EXPERIMENT NO 8

CASE STUDY ON THE

CONSTRUCTION OF BURJ
KHALIFA

Brijesh Pandit
1
 CASE STUDY ON THE CONSTRUCTION
OF BURJ KHALIFA

ABSTRACT

The Burj Dubai Project is the tallest structure ever built by man. The tower is more than 800 meters tall and
more than 160 floors. The early integration of aerodynamic shaping and wind engineering considerations
played a major role in the architectural massing and design of this residential tower, where mitigating and
taming the dynamic wind effects was one of the most important design criteria. While the focus of this paper will
be on the construction planning of the tower, this paper will briefly present an overview of the structural system
of the tower’s design and construction, which are integrated from the early design concept.

I.INTRODUCTION
The Burj Dubai Project is a multi-use development tower with a total floor area of 460,000 square meters that
includes residential, hotel, commercial, office, entertainment, shopping, leisure, and parking facilities. The Burj
Dubai project is designed to be the centerpiece of the large scale Burj Dubai Development that rises into the sky
to an unprecedent height that exceeds 700 meters and that consists of more than 160 floors.

The Client of Burj Dubai Tower, Emaar Properties, is a major developer of lifestyle real estate in the Middle
East. Turner International has been designated by the owner as the Construction Manager, and Samsung Joint
Venture (consisting of Samsung, Korea base contractor; Besix, Belgium base contractor; and Arabtec, Dubai
base contractor) as the General Contractor.

The design of Burj Dubai Tower is derived from geometries of the desert flower, which is indigenous to the
region, and the patterning systems embodied in Islamic architecture.

The tower massing is organized around a central core with three wings. Each wing consists of four bays. At
every seventh floor, one outer bay peels away as the structure spirals into the sky. Unlike many super-highrise
buildings with deep floor plates, the Y-shape floor plans of Burj Dubai maximize views provide tenants with
plenty of natural light. The modular Y-shaped building, with a setback at every seventh floor, was part of the
original design concept that allowed Skidmore, Owings and Merrill to win the invited design competition.

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.

The tower massing is also driven by wind engineering requirements to reduce dynamic wind excitation. As the
tower spirals into the sky, the building’s width and shape diminish, thus reducing wind dynamic effects,
movement, and acceleration. Integrating wind engineering principals and requirements into the architectural
design of the tower results in a stable dynamic response,, taming the powerful wind forces.

Brijesh Pandit
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LITERARY REVIEW

I. Harshal P. Gandhi, Rajyaguru Sawan

They studied the foundations and site conditions of the structure. In their study it was found that the
tower foundations consist of a pile-supported raft. The solid reinforced concrete raft is 3.7m thick and
was poured utilizing C-50 self-consolidating concrete. The raft was constructed in 4 separate pours and
each raft pour occurred over at least a 24-hour period. 194 bored cast-in-place piles support the tower
raft. The piles are 1.5 m in diameter and approx. 43 meter long with design capacity of 3000 tones each.
The ground water in which the Burj Khalifa sub structure is constructed contains concentrations of
unto 4.5 per-cent, and sulfates of unto 0.6 percent. Hence they are the primary consideration in
designing the piles and raft foundations durability. Due to present aggressive conditions caused by the
extremely corrosive ground water condition, they added corrosion inhibitors to the concrete mix.

II. Sara Masjedi, David Larson

Their study of the structural engineering applications in the Burj Khalifa concluded that the tower
requires structural engineering due to the fact that measurements and tests had to be conducted to
determine that the 828 meter building would not collapse upon itself during its construction. Without
structural engineers, the Burj Khalifa would never have been constructed because no other people
would be able to calculate data that would make sure that several different factors such as wind,
foundation systems, concrete, and viable geometric design among other things would be satisfied.
Although many people would assume that architects would be able to perform such tasks and that
structural engineers would not be necessary in this project, architects only design a building whereas
structural engineers make sure that the building can support itself and not crumble and fail.

III. James Aldred

In his research he studies implications for high performance concrete as the future of construction. He
concluded that High-performance concrete offers immense benefits to developers, consultants and
contractors working on the hundreds of super-tall structures under construction and planned in the
Middle East and elsewhere in the world. The material’s high strength and modulus mean that super-tall
buildings can have more slender vertical elements. Also, as has been proved on the Burj Khalifa project
in Dubai, single-stage pumping to over 600 m is now possible and this, together with high early
strengths, allows rapid cycle times to meet today’s demanding construction schedules. However,
appropriate care and attention to mix design, placing, protection and curing is vital to minimise
potential problems with pump blockage, segregation, autogenous shrinkage and cracking. Burj Khalifa
shattered all previous world construction records by a considerable margin and required an enormous
effort by all parties involved to overcome its many construction challenges – not least with regard to
using high-performance concrete (Figure 8). In the quest to build the world’s next tallest structure, the
lessons learned at Burj Khalifa must not be overlooked.

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III.CONCLUSION

At the turn of the century, nobody then could have dreamed of creating a building this tall using concrete. The
Burj Dubai project demonstrates that tall building system development is always directly related to the latest
developments in material technologies, structural engineering theories, wind engineering, seismic engineering,
computer technologies, and construction methods. The Burj Dubai project capitalizes on advancements in these
technologies, advancing the development of supertall buildings and the art of structural engineering.

As of today, the Burj Dubai is the tallest man made structure in the world in all categories, and it has become a
catalyst for further development in high-rise construction in the Middle East and through throughout the world.

REFERENCES

1. ACI committee 305 (1999) ACI 305R-99: Hot Weather Concreting. American Concrete Institute,
Farmington Hills, MI, USA.
2. Aldred JM (2007) Pumping concrete on the Burj Dubai. Terence C. Holland Symposium on
Advances in Concrete Technology - 9th CANMET/ ACI International Conference on Fly Ash,
Silica Fume, Slag and Natural Pozzolans in Concrete, Warsaw Poland (Hoff GC (ed.)).
American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI, USA, pp. 497–514.
3. CTBUH (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat) (2010) http://buildingdb.ctbuh.org/
index.php (accessed 15/01/2010)
4. Coussot P and Roussel N (2006) Quantification de la thixotropie des matériaux cimentaires et
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6. NRMCA (National Ready Mixed Concrete Association) (1960) Plastic Cracking of Concrete.
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thixotropy. Cement and Concrete Research 38(5): 624–632.

9. Aldred JM and Lim SN (2004) Factors affecting the autogenous shrinkage of ground granulated
blast-furnace slag concrete. In 8th CANMET/ ACI International Conference on Fly Ash, Silica
Fume, Slag and Natural Pozzolans in Concrete (Malhotra VM (ed.)). American Concrete
Institute, Farmington Hills, MI, USA, SP 221, pp. 783–796.

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