Apr 10 2008
Raychem heat-tracing systems are being employed for freeze protection to piped water service lines throughout the modules of the new Halley VI Antarctic Research Station. The Halley VI facility, being built for British Antarctic Survey, has eight elevated accommodation and research modules with interconnecting transits and will be operating on the Brunt Ice Shelf.
Halley VI Antarctic Research Station
Delta T, a Tyco Thermal Controls distributor partner, supplied the Raychem heat-tracing freeze protection systems to Merit Merrell, the company with responsibility for Mechanical, Electrical & HVAC piped services on the project, and supervised their installation. The heating cables were installed onto the pipework in the UK and shipped to South Africa, for assembly into undercroft skids. These will be transported to the Antarctic as a major component in the modular build.
The Raychem heat-tracing cables will prevent the research station’s various water service lines from freezing in the ultra-low ambient temperatures of this region. The systems have been supplied with contingency for material inter-changeability and feature a fast, easy and secure connection system, which will be appreciated by installers charged with the task of hooking it up in such a hostile environment.
Halley VI is replacing the current Halley V Research Station, and is one of the most challenging construction projects on Earth. The present station is located 10,000 miles from the UK on the Brunt Ice Shelf, which is 150m thick and flows at a rate of 0.4 km per year northwest from Coats Land towards the sea where, at irregular intervals, it calves off as vast icebergs. Scientists predict a major calving event around 2010. There is a growing risk that ice on which the existing Halley Research Station sits could break off in the next decade. The new station will allow long-running research on global change to continue at the site where the ozone hole was discovered.