Image 1 of 3
Image 2 of 3
Image 3 of 3
The facts:
Client: Diamond Light Source
Location: Oxfordshire
Services: Multidisciplinary engineering,
Construction Management
Sector: Science & Technology
Contract Type: Framework
Value: Multiple projects
Start/Completion: 2008 - ongoing
The Project
Located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in
Oxfordshire, Diamond Light Source is the UK’s national synchrotron
facility.
A synchrotron is designed to produce very intense beams of
x-rays, infrared, and ultraviolet light called synchrotron
light. Diamond generates these brilliant beams of light by
accelerating electrons, enabling scientists to study particles such
as molecules and atoms in incredible detail.
Opened in 2007, Diamond is being developed in three phases.
Phase 1’s investment of £263 million included Diamond’s buildings
and the first seven experimental stations known as ‘beamlines’;
while Phase 2’s funding of £120 million enabled the construction of
15 more beamlines between 2007 and 2012.
A total of 20 beamlines are now operational, with two more due
online this year. In October 2010, the government confirmed further
funding for the Phase 3 expansion which will create an additional
ten advanced beamlines between 2011 and 2018, bringing the total to
32.
Diamond is free at point of access through a competitive
application process, provided the results are in the public domain.
Over 3000 researchers use Diamond’s beamlines to conduct
experiments in a wide range of disciplines including structural
biology; health and medicine; solid-state physics; materials &
magnetism; nanoscience; electronics; earth & environmental
sciences; chemistry; cultural heritage; energy; and
engineering.
Since 2008 Capita Symonds has been
providing a range of engineering design services to the project,
playing an integral role in the completion of 15 beamlines with
another ten due for completion by 2018. Our construction
management business - Woolf Ltd - also worked on the project
fit-out of Phase 1 for three years, providing project
management and principal contractor services. The fit-out
consisted of the machine installation and commissioning, which was
carried out by special scientific groups and coordinated by
Woolf.
The light that is used for experiments is
created by using super-magnets to peel lightbeams off the
synchrotron which then enter the beamlines where the experiments
take place. Not all beamlines are the same – most of them are
housed within the Synchrotron building, while currently there are
two beamlines situated outside the main building, meaning that the
X-rays have to travel further to reach the experiment.
The longest external beamline – the
recently completed Beamline I13 - terminates over 100m from the
synchrotron building at a new laboratory that includes a radiation
proof concrete cell building. This cell building in turn sits upon
on a super vibration-isolated slab and foundation that mitigates
vibrations from the structure - such as mechanical or electrical
vibrations – which would otherwise have detrimental effects on the
nano-scale particle experiments.
In order to design the Beamline I13 cell
and labs, the Capita Symonds engineers measured and assessed the
amount of vibration that already occurs around the location of the
cell by analysing factors such as the proximity and use of nearby
roads, location and type of adjacent industry, and local geology.
The cell’s sub-structure was then designed to both vertically and
laterally minimise intrusive vibrations (the measurement techniques
use similar technology to that used to measure
earthquakes).
The vibration isolation was achieved by
isolating and dampening the piles supporting the cell such that the
sub-structure’s natural vibration modes are controlled and dampened
to control oscillation amplitude and duration. The result was a
cell with extremely low vibration characteristics both in the
horizontal and vertical modes.
Please contact Richard
Hill and Shaun
Fraser