Optimisation of Foundation Design – Dubai Case Studies

Dr. Ying Tay

This industrial presentation concerns the foundation design process adopted for 12no. (40-60 stories high) towers in Dubai. The design process included carrying out large-scale preliminary pile testing prior to finalising the design and detailed soil-structure interaction assessment to achieve optimisation of foundation design.

Preliminary pile testing included bi-directional (Osterberg cell) static load testing to failure (with test loads of up to 87MN). The design process and findings from a number of pile tests will be presented along with optimisation of foundation design based on test results.

Findings of pile group behaviour from soil-structure interaction assessment of the towers will also be presented and discussed. In the vertical direction, the interaction assessment led to accurate pile group settlement estimates and raft/slab design. In the horizontal direction, lateral load distribution across the building footprint was predicted considering pile arrangements. This led to accurate prediction of pile shear and moment and optimisation of foundation design.

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