Why Do Skyscarpers In Dubai Need Water? (Best solution)

Having one giant water pump at the base of the Burj Khalifa would be dangerous due to the amount of pressure needed to force the water up the height of the skyscraper. Therefore, the tower is designed to pump water upwards to a series of tanks.

Why does Dubai have so many skyscrapers?

  • Why does Dubai have so many Skyscrapers? Dubai was initially a dry, arid desert inhabited by tribes and bedouins. They lived a poor life always moving from place to place (Preferably an Oasis) to survive: rearing animals, growing dates and constant travel was part of their lifestyle. But then came the

Why do skyscrapers need water?

“It’s a gravity-fed system,” said John Cetra, a founding principal of the Manhattan architecture firm CetraRuddy. “ The sheer weight of the water would create enough pressure to take care of any building up to six stories.” To climb any higher, the water needs help.

Why does Burj Khalifa need water?

The water is used for irrigation to water the landscaping and plants, for the cooling system and to supply the Dubai Fountain. 5. Some Burj Khalifa trivia about the elevators: the building has the longest single running elevator, which is 140 floors.

How are skyscrapers supplied with water?

The standard practice in high-rise buildings is to pump water up to a reservoir on the roof. The water then descends through the building piping using gravitational force, creating high pressure that must be reduced for consumer use.

How does Burj Khalifa supplied water?

At Burj Khalifa, Xylem’s specially designed variable-speed booster sets distribute 1,000 cubic meters of water every day all the way to the top floor. The pumps are located both at the basement level and on two other technical floors placed one-third of the way up the total height of the tower.

How Burj Khalifa gets water?

The average family uses 400 gallons per day, so the Burj Khalifa uses more than 600x that amount. piping supplies the fire emergency system and 21 miles supplies chilled water for the air conditioning system. The water available on-site is desalinated sea water from the Persian Gulf.

Does Dubai have sewage system?

Sewage issues Sewage from areas of Dubai not connected to the municipal piped network at the time was collected daily from thousands of holding tanks across the city and driven by tankers to the city’s only sewage treatment plant at Al-Awir. A new, multi-billion-Dhs sewerage system is expected to be completed by 2025.

Is there plumbing in Burj Khalifa?

The Burj Khalifa boasts an additional 132 miles of pipe for its fire emergency system and 21 miles of chilled water piping to support the air conditioning system.

Why does Burj Khalifa have no sewage system?

Unfortunately, that’s not the case because it isn’t hooked up to a municipal wastewater treatment system – so when you poop in the Burj Khalifa, that waste is actually trucked out of the city. There are a host of tall buildings in Dubai and many of them aren’t connected to a municipal sewage system.

Where do skyscrapers store water?

Water is pumped from the street level using large pumps up into a storage tank/water tower on top of the building. This tank should be sized to buffer between the peak rate and duration of water consumption, and the steady-state rate that the supply pumps can replenish the tank.

Why does New York city have water tanks?

Tanks were placed on rooftops because the local water pressure was too weak to raise water to upper levels. When construction started to grow taller, the city required that buildings with six or more stories be equipped with a rooftop tank with a pump. About 5,000 to 10,000 gallons of water can be stored in the tanks.

How does skyscraper plumbing work?

The water is stored in a series of tanks at different levels in the skyscraper. The tanks are housed on mechanical floors and each floor has electrical sub-stations and air handling units. Water is pumped to reservoirs up in the tower at intervals.

How does Dubai supply water?

There are two main sources for water in the UAE: Ground water and desalinated sea water. The ground water levels are not enough and only serves a little more than 1% of its need. Close to 99% of potable drinking water in Dubai comes from its desalination plants.

Who is the Burj Khalifa owner?

Emaar Properties PJSC is the Master Developer of Burj Khalifa and is also one of the largest real estate companies in the world. Mr. Mohamed Alabbar, Chairman of Emaar Properties, said: “Burj Khalifa goes beyond its imposing physical specifications.

Who lives in Burj Khalifa top floor?

In India, BR Shetty is famous as the man who owns all the apartments on the 100th and 140th floors of Dubai’s iconic Burj Khalifa, which he is said to have acquired for a whopping $25 million.

Supplying water to the world’s tallest building

The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is the world’s tallest structure, is an incredible achievement of engineering. It stands 829.8 meters (2,722 feet) tall, which is higher than the combined height of two Empire State buildings piled on top of each other. Finding a technique to supply water all the way to the top level of the structure was one of the numerous difficulties encountered during construction. The Lowara pumps from Xylem provided the answer the construction experts were looking for. Xylem is at the forefront of the most recent technological advancements in water transportation systems, and has emerged as a leading provider of pumping equipment in a number of high-profile projects in the Middle East.

A total of six water transfer sets and seven pressure booster sets from Xylem’s product portfolio are being used to serve the Burj Khalifa’s water supply system.

Every day, 1,000 cubic meters are produced.

In addition to lowering energy usage by 30%, the Hydrovar variable speed drives maintain consistent residual pressure at each water outlet, no matter what hour or how many people are utilizing the water.

The pumps are installed both at the basement level and on two additional technical levels that are one-third of the way up the tower’s entire height, which is one-third of its overall height.

The booster sets were constructed in Xylem’s Lowara facility in Vicenza, Italy, in order to fulfill the highest quality standards, and they were then transported and commissioned on site.

10 Fun Facts about the Burj Khalifa

Our travels have taken us to some of the world’s most notable record-breaking locations, including the world’s largest pumpkin festival, the world’s northernmost city, and the world’s largest wine barrel. No surprise therefore that stepping on the viewing deck of the Burj Khalifa was also on our bucket list of things to do in the world. Not only is the Burj Khalifa the world’s tallest structure, but it also smashes a number of other world records in the process. Here are ten interesting facts about the Burj Khalifa that we discovered during our visit, which we hope will encourage you to climb to the observation deck at the world’s highest structure.

Before you leave, make sure you have your skip the line tickets.

The Burj Khalifa towers over Dubai at an incredible 828 meters (2716 ft) in height, towering over the city.

If the parts are laid end to end, they would reach more than a fifth of the way around the planet.

“View from the Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates” data-image-caption=”Views of the Dubai Fountain from the top of the Burj Khalifa” data-image-caption=”Views of the Dubai Fountain from the top of the Burj Khalifa” data-medium-file=” data-large-file=” src=”data:image/svg+xml, percent 3Csvg percent 20 src=”data:image/svg+xml width=”500″ height=”750″ width=”500″ height=”750″ data-lazy-srcset=”500w,200w,300w” data-lazy-srcset=”500w,200w,300w” The data-lazy-sizes attribute is set to (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px.

photograph taken from the Burj Khalifa’s observation deck, with data lazy src=” of the Dubai Fountain The Burj Khalifa not only holds the global record for being the tallest skyscraper on the planet, but it also owns six other world records in other categories.

It also has the world’s tallest service elevator, which is the world’s tallest service elevator, and having the world’s longest travel distance elevator.

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From the top of the Burj Khalifa, you can see all the way to the coast of Dubai and the Persian Gulf.

One of the most mind-blowing Burj Khalifa statistics is the sheer weight of the materials used to construct the structure.

The entire weight of aluminum utilized in the construction of the Burj Khalifa is equal to the weight of five Airbus A380 passenger jets.

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  1. Every 30 minutes from 6pm Wednesday through Sunday4, the Dubai Fountain performs in front of the Burj Khalifa.
  2. Every year, 15 million gallons of water are gathered in an environmentally friendly manner.
  3. 5.
  4. The elevators of the Burj Khalifa move at a speed of 10 meters per second, making them among the fastest elevators in the world.

Data-image-caption=”Craning our necks to gaze up at the sphere from ground level” data-image-caption=”Craning our necks to look up at the sphere from ground level” alt=”Looking up at the sphere from the ground level” width=”750″ height=”500″ src=”data:image/svg+xml, percent 3Csvg, percent 20s tallest structure.

It is truly a multi-use structure that contains restaurants, a hotel, residential apartments, office space, and is a tourist attraction due to the observation decks on the top floor and the observation deck on the bottom floor. Are you ready to pay a visit?

Know Before You Go

TipsBooking

  • Available from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday, and 10 a.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday, the observation deck is open to the public. The final admittance is 45 minutes before closing
  • There is a free bag check at the entrance
  • Just be sure to pick up your baggage on the way out (fortunately, I remembered before we went too far away.)
  • There is a free bag check near the entrance
  • And there is a free bag check near the entrance. The observation deck may be accessible from the lower level of the Dubai Mall, near the food court
  • It is free to use.

This post includes affiliate links for your convenience. When you make a reservation onViator or GetYourGuide through one of our affiliate sites, we receive a tiny commission at no additional charge.

How Water Works In The Burj Khalifa

The Burj Khalifa is a modern technical wonder that is also a massive structure in its own right. Indeed, the Burj Khalifa is so enormous that it rises thirty-five storeys higher than the Shanghai Tower, which is the world’s second-tallest structure. It goes without saying that when boundaries are stretched in one direction, they are pushed in all directions. As engineers set out to achieve new heights with this structure, they were also forced to come up with unique solutions for a variety of systems, including the plumbing system.

  • This generosity has prompted us to provide readers with an inside peek at how water is managed within this massive building as a thank you.
  • Construction of the above-ground structure itself included the use of 431,600 cubic yards of concrete and 39,000 tons of steel reinforcing bar.
  • In order to construct the tallest skyscraper on the planet, you will, understandably, want to house a large number of people in it.
  • There was a lot of it.
  • And this is accomplished via the deployment of a cutting-edge water system that is dedicated to achieving the highest levels of water efficiency possible for constructions of this magnitude.
  • The pipe systems in these buildings are under enormous strain to function for the residents and visitors to the buildings during the lengthy Dubai summers, when the average high temperature reaches 106° F.
  • Gravity Given that gravity is one of the most powerful and unyielding forces known to man, the process of pumping water through The Burj Khalifa to the top of the world is no small feat.
  • To do this, they designed a system that pumps water to a number of tanks located at various levels around the structure.
  • Electrical sub-stations and air handling units are also located on the first and second levels, respectively.
  • Despite the fact that none of them are connected to water, Sloan feels the building’s water management system is no less remarkable, and the firm is happy to be a part of it.

It is the mission of TheUrbanDeveloper.com to provide you the most up-to-date news, reviews, opinions, and insights on the finest in urban development from Australia and across the world. More articles by this author may be found here.

The Incredible Story Of How The Burj Khalifa’s Poop is Trucked Out of Town

Take a look at the slideshow You’d expect the world’s tallest skyscraper – a construction that requires incredibly complicated engineering and technology to attain its lofty heights – to have a sewage system that is on par with its engineering and technology. The Burj Khalifa, however, is not connected to a local wastewater treatment system, which means that when you defecate in the building, the excrement gets trucked out of the city, rather than being recycled. Trucked out of the city by the ton!

  • In order to carry wastewater to a treatment facility outside of town, one of the world’s most technologically advanced skyscrapers used an obscure approach.
  • Continue reading farther down this page.
  • NPR’s Terry Gross had an interview with author Kate Ascher, author of The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper, in which she detailed what happens to sewage from the Burj Khalifa and other towering structures in Dubai.
  • Construction appears to have surpassed the installation of such a critical component of any multistory structure – and this appears to have occurred with the agreement of the local planning department.
  • Related: With the help of human excrement, the “Temple of Poop” creates a floral rooftop.
  • Gizmodo estimates that a complete building with 35,000 people would create 7 tons of excrement each day, plus all of the other wastewater from showers, brushing teeth and other activities, for a total of 15 tons of wastewater per day.
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  • Architecture must take into account the influence of their construction on the surrounding area as well as how it will interact with the surrounding area.

It’s all well and good to construct the world’s tallest skyscraper, but if you have to transport the rubbish away in inefficient and expensive trucks, you’ve failed spectacularly. courtesy of Archinect and Gizmodo The Burj Khalifa (photos)

Dubai reaches for the sky – CNN.com

The Burj Dubai is an exceedingly tall structure that serves as the focal point of an ambitious construction project in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. THE STORY’S KEY POINTS

  • The Burj Dubai officially opens, claiming the title of world’s tallest structure. The tower’s 168 storeys rise to a height of 2,684 feet above the ground. According to the architect, the structure has been “adjusted” to reduce the impression of swaying. A proponent of sustainability raises concerns about the state of development.

(CNN)- In Dubai, things are beginning to look up. It’s a long, long way up. The massive, multibillion-dollar Burj Dubai skyscraper, which rises 168 floors and 2,684 feet into the desert sky of the United Arab Emirates, officially opened for business on Monday. The “At the Top” observation deck, located on the 123rd story, isn’t quite at the top of the building, but it’s still rather high. In the words of George Efstathiou, the Burj Dubai’s principal architect and managing partner of Chicago-based design firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, “There’s no doubt that the tower will be a big lure for people who want to get up there.” The Burj Dubai is a soaring collection of superlatives, including the following: The world’s highest structure The structure is the highest free-standing structure in the world.

  • The highest inhabited floor in the world The world’s tallest outdoor observation deck is located in Hong Kong.
  • Consequently, if you’re feeling uncomfortable in Dubai’s 120-degree summer heat and can’t get into the emirate’s famed indoor ski resort, simply travel to the top of the Burj Dubai, where the temperature is a comparatively cold 105 degrees, and you’ll be much more comfortable.
  • When the spire and podium are taken into consideration, the Burj Dubai contains 5 million square feet of floor space, which, as Efstathiou points out, is less than the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower in Chicago, which was once the world’s tallest building and is now ranked No.
  • The Burj Khalifa is being celebrated in this video.

How the Burj Dubai stacks up against the competition )According to the International Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, which is the world’s foremost authority on building height, the world’s other tallest buildings are Taipei 101 in Taiwan, the Shanghai World Financial Center in China, and the Petronas Towers 1 and 2 in Malaysia.

  • A six-sided concrete hub is located in the center, which connects everything.
  • Baker, designed Burj Dubai to withstand the sandstorms of the Arabian Gulf.
  • As Efstathiou explained, the building is tuned to sway slowly so that the middle ear is not affected.
  • We tune it so that on the floors where people will be, you won’t notice it as much as you would otherwise.” iReport: Send us your photographs of the world’s tallest structures.
  • On its 430,000-square-foot campus, which was designed and furnished by Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani, the hotel includes eight restaurants as well as a spa and swimming pool as well as a library, fitness center, and business center.
  • Armani also has 160 permanent residence suites in the tower, along with a number of high-end shops and boutiques.
  • This measurement is the most widely used for ranking tall buildings.

Maintenance areas are not included.

Source: CTBUH.org Burj Dubai is the extremely tall centerpiece of a massive development that includes five hotels, a huge shopping mall, at least 150 restaurants and 1,200 shops.

Set in a 30-acre lake that seems incongruous if not impossible in the Arabian desert is the 900-foot-long Dubai Fountain, with nozzles that shoot 22,000 gallons of water as high as a 50-story building.

“This is Las Vegas on steroids,” said Terry Mock, executive director of Sustainable Land Development International, an organization that promotes development that balances economic, environmental and societal goals.

Dubai lacks the oil resources of its neighbors, Mock said.

Where will it produce electricity in the future?

“I’m certainly not suggesting they ought to tear the building down, but there are ways to make these structures moresustainable,” he said.

Contracts and agreements would have to be reworked to address economic and societal issues over time, he said.

“Otherwise, you’re just building on quicksand.” Efstathiou, the architect, counters that the development does employ a measure of green design.

Also, engineers took advantage of Dubai’s torrid heat and humidity by having the skyscraper’s chilled-water piping double as a condenser to produce thousands of gallons of fresh water for irrigation, he said.

Other skyscrapers are in the planning stages in various places throughout the world, but Burj Dubai’s standing as the world’s tallest isn’t likely to be challenged soon, given the state of the world economy, Efstathiou said.

“Sears Tower held the record for 20 years, I think, and the pyramids held it for 400 years, so who knows?”

Burj Dubai/ Burj Khalifa Facts

As of January 2010, the Burj Dubai/Burj Khalifa was the world’s tallest structure, measuring 828 meters (2,717 ft) in length and including 164 stories. From 2004 to 2010, Taipei 101, theTaipei Financial Centerin the Taiwanese capital, held the world record for the highest building, standing at 509.2 meters (1,671 feet). The Burj Khalifa easily reaches that elevation. The World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in Manhattan were 417 meters (1,368 feet) and 415 meters (1,362 feet) tall when they were demolished on September 11, 2001.

  • The Burj Dubai/Burj Khalifa was officially opened on January 4, 2010. The Burj is estimated to have cost $1.5 billion and is part of a $20 billion renovation initiative for downtown Dubai. During construction, the name of the tower was abruptly changed from Burj Dubai to Burj Khalifa in honor of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi, and in recognition of Abu Dhabi’s provision of Dubai with US$10 billion in December 2009 to bail out Dubai’s bankrupt sovereign wealth fund. Construction began on the site on September 21, 2004. More than 12,000 people will be housed in the 6 million square feet of space available in the structure. There are 1,044 residential flats in all. Among the many unique features are a 15,000 square foot fitness center, a cigar club, the world’s tallest mosque (on the 158th floor), the world’s tallest observation deck (on the 124th floor), and the world’s tallest swimming pool (on the 76th floor), as well as the first Armani Hotel to open in the world. The Burj will require around 946,000 liters (or 250,000 gallons) of water every day, according to estimates. There is an expectation that electricity usage will reach 50 MVA, which is the equivalent of 500,000 100-watt lights blazing continuously. There are 54 elevators in the Burj. They had a top speed of 65 kilometers per hour (40 miles per hour)
  • There were 28,261 glass cladding panels installed on the exterior of the tower, each panel having been cut by hand and installed by Chinese cladding specialists. The tower required the equivalent of 100,000 elephants’ worth of concrete during construction, and it required 31,400 metric tons of steel rebar to support the structure. At the height of construction, 12,000 people were employed on the project. Three men were killed while working on the construction site. The Burj has 3,000 subterranean parking spots, which is a large quantity. Samsung, located in South Korea, served as the project’s primary contractor, with Belgian firm Besix and UAE firm Arabtec. The skyscraper was designed by Chicago’s Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and constructed by Emaar Properties, which is headquartered in Dubai. Architect and structural engineer William F. Baker designed the structure, and he was the first American to receive the Fritz Leonhardt Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Structural Engineering on July 11, 2009.

Archi- Burj Khalifa (Dubai) – The Truth Behind the Bling

Unless you’ve been living under a rock – which would be most un-ninja-like – you’ve almost probably heard of the Burj Khalifa (officially known as the Burj Dubai) skyscraper, which was designed by Chicago-based architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and completed in 2010. The Burj Khalifa is a building that has broken numerous world records; not only has it claimed the title of world’s tallest skyscraper, but it is also the tallest structure ever built by man, rising to a height of 828 meters (2,717 feet) at the top of its spire, making it the tallest structure on the planet.

Behind the Burj’s glistening aluminum and glass exterior, as well as the pyrotechnics and grandeur of the inauguration ceremony, there is a tale that has gone retold, as well as statistics that have gone unread:

Low Working Conditions:

It should come as no surprise that employees were paid incredibly little in exchange for putting their lives in danger to construct the $1.5 billion USD tower, according to reports. The Burj was constructed by between 10,000-12,000 laborers, the most of them were impoverished migrants from South Asia. According to a Human Rights Watch study, some workers in the United Arab Emirates reported earning less than $10 USD a day since there are no rules governing minimum wages in the country. It is also common practice for companies in Dubai to take employees’ passports in order to prevent them from leaving the country before their obligations have been fully performed.

Number of On-site Deaths:

The fact that there was just one known construction death, despite the fact that numerous safety procedures were taken throughout the construction of the Burj Khalifa, appears to be practically impossible. An employee of the developer, Emaar, stated that in 2007, an employee of the developer died after falling from a building. The Human Rights Watch study, on the other hand, suggested that this was a cover-up, as it failed to include deaths caused by “heat exhaustion, overwork, and suicide.”

Real Estate Values:

Emaar Properties recently stated that 90 percent of the building had been sold; however, it is unclear how much of it would be occupied during the time of construction. According to a spokesman, she was unable to comment on whether purchasers have backed out of transactions at the Burj owing to the economic downturn. Rents in Dubai have plummeted by an average of 30 to 60 percent over the previous two years, which is commensurate with the prices for the Burj Khalifa apartments, which have also fallen.

Apartment prices in the skyscraper have dropped to less than half of their 2008 peak of 10,000 dirhams ($2,700) per square foot, according to Bloomberg News.

The Storm Machine:

According to the German daily Der Spiegel, “the tower is so massive that the air temperature at the summit is up to eight degrees Celsius cooler than at the base.” A storm would surge through the air-conditioned structure if anybody had the bright notion of opening a door at either end, as well as the airlocks in between. Everything would be destroyed, save possibly the heavy marble tiles in the luxury apartments, if such a thing were ever contemplated. This assertion is denied by Hyder Consulting, which is a member of the Burj Khalifa project team.

Sustainability:

No one would have imagined that such a gigantic structure would be “good” for the environment, yet SOM included a number of environmentally friendly measures into the design. For example, a condensate recovery system will lower the amount of municipal water required for tenant use and landscaping. Every year, they expect to recover enough water to fill 14 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to their estimates. The tower will require a total of 960,000 liters or 250,000 gallons of water every day, according to Arabian Business, and the power required would be “equivalent to running 500,000 100-watt light bulbs simultaneously” at peak demand, the publication adds.

According to Project Manager Greg Sang, the tower was built to survive around 100 years.

Fascinating Facts:

The SOM Chicago office had a staff of 100 individuals working on the project at its peak, with additional personnel working in Dubai and other locations around the world. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the tower is made out of 330,000 cubic meters or 11.6 million cubic feet of concrete, which is equivalent to the weight of 100,000 elephants, to put it in context, as well as 39,000 tonnes or 86,000 pounds of steel rebar, to name a few components. From top to bottom, it takes three months to thoroughly clean the windows.

An area equal to 17 football fields or 25 American football fields may be covered by the tower’s exterior surface.

If anyone has any further information regarding the Burj Khalifa, please share it in the comments section below.

I visited the top of the tallest building in the world, and it was a colossal waste of time

  • As the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the city of Dubai is renowned for its spectacular, recently constructed structures, such as the Burj Khalifa, the Palm Jumeirah, and the Dubai Mall. Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, is 2,717 feet tall and has 160 stories, dominating the skyline of the city. Although it boasts an observation deck on the 124th level, visiting the top of the Burj Khalifa is grueling, overhyped, and, simply, uninteresting. While the Burj Khalifa is a wonder from below, climbing to its summit is an arduous, overhyped, and, frankly, boring experience. While the observatory is small, the climb to the top is excruciatingly lengthy, and the view is little to write home about, the experience is still worthwhile. More articles may be found on the Business Insider homepage.

Three decades ago, Dubai was little more than desert.But an oil boom in the United Arab Emirates producedunprecedented wealth for the small Gulf nation. Dubai’s rulersSheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum and his successor, Mohammedbin Rashid Al Maktoum, put into effect a plan to turn the cityinto the world’s top tourist destination. The building ofoutlandish landmarks like the Burj Khalifa was key to the plan.Towering over the city, at 2,717 feet tall with 160 floors, theBurj Khalifa became the tallest tower in the world when it openedin 2010. It also holds Guinness World Records titles for thetallest human-made structureand thehighest restaurant. Ithad the tallest observation deckuntil 2015.Dubai’s strategy of building extravagant landmarks is paying off.The city is climbing in the ranks of the most visited cities –it’s now fourth andprojected to see 16.7 million visitorsthis year,according to Mastercard’s Global Destination Cities Index.The Burj Khalifa has been a major part of that growth – US NewsWorld Reportranked it as the No. 5 attraction in Dubai.When I visited the city for the first time in November in2018, I knew I had to go. But afterspending $40anda couple of lackluster hours on the observation deck, I waswishing I had skipped going inside and just enjoyed the view frombelow.Here’s what it was like.


To visit the Burj Khalifa, you have to buy a ticket for a certain date and time. The price depends on the time. If you want to go around 5 p.m. (sunset), it could be as much as $60. I decided to go around 7 p.m., costing me $40.

Photograph courtesy of the source Submitted by Harrison Jacobs of Business Insider Even though the Burj Khalifa is a sight to see from the ground level, ascending to the top is a grueling, overly-hyped, and, simply, dull endeavor.

The outdoor observatory is claustrophobic, the climb to the top is unbearably lengthy, and the view isn’t something to write home about either. I wish I had saved the $40 as well as my valuable time.

Burj Khalifa – The tallest building in the world

To get a sense of how tall the Burj Khalifa truly is, all you have to do is compare it to the Empire State Building in New York City. The New York skyscraper, which stands 1,454 feet (443.2 meters) tall, is half the size of Dubai’s massive structure. The construction of the Burj Khalifa began on September 21, 2004, and was completed on January 4, 2010, more than a year after the intended completion deadline. The buildings are famous for the exceptionally high amount of space that has been set aside for residential development.

Burj Khalifa observation points

The observation decks of the Burj Khalifa provide amazing views of the city. On the 124th level, you’ll discover what was once the original viewpoint and is still the greatest site to obtain panoramic views of the entire city to this day. The other, more contemporary observation deck has surpassed the previous world record holder, the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, to become the world’s tallest observation deck. The overlook, which is located on the 148th story of the Burj Khalifa and is 1829 feet (555 meters) above sea level, affords a bird’s eye perspective of the whole city.

Alternatively, you may purchase your ticket from us, which includes hotel pickup.

If you are unable to get tickets for this time, it is preferable to visit during the day rather than at night, as Dubai is not very well lighted at night and the view is restricted.

Around Burj Dubai

The Dubai Fountain, one of the city’s most popular attractions, is located next to the Burj Khalifa on the banks of a big artificial lake adjacent to the Burj Khalifa. Bars, restaurants, and the massiveDubai Mall shopping district can be found in the area surrounding the lake.

Facts and figures

  • ‘Burj’ is an Arabic word that signifies tower. On July 24, 2007, the Burj Khalifa broke the previous record for the world’s tallest skyscraper, which was held by Taipei 101 in the city of the same name, and set a new one. Built for a total of $1.5 billion, the Burj Khalifa may be seen from up to 60 miles away. The tower’s construction cost a total of $1.5 billion. 57 elevators serve the tower’s 500,000-ton weight and 28,601 glass panes that adorn its exterior.

Confusing The Wind: The Burj Khalifa, Mother Nature, and the Modern Skyscraper

The Grand Hyatt San Francisco will greet you at the front desk with a pleasant sign informing you that the 35-story tower may creak slightly as it glides softly back and forth in the breeze. The hotel has assured guests that this anomaly is not indicative of a structural concern, but tourists have still voiced their dissatisfaction with the situation. According to one angry and restless client who left a review of the hotel, “the building CREAKS!” 1 “It sounds like you’re aboard a ship that’s been around for a while,” comments another.

Since the completion of the 10-story steel-framed Home Insurance Building in Chicago in 1885, which was the world’s first skyscraper, architects have had to consider wind stress, sometimes known as “wind loading,” as they’ve raised the height of their structures.

When completed, the Burj Khalifa, originally known as the Burj Dubai, will soar into the sky as if it were a bolt of lightning, dwarfing the neighboring towers in its path.

(In comparison, the Burj is roughly equal in height to the Taipei 101, with the Chrysler building placed on top.) The tower, which stretches more than half a mile from its base to the tip of its spire, redefines the word “supertall,” which is often assigned to skyscrapers that rise more than 1,000 feet above the ground.

  • Building’s spire is composed of multiple different stalks, each of which rises unevenly from the ground surrounding the center spire.
  • Even with this strategic design, the 206-story Burj Khalifa will continue to swing slightly back and forth by around 2 meters at the very top of the structure.
  • 4 The Taipei 101 skyscraper, which rises 1,667 feet tall and is located almost four thousand miles away near the coast of Taiwan, is now a distant second.
  • The sphere, which is gold in hue and weighs 730 tons, softly swings back and forth, balancing the tower against the forces of the wind and insuring the comfort of those who inhabit it.
  • Because of the height and mass of each individual tower, the size and shape of each damper must be “adjusted” to compensate.
  • It works in the same way as shock absorbers on a car reduce road bumps by swinging or sliding back and forth in the opposite direction.
  • 6 According to Carol Willis, director and curator of the Skyscraper Museum in New York, while designing a skyscraper, care for the wind must be taken into account.
  • Designers fight a never-ending war against the relentless wind by employing both structural and mechanical solutions, such as the Burj Khalifa’s strategy of “confusing the wind,” and mechanical solutions, such as the tuned mass damper.
  • Gravitational forces can only pull a skyscraper in one direction, and it’s a predictable one at that: down.
  • When a structure is designed properly, it may be thought of as a “big sail” that has a large surface area against which the wind can force.

8 ‘This results in a regular, or periodic, force,’ says Garber, “that pulls the building from one side to the other across the direction of the wind flow.’ The frequency at which this occurs will vary depending on wind speed, and if those vortices can coincide with the frequency at which the building want to vibrate, then some really enormous forces can be created.” Buildings, like a guitar string, have a natural or resonance frequency at which they are prone to vibrate, similar to the frequency of a guitar string.

  1. Wind vortices will only have a major impact on a structure if the frequency of the vortices is precisely aligned with the frequency of the building, much as an opera singer must reach the proper pitch in order to break a wine glass.
  2. As a result of this phenomenon, one of the most important goals in skyscraper design is to disrupt the ordered flow of wind around the structure.
  3. Due to the fact that all of those things can’t take place at the same time, you’re left with a very little amount of vortex shedding.” If the wind stress caused by vortex shedding is not appropriately controlled, it has the potential to cause significant structural damage or even collapse.
  4. When skyscrapers are designed, engineers take into consideration a 50- or 100-year return rule.
  5. Designers then boost the strength of the structure by an additional 60 percent or so, just to be safe, to allow for the possibility of measurement errors.
  6. 9 Still, wind stress may cause a variety of issues in high-rise structures of different shapes and sizes.
  7. Additionally, it might provide a swaying sensation that is disconcerting, if not nauseous.

“If the building is moving too much, you can hear it creaking.” “Excessive motions, on the other hand, are the most frequently expressed concerns.” People may report that they can feel the building shifting, or they may even become ill as a result of the movement.” At least such was the situation at the previous GulfWestern headquarters in New York City.

Additional complaints came from office workers on the top levels who were experiencing motion sickness when the wind picked up speed.

11 Indeed, steps to counteract the wind are done as much for the sake of comfort as they are for the sake of safety.

“People are more sensitive to wind than structures are,” says the author.

Not only do wind speeds rise with altitude, but the force of the wind also increases with the square of its velocity, as can be seen in the graph below.

“The amount of motion you’d anticipate in a structure,” adds Garber, “is on the order of 1/200 to 1/500 times its height.” This equates into around two to four meters in height for the Burj Khalifa.

Therefore, one of the primary concerns of architects and engineers is acceleration, which has the potential to produce perceptible forces on the human body.” Forces are frequently expressed in terms of “g’s” in the context of carnival rides, automobiles, and airplanes.

We’re talking about milli-of g’s force when it comes to gazing at skyscrapers, adds Garber.

Humans are capable of sensing accelerations as little as 5 to 25 milligs, which is significantly less than the maximum force that the structure can endure.

During the initial design phase of a skyscraper, it is subjected to extensive wind tunnel testing.

(RWDI), a world-renowned wind engineering consulting firm, has been in charge of the testing.

Wind engineering specialists are provided with complete architectural drawings of the building prior to construction, and a team at RWDI gets to work constructing a complex, rigid scale model for testing.

For example, the 1:500 scale model of the Burj Khalifa contains 1,140 separate pressure taps for collecting data on the wind speed and direction.

Instead of testing airplane wings, sporting equipment, and other minor projects in wind tunnels, these boundary layer wind tunnels are designed to model variations in wind speed with height and may recreate the changing wind situations in which the structures will eventually be built.

Afterwards, all of this information is fed into computer models, which are used to conduct additional analysis.

In the end, this process of wind testing provides structural engineers with a more nuanced understanding of wind loads than they would otherwise have. Continued on the following page »

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