Gammon installs the heaviest DfMA Thermal Tanks in Hong Kong

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Gammon Construction’s Global Switch Data Centre (Phase 2) project in Tseung Kwan O in Hong Kong includes the requirements to design and install a chilled-water thermal-energy storage system with a “Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA)” approach. The chilled-water thermal-energy storage system provides resilience to ensure the chilled water remains available at all times, whether due to internal equipment or an external power failure. The DfMA with full off-site fabrication could factor in the consideration of site safety, quality and duration of the construction for this vital equipment. The team spent four days to install the heaviest DfMA thermal tanks in Hong Kong. The final design consisted of four 175 m³ thermal tanks, which each weigh 50 tonnes, and measure 7m in diameter and 9m high. Every element of the tanks, including all steel works, fencing, cat ladders, baffles, coating, thermal insulation and external cladding, and even maintenance provisions, was then manufactured, preassembled and tested off-site in a DfMA factory. By doing this, Gammon has successfully eliminated the need for extensive scaffolding associated with the high-level works, as well as the tremendous amount of on-site welding and painting activities, heavy lifting with complicated vertical operations, as well as the confined space work inside the tanks. Once completed off-site in the factory, the tanks were shipped by barge to the site. Before work began, building information modelling (BIM) was adopted to streamline and verify our design. BIM was applied to structural analysis to ensure integrity and use of correct steel members, while computational fluid dynamics made certain that the components inside the tank were appropriate for effective thermal transfer of temperature profiles. Once completed in the factory, the tanks were shipped by barge, hoisted to the roof and slid into their final positions in one action – no hot works and no high-level assembly were required. Installation of the four tanks took four days. They are also the heaviest DfMA thermal tanks installed in Hong Kong.