Burj Khalifa

Concept, Design &

Construction

-Ar.Clarance
CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS
WIND EFFECT
SOIL INVESTIGATION
FOUNDATION
PLANNING OF CONCRETE
WORK
CLADDING AND LIFTS
Introduction
Burj Khalifa (formally Dubai) is the new
tallest tower in the world.
Construction began on 21 September
2004 & completed on 1 October 2009.
The building was officially opened on 4
January 2010
Height of the Tower is 828m .
Its Owner is EMAAR Properties with total
investments of US$ 1.5 billion.
The tower is designed by Skidmore,
Owings and Merrill
Adrian smith was chief architect.
Worlds Tallest Building
Highest outdoorobservation deckin the
world (124th floor) at 452m
World's highest and fastest elevators at
speed of 64km/h
Highest vertical concrete pumping (for a
building): 606m
World's highest installation of an aluminum
and glass facade, at a height of 512m
World's highest New Year fireworks display
Highest occupied floor in the world
Tallest free-standing structure in the world
Construction Timeline
January 2004 :- Construction started.
February 2004 :- Piling started.
March 2005 :- Superstructure started.
January 2007 :- Level 100 reached.
July 2007 :- Level 141 reached - world's
tallest building.
September 2007 :- Level 150 reached - world's
tallest free-standing structure.
April 2008 :- Level 160 reached - world's
tallest man-made structure.
January 2009 :- Completion of spire - Burj
Khalifa tops out.
September 2009 :- Exterior cladding competed.
January 2010 :- Official launch ceremony.
Comparison
Floor Plan
Main Structure & Design
The tower superstructure of Burj Dubai is designed
as an all reinforced concrete building with high
performance concrete from the foundation level to
level 156, and is topped with a structural steel
braced frame from level 156 to the pinnacle.
Designers purposely shaped the structural concrete
Burj Khalifa Y shaped in plan to reduce the
wind forces on the tower, as well as to keep the
structure simple and foster constructability.
The structural system can be described as a
buttressed core. Each wing, with its own high
performance concrete corridor walls and perimeter
columns, buttresses the others via a six-sided
central core, or hexagonal hub
Structural Analysis & Design
The top section of the Tower consists of
a structural steel spire utilizing a
diagonally braced lateral system.
The structural steel spire was designed
for gravity, wind, seismic and fatigue in
accordance with the requirements of
Load and Resistance Factor Design
Specification for Structural Steel
Buildings . The exterior exposed steel is
protected with a flame applied
aluminum finish.
Main Structure & Design
Tower that is extremely stiff laterally
and torsionally similar to a closed
tube.
Each tier of the building sets back in
a spiral stepping pattern up the
building. The setbacks are organized
with the towers grid, such that the
building stepping is accomplished by
aligning columns above with walls
below to provide a smooth load path.
The advantage of the stepping and
shaping is to confuse the wind. The
wind vortices never get organized
because at each new tier the wind
encounters a different building shape.
Structural Analysis &
Design
The center hexagonal walls are
buttressed by the wing walls and
hammer head walls which behave as
the webs and flanges of a beam to
resist the wind shears and moments.
Structural Analysis & Design
Concrete Dimensions
The core walls vary in thickness from
1300mm to 500mm. The core walls are
typically linked through a series of 800mm
to 1100mm deep reinforced concrete or
composite link beams at every level.
The residential and hotel floor framing
system of the Tower consists of 200mm
to 300mm two-way reinforced concrete
flat plate slabs spanning approximately 9
meters between the exterior columns and
the interior core wall.
Types of wind
Winds that are of interest in the
design of buildings can be
classified into three major types
Prevailing Winds (Trade winds)
seasonal winds
local winds
Types of wind
The characteristics of the
prevailing and seasonal winds are
analytically studied together,
whereas those of local winds are
studied separately.
The variations in the speed of
prevailing and seasonal winds are
referred to as fluctuations in
mean velocity. The variations in
the local winds are referred to as
gusts.
Wind behavior
WIND CLIMATE
STUDIES
An important question when designing a tower of
over 600 m height is the nature of the wind velocity
profile and wind turbulence in the upper levels.

Itis a large extrapolation to go from ground-based

data at the 10 m height to heights of over 600 m
using standard assumptions

Therefore for Burj Dubai more direct measurements

of upper level winds were sought. The closest station
with balloon records was Abu Dhabi, where about 16
years of data were available taken on average about
twice per day.
Foundations
Foundations
The burj khalifa which
weighs around 500,000
tonnes, will rest on a 3.7m-
thick triangular frame
foundation, supported by
rounded steel piles
measuring 1.5 m in diameter
and extending 50 m below
the ground.
Reinforcement was typically
at 300mm spacing in the
raft, and arranged such that
every 10th bar in each
direction was omitted,
resulting in a series of pour
enhancement strips
throughout the raft at which
600mm x 600mm openings
Soil Investigation & Ground
Water
The groundwater in which the Burj Dubai
substructure is constructed is particularly
severe.
The chloride and sulfate concentrations
found in the groundwater are even higher
than the concentrations in sea water.
Measures implemented include specialized
waterproofing systems:
1. Increased concrete cover
2. Addition of corrosion inhibitors to the
concrete mix
3. Stringent crack control design criteria
4. Impressed current cathodic protection
system utilizing titanium mesh .
Ground Water & Concrete Mix
A specially designed concrete mix was
formulated to resist attack from the
ground water.
The concrete mix for the piles was a 60
MPa mix based on a triple blend with 25%
fly ash, 7% silica fume, and a water to
cement ratio of 0.32.
The concrete was also designed as a fully
self consolidating concrete, A robust
cathodic protection system for both the
bored piles and the raft foundation
Piles
The Tower raft is supported by 194 boredcast-
in-place piles
1.5m diameter and 47.45m long with the
tower raft founded at -7.55m
The C60 (cube strength) SCC concrete was
placed by the tremie method utilizing polymer
slurry. When the rebar cage was placed in the
piles, special attention was paid to orient the
rebar cage such that the raft bottom rebar
could be threaded through the numerous pile
rebar cages without interruption, which
greatly simplified the raft construction.
Piles
The Tower raft is supported by 194
bored cast-in-place piles. The piles
are 1.5 meter in diameter and
approximately 43 meters long with a
design capacity of 3,000 ton each.
The Tower pile load test supported
over 6,000 ton.
Settlement
Itwas determined the maximum
long-term settlement over time would
be about a maximum of 80mm .

This settlement would be a gradual

curvature of the top of grade over the
entire large site. When the
construction was at Level 135, the
average foundation settlement was
30mm
Construction
Achieve
a three (3) day-cycle for structural
works.
Develop optimum transportation systems

with large capacity high speed equipment.

Utilize optimum formwork system to

accommodate various building shapes along

the building height.
Develop organized logistic plans throughout

the construction period.

Apply all high-rise construction technologies

available at the time of construction.

Planning for the concrete
work
Prior to the construction of the tower,
extensive concrete testing and quality
control programs were put in place to
ensure that all concrete works are done
in agreement with all parties involved.
Tests are needed to confirm the
construction sequence of these large
elements and to develop curing plans
that are appropriate for the project,
considering major daily and seasonal
temperature fluctuations
Testing Regimes for
Concrete
Trial mix designs for all concrete types needed for the
project.
Mechanical properties, including compressive strength,
modulus of elasticity, and split tensile strength.
Durability tests which included initial surface
absorption test and 30 minute absorption test.
Creep and shrinkage test program for all concrete mix
design.
Water penetration tests and rapid chloride permeability
test.
Shrinkage test program for all concrete mix designs.
Pump simulation test for all concrete mix design grades
up to at least 600 meters.
Heat of hydration analysis and tests.
Technologies used to achieve 3-
day cycles

Auto Climbing formwork system (ACS)

Rebar pre-fabrication
High performance concrete suitable for
providing high strength, high durability
requirement, high modulus, and pumping
Advanced concrete pumping technology
Simple drop head formwork system that
can be dismantled and assembled quickly
with minimum labor requirements
Column/Wall proceeding method, part of
ACS formwork system
Sequence of Construction and
ACS
The ACS form work is divided into four
sections consisting of the center core wall that
is followed by the wing wall construction along
each of the three tower wings.
Rebar Pre-fabrication
Most of the reinforcing
bars for the core walls,
wing walls, and the nose
columns were
prefabricated at the
ground level.
This rebar fabrication and
pre-assembly method
resulted in man quality
control advantages and
reduced the number of
workers going up and
down the tower.
The rebar was assembled
in double story modules to
speed up the vertical
element construction time.
Concrete Pumping
Level Height Pouring Method Remarks

Target Height
Ground ~ L145 531 m Direct Pumping
(RC Structure)
Secondary Pump on
L146 ~ L160M 624 m Re-pumping
L124 (East wing 442m)

L160M ~ Spire1 681.7 m Hopper by T/C From Ground Level

Concrete Pump
Engin
Level Pressure Output Remarks
e
2 nos. of
Pump#1~ 185 / 320 71 / 36 470 Main
#3 bar m3/hr kw 1 no. of Stand
by
220 / 260 200 Secondary
Pump#4 110 m3/hr
bar kw Pumping
Concrete Pumping
Concrete Pumping
Evacuation
Burj Dubai has built in fire protection as its
concrete back bone is naturally fire resistant
But how will people go out in an emergency?
The burj dubai contains 9 special rooms
build throw layers of reinforced concrete
and fire proof sheeting
The walls of these rooms will stand the heat
of a fire for 2 hours
Each room has special supply of air pumped
throw fire resistant pipes, sealed fire
proofed doors stop smoke from leaking in
Evacuation
How they prevent the smoke from blocking the
access route to the rooms?
Early warning system:
Fire activate a smoke detector
Heat sensor
Water sprinklers
Net work of high power fans kick in
Fans force new clean cool air throw fire
resistant ducts into the building
The fresh air pushes the smoke out of the
stair way keeping the evacuation route clear.
Cladding
30000 glass panels of high quality European
glass enough to cover 17 football fields
The glass is thicker at the top to resist the
high wind
Its designed to let the maximum light in and
to keep heat out

Sun screen (inside Outside coat reflects the

face) is useless
against infrared
from the hot desert
sun so the inner
planis coated with a
thin layer of silver
that keeps the heat
rays out.
daily solar heat comes
direct from the sun.
The metal coating
deflects U.V. Radiation
that will otherwise heat
up the building
Faade Maintenance
The tower's primary window washing and facade maintenance
system consists of three permanently-installed, track-
mounted, telescopic building maintenance machines located
in internal "garage" positions on uppermost levels.
it will take 36 workers three to four months to clean the entire
exterior facade
 Elevators
With an intelligent
elevator installation
mechanism, builders of
Burj Dubai ensure a
speedy journey from
the ground to the
160thfloor.
57 elevators and eight
escalators to streamline
the needs of the
residents and visitors to
commute within the
tower. These elevators
mark the highest
installation in any
building and have been
developed by Otis.
 Elevators

The main service elevator that is

positioned in the central core of Burj
Dubai has the worlds highest elevator
rise at 504 metres

It moves at a speed of 9 metres per

second and also has the worlds
longest travelling distance for an
elevator. The lift to the spire has the
worlds highest landing at 636.9
meters.
 Elevators
Elevators are placed into
different zones. Each
elevator zone serves
different audiences,
maximizing the efficiency
and saving time.
The sky lobby is an
intermediate floor where
residents, guests, office
staff will change from an
express elevator to a
local elevator which
stops at each floor within
a certain segment of the
building. The sky lobbies
are located on level 43,
76 and 123 and will
include a lounge area.
REFRENCES:
http://cantilever.files.wordpress.com/2
008/06/som_tallest.pdf.
http://www.ctbuh.org/Portals/0/Reposit
ory/P2_Baker.1ce602c3-272d-4b2a-
acc3
http://www.structuremag.org/archives/
2006/Nov-2006/F-Burj- Dubai-Tower-
Irwin-etal.
Documentary Movie National
Geographic Channel - Burj Dubai
Documentary Movie Discovery
Channel - Mega builders Extreme
Thank You