Meeting Our Engineer

MEETING OUR ENGINEER

We first met Richard Tomkins at BAE Systems, Rochester where we had discussed various aspects of engineering we would like to deal with in the project.At this point we discussed our interests, as he spoke about the part he played within Laing O’Rourke’s concrete department. The next time that we met him was when he visited our school for a meeting to discuss possible problems for us to tackle. He had come up with two very different projects.

The first idea was to solve a problem that he currently has within his job. It involved excavating soil and hard-core from a building that was being built below ground level. This would have focused a lot on mechanical engineering. We briefly talked about possible solutions such as a conveyor belt system which would allow for constant flow of debris to be removed. We all thought that this would be an interesting project but didn’t want to decide on a particular one until both had been heard.

The second idea was to build a model of an engineering innovation: a wind turbine base. The was revolutionary as it is still in the idea stages and Laing O’Rourkeare trying to get a patent on a design that they have mimicked from another company but made some alterations to. After building the model we would be required to test the model to see how it would behave on the water. The idea is that it would be built as a unit and then towed out to sea when it would be filled with water and sunk to the sea bed where it would remain until it needs to be re-sited. This would focus a lot more on maths and physics as buoyancy issues would undoubtedly arise. We decided on the second idea as it would be more of a challenge.

Richard then gave us a plan for the wind turbine base that Laing O’Rourkehad come up with and explained the orthographic drawing to us. It was detailed with various measurements and densities for concrete that would be used for its construction. He said that we would be able to make slight alterations to the design if we needed to accommodate any additional features such as towing points or flotation devices etc.

The visit from Richard was extremely helpful as he was able to shed much more light on the two problems than were detailed. We were also able to ask him questions about the project such as the different types of concretes that would be used etc. These basic questions helped us to have an informed view on the project right from the start.