Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building marked its ninth anniversary on 4th of January. Standing erect at a whopping 828 meters in the air, it is undeniably at the forefront of technology and engineering innovations. When the structure was at its peak, about 12,000 laborers worked on it every day and it took 22 million man-hours to complete. Burj Khalifa was finally inaugurated in 2010.
Top 5 Challenges Faced While Building Burj Khalifa
Building such a tall structure was an undaunted task. It came with its own array of engineering challenges. Here are the top 5 challenges.
1. The first challenge of the Burj Khalifa was that it had to withstand extreme heat, at least more than 50 degrees Celsius in summers. For this, an exterior cladding was made of reflective glazing with aluminium and textured stainless steel panels. 300 cladding specialists were employed to individually hand-cut approximately 26,000 glass panels.
2. Another was the condensation challenge posed by the hot climate. Around 15 million gallons of water gave off from the structure. To make up for it, a special piping system was created that held a tank in the basement to store water.
3. Wind was another structural challenge that Burj Khalifa faced in construction. To analyze the wind behavior and the amount of impact it could make on the building, the design experts carried out 40 wind tunnel tests. The top structure was designed to resemble the letter ‘Y’ and each of the 3 wings of the structure buttressed others through this central core.
- The combined weight of the total concrete used for building the Burj Khalifa was equivalent to 100,000 elephants. Engineers mixed the concrete with ice and then poured it in the structure at night in order to skip the hot climate. Moreover, this cooler mixture was also less likely to crack.
- The heavy weight of all the aluminium used was another structural challenge. Its total weight surpassed that of five A380 aircraft. These aluminium panels were lifted using a series of cranes and were installed by specialists.
