Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog

After a blogging space I thought I’d let you all know what I’m up to. Shortly before Christmas I finished with John Holland and moved across to the Sydney office of Norman Disney and Young, Norman Disney and Young are a services design consultancy that cover the full spectrum of services consulting (hyd, Fire, Mech, Elec, Comms etc…) and employ 600 employees spread over about 13 offices worldwide. For the time being that includes Ollie in Perth an Me here in Sydney.

My main project at the moment is the Mechanical Services design development of an extension/newbuild and refurbishment of a private hospital in Sydney. The refurbishment includes 5 floor of wards with some 40 beds per floor in an existing 70s built hospital, upgrading the existing to ensure the design is code compliant. The seventies seem to have been a laisse faire time over here with respect to building design and the upgrade includes upgrading of the fire and exhaust systems, as well as upgrade of all he Mech plant. Staged in such a way that the hospital can remain open while the work is done, taking out 2-3 floors only at a time, which poses SIGNIFICANT design constraints. The slab to slab of the existing hospital is 3 metres, with the slab 300mm ‘waffle’ type construction. The ceiling heights are required to be 2.4 meters which gives only 300 mm ceiling void to run all services.

The second part is the construction of a new 14 storey hospital extension. which I am currently developing the Mechanical design for. The building has a number of different uses, all of which help make the design a real headache. The basement is a Laundry, the floor above is a canteen, then office space, operating theatres and the associated sterile spaces, wards, and the top 3 floors are consulting suites for private consulants, all on a floor print of less than 100 square metres.

The design development is due around April which should keep me busy, and NDY is also leading on Electrical and Fire design for the same project, so i’m intending to get some experience in both these areas as well.

Duct Design

For all you E&M 56s out there, I wanted to let you know about the Ductulator! Having struggled to get to grips with the constant friction loss method of duct sizing, I wrote a TMR last year going into detail of Friction loss duct sizing approach verses static regain, so I fully understood the process. It turns out there is an easier way:

Step in the duculator:

This simple but effective bit of kit is, apparently an essential on any self respecting Mech designers desk. As I’m not a self respecting Mech Designer I stole this one. It uses the friction loss method for duct sizing, to give rough duct sizes. how it works –

1. Rotate the dial to compare velocity verses volume flow rate – The orange part of the dial,or pressure loss per metre against volume (Purple)

2. Read off the associated rectangular duct size (green) or circular duct size (white)

3. Go make a coffee, you’re done.

Design calcs may be required further down the line but for design in principle this works a treat. available from all good TECHnical FAN suppliers.

In other news

Australia is still awesome. And the consultants here have a friday afternoon beer fridge.