping Hand to show our support and appreciation for their good work. KAEG made a charitable contribution to Helping Hand to mark this season of sharing and goodwill.

Helping Hand supports the immediate needs of children and their parents at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children. The organisation provided a great deal of support for one of staff during a challenging episode when a family member was involved in an accident.

Although still in relative infancy, we at KAEG are very clear about what kind of company we want to be: the kind that shares its successes no matter how small or large with its community. As we celebrate this season we encourage everyone to stop and reflect on how we can support others in dire need with our time and resources.

At KAEG, we take the welfare of our staff seriously. We do not count numbers but unique individuals who are also entitled to succeed as they contribute to the success of KAEG business and stakeholders. As such, KAEG’s visit to Helping Hand is dedicated to the memory of a dear loved family member of one of our staff who is more than a colleague.

Telecoms: Installation Witnessing of Tower and Foundation Design

Great to see one of our detailed engineering design of lattice tower foundation successfully constructed in a challenging terrain with technical support and witnessing provided by one of our seasoned KAEG engineers. KA Engineering Group not only completes structural due diligence for all telecommunication support structures, we take pride in extending operators’ assets life, optimising and improving capacity whilst ensuring confidence and enhancing in-service safety. We take responsible steps to consider, advise, and optimise each site, ensuring cost effective design, installation, and maintenance for build contractors and efficient utilisation for operators.

We are finding that an increasing number of towers (lattice and monopoles), standard or bespoke are being sanctioned to meet growing demand from telecommunications and meteorological services. These towers require expert structural engineering with flexibility to conform to British Codes and Standard, European Design Standards, and other international Design Standards in-line with the region of operations and operators’ requirement. The engineering must be holistic, taking into consideration safety and quality which feeds into activities such as procurement, fabrication, delivery, and installation maximise cost efficiency and minimise delivery schedule.

Please contact our expert team at: info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs.

Detailed Structural Design and Analysis of Lattice (GDC)

Great to see one of our detailed engineering design schemes successfully fabricated, delivered to site, and ready to be installed. We are finding that an increasing number of towers (lattice and monopoles), standard or bespoke are being sanctioned to meet growing demand from telecommunications and meteorological service.

These towers require expert structural engineering to ensure that the build is cost efficient and delivered to schedule. The engineering must be holistic, taking into consideration safety and quality which feeds into activities such as procurement, fabrication, delivery, and installation to avoid/minimise downtime in the process. The engineering is expected to be flexible in conformance to British Codes and Standard, European Design Standards, and other International Design Standards in-line with the region of operations and operators’ requirement.

KA Engineering Group not only completes structural due diligence for all telecommunication support structures, we take pride in extending operators’ assets life, optimising and improving capacity whilst ensuring confidence and enhancing in-service safety. We take responsible steps to consider, advise, and optimise each site, ensuring cost effective design, installation, and maintenance for build contractors and efficient utilisation for operators.

Contact our expert team at: info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs.

Optimising and Improving Tower Capacity

Great to see one of the engineering strengthening design schemes successfully fabricated and installed. We take pride in extending operators’ assets life, optimising and improving capacity to meet growing demands due to upgrades, ensuring confidence and enhancing in-service safety.

Increasing number of assets are being decommissioned due to the exceedance of tower capacity caused by growing demands to support technological upgrades involving bigger and heavier antennas. Appropriate engineering of these towers can help define and specify strengthening schemes to improve the tower capacity which can be cost and time effective benefits to operators and stakeholders.

KA Engineering Group not only completes structural due diligence for all telecommunication support structures, we also take further responsible steps to consider, advise, and optimise each site, ensuring cost effective design, installation, and maintenance for build contractors and efficient utilisation for operators. We are experienced in delivering structural design to European codes, British standards and other specified National and International design standards.

Contact our expert team at: info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs.

Assessing Wall and Connections for Reusable Wall Mounted Ancillary Steelwork

In our previous blog (click here to read), we discussed the structural and health and safety concerns arising from the increasing number of wall mounted ancillary failures recorded in recent times. These failures are often due to the growing need to utilise existing wall mounted steelworks to support bigger and heavier antennas without appropriate structural assessment.

In this post, we offer advice on how to structurally assess reusable wall mounted steelwork for new installations. The advice is valid for both major types of mounted steelwork connections:

  • Chemical resin connection – where are anchors buried into the fabric of the wall.
  • Mechanical connection – where anchors are put through the wall and fixed to backing-plates on the inner wall fabric.

An appropriate structural engineering methodology to assess the suitability of existing wall mounted systems must include:

  1. Complete non-intrusive structural inspection of existing mounted steelwork to determine;
    • Type and condition of anchor connections to wall;
    • Nature and type of wall (block/brick work and mortar joints) including natural degradation leading to loss of integrity of wall capacity and connections;
    • Presence of though-wall or surface cracks;
    • Presence of internal face back-plates;
    • Installation near wall edges and on mortar joints;
    • Inadequate and porous resin around anchors and loosed bolts;
    • Existing steelwork dimensions;
  2. Structural testing of existing steelwork anchors to obtain wall pull-out proof loads in accordance with guidelines from the Construction Fixings Association (CFA);
  3. Numerical structural analysis of existing steelwork for the proposed new antennas/dishes incorporating findings from part (1) to;
    • Establish that the utilisation of existing steel work for new loads is within allowable capacity
    • Establish that the new anchor pull-out loads to compare are within pull-out test capacity obtained via intrusive inspection in part (2).

KA Engineering Group not only completes structural due diligence for all telecommunication, subsea risers, onshore and offshore renewable wind turbines support structure, we also take further responsible steps to consider, advise, and optimise each site/field, ensuring cost effective design, installation, and maintenance for build contractors and efficient utilisation for operators.

Contact our expert team at: info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs.

Inspecting Wall and Connections for Reusable Wall Mounted Ancillary Steelwork

Wall mounted steelworks are an acceptable and standard option of supporting telecommunications ancillaries, especially within urban areas where strict planning restrictions limit the use of lattice towers and monopoles. The ancillaries are typically mounted on steel support poles that are offset from the wall using steel brackets and/or stub arm to the wall.

The steelwork is connected to the wall via:

  • Chemical resin connection – where anchors buried into the fabric of the wall.
  • Mechanical connection – where anchors are put through the wall and fixed to backing-plates on the inner wall fabric.

The anchor design may use 2 or 4 anchor stud configurations per connection as per structural requirement.

There is a growing need to utilise existing wall mounted steelworks to support bigger and heavier antennas due to continuous technological improvements and ancillary upgrade to meet increasing demands. However, re-using existing wall mounted steelwork to support these bigger and heavier antennas is not without structural and health and safety concerns as evidenced by the increasing number of failures recorded in recent times.

These failures are partly due to inadequate structural assessment to account for increased loading from the proposed antennas/dishes. The proposed ancillaries may impose loads that are greater the design capacity of existing steelworks and associated connections to the wall causing failure.

The challenge is to define suitable methodology to structurally assess existing wall mounted systems to ensure safe reusability. We will discuss methods and solutions to this issue in more detail in the next blog.

However, the salient points for consideration when assessing these installations include:

  • Inadequate original design (including reusability assessment) and proof testing of anchors to Construction Fixings Association (CFA);
  • Insufficient spacing between top and bottom connections to wall;
  • Mortar joints between bricks and/or block work;
  • Cracked bricks and/or block work;
  • Installation near wall edges and on mortar joints;
  • Inadequate and porous resin around anchors and loosed bolts;
  • Age and nature of building- natural degradation leading to loss of integrity of wall capacity and connections;
  • Correct fabrication and installation of original steelwork and connection to wall.

KA Engineering Group not only completes structural due diligence for all telecommunication, subsea risers, onshore and offshore renewable wind turbines support structure, we also take further responsible steps to consider, advise, and optimise each site/field, ensuring cost effective design, installation, and maintenance for build contractors and efficient utilisation for operators.

Contact our expert team at: info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs.

KAEG Achieves ISO 9001:2015 Accreditation

Achieving our ISO 9001:2015 certification is fantastic news and means our valued customers have complete assurance that KA Engineering Group Limited operates to the highest quality standards and that all regulatory requirements are met for our client-focused services while we continually strive to maintain and improve these standards that set us apart.

One of the new parts of ISO 9001:2015 certification is to continually examine the risks and opportunities for improvement and to put in place operational controls to effectively manage and measure our performance.

It also helps us measure customer satisfaction and enables us to continually improve our efficient processes to ensure we identify all present customer needs and identify and assess future requirements, as customer satisfaction has always been a fundamental part of our business.

We are proud of our achievement and will strive to continually improve the quality of our services and operations that in turn increases the satisfaction of our clients, employees, shareholders, suppliers & society at large! Congratulations to the KAEG team for this achievement!

KA Engineering Group does not only complete structural due diligence for all telecommunication, subsea risers, onshore and offshore renewable wind turbines support structure, we also take further responsible steps to consider, advise, and optimise each site/field, ensuring cost effective design, installation, and maintenance for build contractors and efficient utilisation for operators.

Contact us or email our expert team at: info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs

Overview of Telecom Support Structures

The ever-increasing demand for mobile telecommunication, radio, radar, and television communications means that more and more individuals (technical and non-technical) are encountering the telecoms industry. There is therefore the need for a simplified overview/general specification to provide internal and external stakeholders/investors, users, non-technical and technical professionals with the basic knowledge and understanding of telecoms structural engineering.

This post presents the various key classes of telecommunication support structures that are instrumental in the continued success of data transmission.

Self-Supporting Monopole Towers

Monopole towers comprise of constant tapered steel tubes or segmented tubular steel section that are welded or bolted to each other to form a pole decreasing in diameter from the bottom to the top. Sections are usually made from hollow, heavy duty, thick steel tubes, flanged steel tubes or low-alloy, high-strength steel, finished to meet required local aesthetics.

 

Self-Supporting Lattice Towers

Self-supporting lattice also known as free-standing lattice tower structures consist of truss sections joined to form tapered or straight panel sections. The tapered panel sections have face width that vary according to height and load capacity. Lattice towers can have triangular (tripod) or square (quadpod) footprint. The truss members are commonly hollow tube, equal angle, or solid round bar. Although other section types such as folded (<90deg) steel angle are possible.

 

Guyed or Stayed Lattice or Monopole Towers

These are lattice or monopole towers similar in design to the self-supporting tower class except that they are further stabilised by tethered wire or rope systems. Guy wires are made from pre-stretched steel only and care must be taken to ensure that they are not be over tightened during installation and in-service to avoid misalignment, cable rupture and permanent wrapping of the tower structural members. Additionally, structural design of the guy anchor shall consider the nature and bearing capacity of the soil.

 

Roof and Wall Elevated Mounts

Roof and wall elevated mounts can be an inexpensive way of elevating signals above roof interference or other obstructions by mounting the equipment atop an already high and stable structure (e.g. rooftop of a high-rise building). Roof mounts can be penetrating (impacting) or non-penetrating (non-impacting) installations and can also be self-supporting or guyed. In all cases, structural checks and certification by competent engineering team must be made to establish the capability of the roof to withstand the additional imposed loads due to the proposed ancillaries and steelwork installations.

 

KA Engineering Group does not only complete structural due diligence for all these telecommunication support structure classes, we also take further responsible steps to consider, advise, and optimise each site, ensuring cost effective installation and maintenance for build contractors and efficient utilisation for operators.

Contact our expert team at: info@ka-engroup.com to learn more and discuss how we can best serve your needs

GDPR Compliance

KA Engineering Group (KAEG) is a structural engineering consultancy specialising in the structural design and analysis of telecommunications towers and foundations, onshore and offshore wind turbine support structures and subsea riser systems. We take the privacy of our users seriously. This policy explains our data processing practices.


The information we collect about you:

We collect and process Personal Data relating to you in connection to our relationship with you. This Personal Data will typically include:  name, address, email address, telephone, company and occupation.

For those who contact us, view and interact with our website, we may process data to include you in our mailing or when you request to through our website. You can opt out of receiving such communications at any time by simply emailing info@ka-engroup.com. We may retain this data until you unsubscribe from our mailing list.

How we collect this information:

As you use our services, make enquiries and engage with us, information may be gathered about you.  We collect information about you when you contact us, when you are copied in communications with our company and when you complete the Contact us or New enquiry form on our website. We may also collect information about you from other people and other parties, for example, as part of a tender application or submission.


How we use this information:
The Personal Data that is referred to above will be processed for the purposes of supplying you with our newsletter and informing you about events that we may organise. Our legal basis for collecting and using this information in accordance with the provisions of this Data Privacy Notice is:

  • Our legitimate interest in the administration and operation of our business.
  • Sharing information with you about topics relevant to the industry.

Who we share your information with:
We do not share your information with third parties. If we require your data to be shared we will do so with your consent for example in the partaking of a tender process.

How long we hold your information:
The length of time we hold your data depends on a number of factors, such as regulatory rules and the type of data we hold about you.

Where you have provided consent for the use of your Personal Data, you can withdraw it at any time by sending an email to info@ka-engroup.com.


Your rights:

  • You have the following rights:
  • The right to ask what personal data we hold about you.
  • The right to ask us to update and correct any out-of-date or incorrect personal data that we hold about you free of charge.
  • The right to opt out of any marketing communications that we may send you.
  • The right to have any personal data we hold about you erased or blocked within 30 days of the receipt of such a request from you.

If you wish to exercise any of the above rights, please contact us by email.

Changes to this notice:
We will update this Data Privacy Notice from time to time. Any changes will be made available on this page and, where appropriate, may be notified to you by email.