About the Handbook
Table of Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgement

Improvement in manufacturing technology has provided machines of higher ratings with better tolerances and controlled behaviour. The increased dependence of society provides no room for failure and demands equipment and systems with higher performance reliability.

Each and every machine does require detailed vibration analysis providing insight in to the dynamic behaviour of machine, foundation and their components. Complete knowledge of machine excitation forces and associated frequencies, knowledge of load transfer mechanism from the machine to the foundation and foundation to soil is a must for correct evaluation of machine performance. Thus for a technically correct and economical solution, it calls for that the designer must have a fairly good knowledge of Dynamic Soil Parameters, Dynamic Foundation Parameters as well as Dynamic Machine Parameters. A close co-operation between manufacturer and the foundation designer is therefore a must. Development of analytical procedures backed by field monitoring, for evaluating dynamic response, is the need of the day.

It is fortunate that Dr K G Bhatia, a person of eminence, who is not only a well known research scientist in the field of Structural Dynamics but also an expert in the profession of Machine Foundation Design, Seismic Qualification of Machinery, Failure Analysis, Weight Optimization etc, has undertaken the challenging task to bring out this Handbook on Foundations for Industrial Machines. With his initial experience with M/s Engineers India Limited for about 4 years and his association with M/s Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited for about 24 years, Dr Bhatia has carried out machine foundation design for many projects and has also conducted field studies on many machines and their foundations.

It is this rich experience which Dr Bhatia has compiled and brought out in form of a Hand Book. He has touched all related aspects required for machine foundation design including Vibration Isolation System. Starting with basic fundamentals of vibration analysis, he has given due coverage to analytical aspects, modeling aspects, design aspects and also included foundation design for real life machines backed up by field measurements based on his own experience and study.

On behalf of the engineering community and on my own behalf, I wish to extend my hearty congratulations to Dr. Bhatia for having brought out this excellent Handbook. It is earnestly hoped that the book will be found useful by not only practising engineers but also by students, researchers and academicians.

K. P. Mathur
(Formerly) Executive Director
Project Engineering Management
Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd,
New Delhi, India