- Australia’s first Synchrotron, completed in 2007, is the largest in the southern hemisphere.
- Arup provided engineering services across eight disciplines integral to the success of this world class scientific facility.
Australia’s first Synchrotron, completed in 2007, is a national facility located in Melbourne’s east at Monash University’s Clayton campus. It has provided researchers in Australia and overseas with a powerful new tool for scientific and industrial research.
Arup’s specialist engineering services were integral in providing the dimensional stability required to support the Synchrotron’s delicate structure.
High Performance Detailed Design
A critical success factor for any synchrotron is the ability to focus the photon beam on beam line end stations. This requires dimensional stability of the synchrotron storage ring and the beam line. Floor movement, vibrations, and thermal movement of the focusing magnets at the front end of the beam lines are all potential sources of instability. The technical design team for the Australian Synchrotron requested Arup to limit vibration to less than 0.35 micron RMS and to provide close control on the temperature variation.
Detailed design of the Technical Floor was a challenge due to the need to minimise shrinkage and differential settlement and vibration. The tight tolerance is a result of the need for a level surface on which to mount the Synchrotron, and the need to ensure long-term stability of the floor. Extensive 3D modelling was used to co-ordinate with the structural and architectural models serving to minimise disruption and clashes during construction.
Vibration Control
The synchrotron equipment is highly sensitive to vibration; even minor levels of vibration can interfere with the beam line. Vibrations due to the operation of this plant may propagate through the building floor slabs and ground structure, and could affect the operation of the sensitive equipment.
Arup developed a vibration control strategy and designed the facility’s vibration control systems. A dynamic analysis of the Synchrotron foundation structure was undertaken to confirm that modal vibration of the structure would not result in amplification of the ambient ground vibration to unacceptable levels.
The Synchrotron’s foundation is a jointless concrete slab with a circular 100m diameter Technical Floor, designed to accommodate the 216m circumference Synchrotron machine. The Technical Floor is surrounded by an eight metre wide concrete slab that supports laboratories and workshops.
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