Wind Engineering Impact On Burj Khalifa Building
Dubai’s Burj Khalifa Building has redefined how tall buildings are designed in regard to wind engineering. This essay will examine how testing and design of wind engineering techniques influenced the construction and design of Burj Khalifa. The world’s highest building is now possible because of the use of the latest design and wind-testing technologies. Let’s take an in-depth look.
The Burj Khalifa, an 828m tall building with 162 floors, was designed and built by Adrian Smith, Skidmore, Owen and Merrill. The wind stress effect is more severe for tall buildings. Skyscrapers tend to be unstable due to their high height. Many skyscrapers have large surfaces that feature glass windows. They are supported with tubular steel frames. These hollow-cylinder-type structures can resist wind and other side loads. However, these types of buildings are more tall than others. Wind stress can lead to severe damage and even death. These problems were evident in New York’s ex-Gulf & Western Building. (Flebowitz 2010) The 44-story building fell to its final fate due to wind-stress. Windy days were characterized by loud creaking sounds. The wind could also cause nausea in office workers, especially those on higher floors. These issues, along with others, could have led to major structural damage and even collapse if they weren’t addressed. The steel braces were added to the structure to help stabilize it. (Flebowitz, 2010)
Burj Khalifa didn’t want to go with a traditional skyscraper style. The Tube Structural System is a design method that architects used to create the structure. It has been in use since the 1960s for 40-story buildings. (Zweig 2014) This building is a bundled tube design that Adrian Smith used for the World One Trade Centre (Davidson 2019, 2019).
Smith designed Burj Khalifa’s unique core with buttresses in the form of a “Y”. This Y shape serves to strengthen the core and reduce wind stress. Between floors 88 and92, there is a tuned mass-damper. It looks almost like an enormous pendulum. This damper is used to absorb shock. The damper moves in opposite directions to the wind load, which reduces the structure’s sway. Wind load testing was done on the proposed design before it was constructed. The design was drastically altered after wind tunnel testing using a scale model of the proposed building from Rowan Williams Davis & Irwin Inc. to reduce wind stress. This design change has made it not only one the strongest buildings, but also provided important insights for architects in understanding wind loads.
You will agree, I think, that the Burj Khalifa’s unique architectural design as well as the wind-tests used to influence the final design changes are a testament to how important wind engineering can be for structural engineers.
