Foundation Design For Burj Dubai

FOUNDATION DESIGN FOR THE BURJ DUBAI – THE WORLD’S TALLEST
BUILDING
Harry G. Poulos
Coffey Geotechnics
Sydney, Australia.

Grahame Bunce
Hyder Consulting (UK),
Guildford, UK

ABSTRACT
This paper describes the foundation design process adopted for the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building. The foundation system is a
piled raft, founded on deep deposits of carbonate soils and rocks.The paper will outline the geotechnical investigations undertaken,
the field and laboratory testing programs, and the design process, and will discuss how various design issues, including cyclic
degradation of skin friction due to wind loading, were addressed. The numerical computer analysis that was adopted for the original
design together with the check/calibration analyses will be outlined,and then the alternative analysis employed for the peer review
process will be described. The paper sets out how the various design issues were addressed, including ultimate capacity, overall
stability under wind and seismic loadings, and the settlement and differential settlements.
The comprehensive program of pile load testing that was undertaken, which included grouted and non-grouted pilesto a maximum
load of 64MN, will be presented and “Class A” predictions of the axial load-settlement behaviour will be compared with the measured
behavior. The settlements of the towers observed during construction will be compared with those predicted.

INTRODUCTION

GEOLOGY

The Burj Dubai project in Dubai comprises the construction of
an approximately 160 storey high rise tower, with apodium
development around the base of the tower, including a 4-6
storey garage. The client for the project is Emaar, a leading
developer based in Dubai. Once completed, the Burj Dubai
Tower will be the world’s tallest building. It is founded on a
3.7m thick raft supported on bored piles, 1.5 m in diameter,
extending approximately 50m below the base of the raft.
Figure 1 shows an artist’simpression of the completed tower.
The site is generally level and site levels are related to Dubai
Municipality Datum (DMD).

The geology of the Arabian Gulf area has been substantially
influenced by the deposition of marine sediments resulting
from a number of changes in sea level during relatively recent
geological time. The country is generally relatively low-lying
(with the exception ofthe mountainous regions in the northeast of the country), with near-surface geology dominated by
deposits of Quaternary to late Pleistocene age, including
mobile Aeolian dune sands, evaporite deposits and marine
sands.

The Architects and Structural Engineers for the project were
Skidmore Owings and Merrill LLP (SOM) in Chicago. Hyder
Consulting (UK) Ltd (HCL) were appointed geotechnicalconsultant for the works by Emaar and carried out the design
of the foundation system and an independent peer review has
been undertaken by Coffey Geosciences (Coffey). This paper
describes the foundation design and verification processes,
and the results of the pile load testing programs. It also
compares the predicted settlements with those measured
during construction.

Dubai issituated towards the eastern edge of the geologically
stable Arabian Plate and separated from the unstable Iranian
Fold Belt to the north by the Arabian Gulf. The site is
therefore considered to be located within a seismically active
area.

GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATION & TESTING
PROGRAM
The geotechnical investigation was carried out in four phases
as follows:
Phase 1 (main investigation): 23boreholes, in situ SPT’s, 40
pressuremeter tests in 3 boreholes, installation of 4 standpipe
piezometers, laboratory testing, specialist laboratory testing

Paper No. 1.47

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and contamination testing – 1st June to 23rd July 2003;
Phase 2 (main investigation): 3 geophysical boreholes with
cross-hole and tomography geophysical surveys carried out
between 3 new boreholes and 1 existing...