Arup has been appointed by CERN to undertake conceptual design studies for both the tunnel engineering and geotechnical aspects in the scope of the Future Circular Collider (FCC) study.
As a response to the recommendation made in the European Strategy for Particle Physics in 2013, CERN Director General, Dr Rolf Heuer, announced the launch of a study in a global context, with an emphasis on next-generation proton-proton and electron-positron high-energy frontier particle accelerators.
To provide an efficient and cost effective decision aid for the feasibility assessments of the particle accelerator infrastructure, Arup has been working closely with CERN and project partners Géotechnique Appliquée Dériaz S.A. (GADZ) and Amberg Engineering AG, to deliver the first phase of the conceptual design study. A key element of this stage has been the development of an early stage Building Information Modelling (BIM) tool to inform performance, risk and cost optimized options for a 100 km long, circular particle-accelerator tunnel. Arup has developed a dynamic Web-based GIS application, which integrates numerous existing geological data sources, incorporating the geological, tunnelling and particle collider system constraints in a user-friendly digital environment.