INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR

SOIL MECHANICS AND

GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

This paper was downloaded from the Online Library of

the International Society for Soil Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). The library is
available here:

https://www.issmge.org/publications/online-library

This is an open-access database that archives thousands

of papers published under the Auspices of the ISSMGE and
maintained by the Innovation and Development
Committee of ISSMGE.

The paper was published in the proceedings of the 17th

African Regional Conference on Soil Mechanics and
Geotechnical Engineering and was edited by Prof. Denis
Kalumba. The conference was held in Cape Town, South
Africa, on October 07-09 2019.
Innovative foundation design for super-tall buildings
T.E.B. Vorster & G. Wojtowitz
Aurecon, Pretoria, South Africa

ABSTRACT: Innovation has many definitions. For the purpose of this paper the authors lead with the definition
stating that for something or some process to be called an innovation, an idea must be replicable at an econom-
ical cost and must satisfy a specific need. Innovation involves deliberate application of information, imagination
and initiative in deriving greater or different values from resources. In this paper we illustrate the innovative
design process applied for the Dubai Creek Tower. Innovation was required due to the immense time pressure
and challenging foundation installation depths foreseen using conventional design and construction techniques.
By using combinations of total engineering geology approach, efficient parameter choice and choice of param-
eter range application, full-scale testing, high-end finite element modelling, modular design and iterative pro-
cess between the architect, the structural and geotechnical designers an efficient foundation system for the
iconic Dubai Creek Tower was developed, by design.

1 INNOVATION BY DESIGN and founding system such as piled raft or piled foun-
dation, to name a few.
Innovation has many definitions. For the purpose of The implementation of conventional design meth-
this paper we lead with the Business Dictionary’s def- odologies often requires the selection of conservative
inition stating that for something or some process to and sometimes empirical ground parameters that may
be called an innovation, an idea must be replicable at lead to overly-conservative design, impacting con-
an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need. struction time and cost. Conservatism may not be a
They go further to state that innovation involves de- driver for buildings of a more conventional height,
liberate application of information, imagination and however for super-tall buildings generally in excess
initiative in deriving greater or different values from of 300m, construction time, cost and viability of con-
resources. In this paper we illustrate the innovative struction methods are some of the most significant
design process applied for the Dubai Creek Tower. drivers of project viability.
Innovation was required due to the immense time The Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
pressure and challenging foundation installation (CTBUH) has classified buildings from 200 to 300m
depths foreseen using conventional design and con- in height as tall, between 300 and 600m in height as
struction techniques. By using combinations of total super-tall and mega-tall being in excess of 600m. The
engineering geology approach, efficient parameter design of mega-tall buildings requires structural and
choice and choice of parameter range application, geotechnical engineers to challenge traditional meth-
full-scale testing, high-end finite element modelling, ods for applicability and range of application. Tradi-
modular design and iterative process between the ar- tional empirical design approaches cannot necessarily
chitect, the structural and geotechnical designers an be extrapolated with a high level of confidence and
efficient foundation system was developed by design. designers are required to use more advanced methods
of analysis and design (Poulos, 2009).
2 A DIFFERENT APPROACH NEEDED Compared with other buildings, due to the substan-
tial building weight, height and slenderness of mega-
The process of pile foundation design is well-estab- tall buildings, the design considerations are of a new
lished and supported by an extensive range of re- magnitude and complexity. These comprise of large
search over decades. However, the science of pile de- vertical loads, moments and lateral loads (in the order
sign is still inexact and influenced by many factors of MN and GN); more complex load-sharing within
such as geology, loadings, seismicity, installation, the foundation system; soil-structure interaction for
groups of piles, cyclic degradation, rigidity of pile cap all loading scenarios; the dynamic response of the
structure to wind and earthquake loads and the influ- The design is inspired by a lily flower and minaret,
ence of the cyclic nature of these loads on the foun- integrating modern sustainable design with the rich
dation; settlements and creep effects; the structural heritage and culture of the United Arab Emirates. The
capacity of elements and the long-term response and slender structural stem supports an elongated bud at
capacity of the ground. the top of the Tower where the observation decks, el-
In the last 20 years, designers of super-tall build- evated garden, hotel and rotating balconies occur.
ings in the Middle East have embraced the challenges The slender structure is anchored to the ground and
of meeting stringent construction timelines and high stabilised by an array of cable stays suggesting the
loads, without being able to properly draw on more delicate ribbing of lily leaves.
efficiency within the ground. Iconic projects such as According to the CTBUH, a skyscraper is defined
the Emirates Twin Towers (a tall building duo), the as a structure where over 50% of its height is occupi-
Burj Khalifa (developed by Emaar Properties) and the able and it is self-supporting. The Dubai Creek Tower
Nakheel Tall Tower Projects (both mega-tall sky- is thus an observation tower and sets itself apart from
scrapers), started challenging conventional design the other tall buildings in Dubai by its extremely high
and parameter selection using sophisticated labora- slenderness and it being cable-stayed. This creates a
tory and full-scale testing (Poulos and Bunce, 2008; new challenge for the foundation design of this mega-
Poulos, 2009 and Haberfield et al, 2008). tall structure.
The design of the Dubai Creek Tower has once
again pushed this envelope of thinking. To ensure that 4 A TOTAL ENGINEERING GEOLOGICAL
the design met the challenges of stringent construc- APPROACH AND A “LIVE” MODEL
tion schedules and efficient parameter selection, re-
quired building on the legacies and knowledge of pre- Poulos (2009) gives a detailed summary of Du-
vious mega-tall buildings and applying this in a new bai’s geological and geotechnical conditions, includ-
creative way that ensures ultimate value for the client, ing work by Evans (1978) and Kent (1978) and recent
satisfying the schedule need and economical cost. projects such as Emirate Twin Towers, Burj Khalifa
This is the nature of science and innovation. and Nakheel Tall Tower. The geology of Dubai was
primarily formed by the deposition of marine sedi-
3 THE DUBAI CREEK TOWER ments associated with a number of sea level changes
during the Quaternary and Pleistocene periods. The
The Dubai Creek Tower is a mega-tall building de- ‘young’ sedimentary rocks are classified as sand-
signed by world-renowned architect and engineer stone, calcarenite and calcisiltite being commonly
Santiago Calatrava. An architectural rendering of the found.
Tower structure is illustrated in Figure 1. It will be the Typically, the ground conditions comprise a sub-
focal point of a new development, the Dubai Creek surface profile which is complex and highly variable
Harbour, located at the Creek in Dubai. It is currently in relation to thickness of strata, cementation and oc-
under construction and upon completion will comple- currence of gypsum layers. This is due to the nature
ment Dubai’s Burj Khalifa in reaching new heights. of deposition, seismic activity, river channels and the
hot arid climatic conditions (Russo et al., 2013).
For the Dubai Creek Tower project, like many con-
struction projects, geotechnics and the foundation de-
sign determined the initial critical path. The first pro-
cess of innovation arose around the building of a live
geotechnical model based on the Total Engineering
Geology approach of Fookes et al. (2000). By gather-
ing as much information as possible of sites around
the proposed Dubai Creek Tower site and further
afield, a model was created of possible subsoil condi-
tion. This created a design geotechnical model, giv-
ing a sense of variability of geology and geotechnical
parameters.
The Total Engineering Geology approach allowed
the model to be updated as new information emerged
from the extensive geotechnical investigation (GI)
that followed, thereby consistently honing the model
and the design. This allowed early sizing and devel-
Figure 1. The Dubai Creek Tower (Image courtesy of Emaar oping of foundation concepts to be formulated and
Properties)
was essential for the design teams to remain ahead of
construction, whilst delivering a safe and reliable de-
sign.
 The GI ultimately comprised of 68 No. boreholes pile capacity for barrettes acting in tension throughout
of various depths and a range of in situ and laboratory the lifecycle of the Tower. The CAF is designed to act
tests were specified. These were supplemented by a as a counterweight system where cellular box struc-
range of full scale barrette and pile testing to further tures filled with material act as counterweight boxes
hone hypothesis. The site is predominantly underlain ensuring the barrettes only carry tension loads in ulti-
by silty calcareous sand horizons to depths ranging mate conditions. The counterweight boxes are in turn
from 11 to 14m. Some boreholes had lenses of ex- founded on rectangular shaped barrettes (1.2m by
tremely weak calcarenite underlying the sand hori- 6.2m) specifically designed to carry the high lateral
zons, which was retrieved as a dense cemented sand. loading. To enable identifying the most pertinent de-
The sand horizons and calcarenite lenses are under- sign mechanisms and ranges of parameters to select,
lain by very weak to weak bedrock comprising of understanding of the specific geotechnical design
sandstone with an average thickness of 3m, underlain drivers are required.
by alternate layers of calcisiltite, conglomerate and
conglomeratic calcisiltite. At approximately 117m 6 GEOTECHNICAL DESIGN DRIVERS
depth below ground level, the rocks become fine
grained, with consecutive layers of siltstone and clay- Poulos (2009) and Wojtowitz & Vorster (2016) pre-
stone. sented a number of factors and geotechnical drivers
The water table is shallow typically near to surface for super-tall buildings in the Middle East. The main
to approximately 3m below ground level. The bottom factors influencing foundation design for super- and
of the pile cap is located at 16m below ground level mega-tall buildings are summarised as:
within the very weak calcareous sandstone layer.  Very weak to weak rocks that do not nec-
essarily improve with depth and the ab-
5 EFFICIENT FOUNDATIONS sence of hard rock for founding end-bear-
ing piles.
Piled raft systems have been used in Dubai in the  Loose to medium dense calcareous silty
past with projects such as Burj Khalifa, whereby load sand deposits and occurrence of reclaimed
is carried by the piles in skin friction in combination materials that may be susceptible to lique-
with the raft bearing on the ground. A fairly recent faction and potential resultant downdrag
change in risk appetite in Dubai now requires pile forces on pile foundations as well as kine-
foundation systems to be implemented, in which the matic bending at the interface with stiffer
load is carried solely by the piles. The efficiency in strata (Nikolaou et al. 2001).
ground bearing obtained from piled raft foundations  Chemically aggressive ground conditions
can no longer be applied and designers thus require due to high salt content of the in situ mate-
more from the ground to avoid very deep and possibly rial and groundwater.
inefficient foundation systems. Such designs require  Calcisiltite rock displays a structure con-
better ground investigation data and more efficient sistent with a formation process whereby
design parameters and approaches verified by ad- soil particles are cemented through carbon-
vanced in situ and laboratory testing, as well as full- ation. If subjected to sufficiently high loads
scale testing. To supplement these designs, the depth the bonds could break and the rock changes
of ground investigation, interpretation of available compressibility and shear strength proper-
data and required pile lengths push the boundaries of ties (essentially behaving as a different ma-
ground investigation as well as pile installation and terial). Bond yield strength represents the
testing experience to date. point at which bonds break. To keep the
The foundation system for the Dubai Creek Tower material behaviour within known behav-
comprises of the Tower core foundation, the cable an- iour, a design driver is to ensure induced
chorage foundations (CAF) and the podium founda- stresses within the ground remain below
tions. The Tower is to be founded on a pile group the bond yield strength.
comprised of one hundred and forty-five (145 No.)  Potential occurrence of interbedded layers
rectangular shaped reinforced concrete barrettes, 58m with highly variable properties, typically
in length with plan dimensions of 1.5m by 2.8m. The deposits containing gypsum. Haberfield et
CAF system supporting the Tower cables are located al. (2008) report thick gypsum layers up to
on either side of the Tower core foundation, whilst the 3.5m thick. The gypsum layers are stiffer
podium foundation is nestled in between the CAF and than the matrix material or very weak and
Tower foundations. weak mudstone and calcisiltite rocks and
The Tower core foundation mainly carries the could result in significantly different pile
Tower vertical load and moment, whereas the CAF performance characteristics dependent on
are required to balance the vertical and horizontal the material at founding level, while solu-
component of the cable forces. The CAF utilises an tion of the gypsum could be a risk for fu-
innovative design to control the risk of degradation of ture degradation of ground properties
 (Poulos and Davids, 2008), where close to Creek Tower Foundation, exploring the importance
water table fluctuations. For the both the of the choice of ground parameters and the definition
Burj Khalifa and Nakheel Tall Tower, gyp- of design bounds considering design life, cyclic deg-
sum levels were considered when defining radation and induced strains for different load cases
pile toe depth (Poulos, 2009; Haberfield et and limit states across the design life of the structure.
al., 2008), although such layers were not
encountered at the Dubai Creek Harbour 8 BUILDING ON PAST EXPERIENCE
site.
8.1 Focus on past iconic projects in Dubai
 A high tendency for cyclic degradation of
pile shaft resistance and ground modulus of A significant number of high-rise building projects
the very weak and weak rocks and overly- are located in the Middle East. Second only to China
ing calcareous sandy horizons. which has 64 No. super-tall buildings (46% of the to-
tal number in the world), the United Arab Emirates
7 PHILOSOPHIES OF DESIGN currently has approximately 26 No. super-tall build-
ings (19% of the total number in the world). At a
Because of some of these design drivers, previous height of 828m, the Burj Khalifa has been the
projects such as the Emirates Twin Towers, Burj Kha- World’s tallest building since 2008.
lifa and Nakheel Tall Tower employed piled raft sys- To develop the foundation design philosophy for
tems, which have a high level of redundancy and the Dubai Creek Tower, the team utilised data and ex-
proved to be effective, fairly economical solutions perience from a range of sources around Dubai. This
(Poulos, 2009). This was not possible for the Dubai constituted a further progression of innovation of pro-
Creek Tower and a piled foundation (without end- cess followed. Through the experience with iconic
bearing allowance) needed to be considered. To en- projects that tested the bounds of available knowledge
sure that no further excessive overdesign was in- and design, the team built on this knowledge base and
curred beyond the assumption of the foundation sys- tested the hypothesis of strain-related parameters for
tem and to come up with a solution that could be done design with these concepts explored initially through
by more than one contractor in the Middle East, more these iconic projects. The team focussed on the Emir-
capacity and efficiency from the ground needed to be ates Twin Towers, Burj Khalifa and Nakheel Tall
achieved when compared with past experience for tall Tower (Wojtowitz & Vorster, 2017), providing a
buildings in Dubai. timeline of projects from 1996 to 2009. The relevance
In addition, the need for speed of construction in- of each is discussed in detail in Vorster & Wojtowitz
fluenced the foundation design philosophy. Solutions (2019).
needed to be identified to enable the quickest possible These projects provide good examples of high-end
installation time while achieving safe and efficient geotechnical design and geotechnical investigation
ground capacity, avoiding the installation of over-de- supported by full-scale testing where each builds on
signed foundation elements that take significant time improvement of parameter magnitude selection, al-
to construct. The need for speed also influenced the lowing more efficient foundation designs for super-
construction phasing. The design investigated modu- and mega-tall buildings. The Emirates Twin Towers
larisation and phased foundation installation to allow are 305m and 355m in height (Poulos and Davids,
the Tower stem to start earlier. 2005; Poulos, 2009) with the Nakheel Tall Tower
Tall buildings, due to their status and investment planned to be in excess of 1000m in height, the con-
are designed for significant design life, which chal- struction of which has not been completed to date
lenges the way one considers ground parameters. For (Haberfield et al., 2008).
super- and mega-tall buildings, a significant volume All three Towers are founded on a piled raft foun-
of ground is mobilised, when considering for instance dation system with the Burj Khalifa and Emirates
the Dubai Creek Tower may be founded to depths of Twin Towers (ETT) founded on circular piles and the
75m below ground, mobilising a ground mass poten- Nakheel Tall Tower (NTT) founded on rectangular
tially 2 to 3 times this size and depth. Hence efficien- barrettes. A summary of the foundation characteris-
cies gained in ground bearing capabilities from strain- tics for each is included in Table 1 (from Wojtowitz
related behaviour can be taken very seriously in de- & Vorster, 2017). Note the significant pile lengths
sign philosophy with the aim to ensure realistic de- used for each Tower which range from 40 to 59m.
sign parameter choices for efficiency.
For the Dubai Creek Tower project, the hypothesis 8.2 A focus on ground compressibility and strength
was that on mass, as load is spread and carried across behaviour
a large body of material, the mobilised ground may From an efficiency point of view it became clear that
respond at much higher moduli and therefore achieve a focus on Young’s Modulus and skin friction might
much higher strength than conventionally assumed. yield advancement of efficient foundation design; the
This hypothesis develops into the design philosophy next part of the innovation process achieved.
and approach adopted for the design of the Dubai
Table 1. Summary of foundation details current view and pushed the boundary on the way pa-
Emirates Burj Kha- Nakheel Tall rameters are selected. Haberfield (2013) and Poulos
Tower
Twin Towers lifa
(Haberfield
and Badeslow (2015) report that, if strain level effects
(Poulos, (Poulos, are accounted for, one can achieve a fairly good fit
2009) 2009) et al., 2008)
between pressuremeter data cross-hole seismics data.
Building 305(Hotel)
828
Estimated This modelling data indicated that a reduction factor
height (m) 355 (Office) >1000 of 0.2 to the small-strain modulus estimated from
Foundation System cross-hole seismic testing fitted the results of full-
Foundation scale pile testing well. Vorster and Wojtowitz (2019)
elements Piled raft Piled raft Piled raft showed this relation to be reasonable through full-
scale barrette testing done for the Dubai Creek Tower.
Raft thickness The NTT project contributed greatly to improve
1.5 3.7 4 to 8
(m) on parameter magnitude selection, allowing more
Rectangular foundation efficiencies. The comparison of design
Pile shape Circular Circular values presented in Figure 2 suggests that an ap-
(barrettes)
proach considering design values for the strain levels
Pile diameter
1.2 1.5
1.2x2.8 expected, yields more realistic design values. Selec-
(m) 1.5x2.8 tion of applied design values should be in relation to
92 (Hotel)
No. of Piles
102 (Office)
1196 408 small-strain modulus. The comparison also supports
Pile lengths the notion that foundations for super- and mega-tall
40, 45 50 42,59 buildings operate at smaller strains (when viewed
(m)
across the mobilised soil body) and also that the mag-
8.2.1 Young’s Modulus nitude of ground moduli per se could be higher than
For the three considered structures, shear moduli generally assumed for conventional design.
(Young’s moduli inferred) were derived based on
data from various in situ and laboratory tests compris-
ing of pressuremeter testing, resonant column tests,
unconfined compressive strength tests, laboratory
stress path tests, standard penetration tests (SPT) and
P-S suspension testing. The modulus design values
adopted for the foundation design for the ETT, Burj
Khalifa and NTT are summarized in Figure 2.
Poulos and Bunce (2008) and Poulos (2009) re-
ported that the actual measured settlements for the
ETT and Burj Khalifa were significantly lower than
settlements predicted during the design and were
therefore quite conservative. Poulos (2009) reports
that the measured settlements for the ETT were ap-
proximately 25% of the estimated values after ap-
proximately 12 months (at 70% of the final Tower
height).
In addition, failure of the test piles for the ETT and
Burj Khalifa could not be achieved and the designers
chose to limit assumptions within the known limits
from the test pile data, as is usual practice. Thus the Figure 2. Design modulus with depth
parameters adopted are more conservative than those
applied for the NTT as shown in Figure 2, where more 8.2.2 Skin friction
capacity was achieved in the full-scale testing. Poulos The skin friction values applied for the pile founda-
(2009) further suggests reasons for this possible in- tion design for ETT, Burj Khalifa and NTT are sum-
creased prediction of modulus being because the marized in Figure 3 and based on full-scale testing re-
moduli of the ground below founding level may have sults. The skin friction design values for the NTT are
been under-estimated, whilst pile interactions may larger than those applied for the Burj Khalifa and
have been over-estimated within the piled raft. ETT. For both the ETT and Burj Khalifa, ultimate
For NTT, the designers took a different approach skin friction capacity could not be reached as none of
to parameter selection and were able to mobilise more the test piles appeared to have fully mobilised availa-
shaft resistance in the test barrettes thereby influenc- ble geotechnical resistance and failure of the test piles
ing their more favourable design parameter selection. could not be achieved (Poulos 2009).
The approach adopted for the NTT design shifted the
 the foundation stiffness influences the way the super-
structure behaves. Misalignment in the sophistication
of the super and substructure models may result in ef-
ficiencies and “true” behaviour to be missed. This
learning was absorbed into the design methodology
of the Dubai Creek Tower design.

9 DUBAI CREEK TOWER FOUNDATION

DESIGN APPROACH

9.1 Selection of design parameters

For the Dubai Creek Tower project, the developed de-
sign approach and philosophy applied prior experi-
ence as presented above and innovated on these inter-
pretations to create new value in achieving an
efficient foundation design. Starting with a live ge-
otechnical model based on the Total Engineering Ge-
ology approach, the design philosophy built on the
shift in modulus and skin friction estimations
Figure 3. Skin friction with depth achieved since the ETT to the more recent NTT.
The applied design values were selected in relation
For the ETT and Burj Khalifa, the designers chose to small-strain moduli with the application of a reduc-
to limit design assumptions within the known limits tion in small-strain modulus to the expected strain
observed for full scale testing results. Poulos (2009) levels occurring for each limit state.For instance for
notes that the “fact that the actual capacity exceeded the assessment of higher frequency dynamic loading
the predicted value was significant because the values conditions such as wind and seismic loading, moduli
for ultimate skin friction used for the predictions were for smaller strain levels were applied for design. Thus
well in excess of values commonly used for bored pile a number of design scenarios were defined whereby
design at that time in Dubai”. This is significant as it design values were defined for each scenario.
challenges the approach and view of parameter selec- The approach applied for the Dubai Creek Tower
tion traditionally applied for tall buildings in Dubai. was to define a characteristic best estimate for static
For the NTT, the design values appear to be more and dynamic loading conditions and an upper and
in line with skin friction values of approximately lower bound on the design value applied as additional
550kPa to 600kPa in the calcisiltite unit increasing to design cases to cover variation in the parameters and
1250kPa below -80m DMD (Dubai Mean Datum) and ground response considered.
are similar to those found for the Dubai Creek Tower Ground investigation data from P-S Suspension
ranges. Logging, Pressuremeter testing and derivations from
An implication of being able to rely on higher UCS values presented a possible range of moduli that
ground moduli and skin friction is the fact that foun- could be used in design as detailed in Vorster and
dation elements can carry higher loads. This has im- Wojtowitz (2019). Building on the work for the NTT,
plications on concrete strength as the strength and the Dubai Creek Tower design utilised Young’s mod-
compressibility of the ground doesn’t necessarily uli ranging from a lower bound of 0.1E0, to an Upper
drive design, but rather the structural strength. In the Bound Estimation of 0.7E0 and a Best Estimate of
case of the Dubai Creek Harbour consistent high 0.2E0 (where E0 is defined as small strain Young’s
strength concrete (75MPs cylinder strength) was re- modulus). These ranges were tested through back-
quired for the foundations. analyses of full-scale barrette testing using Osterberg
Cells where sections of the barrette were mobilised
8.2.3 Sophisticated Geotechnical Modelling (Vorster & Wojtowitz, 2019) in vertical and horizon-
From the later work (after construction of Burj Kha- tal loading and Aurecon estimated the mobilised
lifa) evaluating the behaviour of the Burj Khalifa modulus and skin friction occurring during different
done by Poulos and Bunce (2008), for instance, the load stages.
usefulness of sophisticated finite element or finite dif- The design moduli adopted for the Dubai Creek
ference modelling was illustrated. It is very difficult Tower foundation are plotted in Figure 2 illustrating
to evaluate and predict driving mechanisms, soil- the shift in selection of ground parameters for tall
structure interaction and individual foundation ele- buildings. Single moduli were assigned for the two
ment behaviour if sophisticated geotechnical model- major rock horizons identified as Sandstone and Cal-
ling is not done for complicated geometries. More so, cisiltite and Claystone and Siltstone instead of layer-
ing in thin layers across the depth of the system.
 For the definition of design values for skin friction, For each ULS design case, the ultimate limit state
the design team decided to relate these design bounds STR (in accordance with Eurocode 7 Design Ap-
to the mobilisation of maximum design skin friction. proach 1 Combination 1 using partial factors from the
From the test barrette data (Vorster & Wojtowitz, UK National Annex) was conducted to assess the
2019), the skin friction showed mobilised values up structural capacity for the barrettes in the ultimate
to 1200 kPa. Even with world-record breaking mag- limit state to determine the ultimate force, bending
nitude vertical O-cell testing the complete skin fric- moment and shear force acting on the barrettes.
tion limit could not be mobilised. A safe value of 600 In addition, an ultimate limit state GEO was under-
kPa was selected as the best estimate design value, taken to assess the geotechnical capacity of the sys-
with a value of 200kPa as a lower bound. These de- tem (in accordance with Eurocode 7 Design Ap-
sign values adopted for the Dubai Creek Tower are proach 1 Combination 2 using partial factors from the
plotted on Figure 3. UK National Annex). For the GEO ULS limit state,
The chosen values relate well to the notions of the ground strength was factored down to assess ge-
Young’s Modulus of Lower Bound Modulus at 0.1E0, otechnical capacity of the system. Wind load and seis-
Best Estimate Modulus at 0.2E0 and Upper Bound mic load were assessed for the ultimate limit state.
Modulus at 0.7E0 across the different projects shown. The design approach for ultimate limit state is shown
in Figure 4.
9.2 Design Approach
The geotechnical design approach applied for the Du-
bai Creek Tower was formalised in a systematic ap-
proach in accordance with Eurocode 7 Design Ap-
proach 1 using partial factors from the UK National
Annex.

9.2.1 Serviceability Limit State

The Serviceability Limit State (SLS) design used a
Figure 4. Ultimate limit State design scenarios
characteristic or “best estimate” ground model with a
sensitivity conducted on the concrete modulus of the
pile cap. This considered an upper and lower bound The Ultimate Limit State tested ultimate structural
on the concrete modulus of the pile cap, namely capacity of barrettes, geotechnical capacity of bar-
15GPa and 45GPa simulating long term (“cracked”) rettes and the full foundation system as well as in-
and shorter term (“uncracked”) scenarios in relation duced stresses in the ground mass in relation to ulti-
to compressibility only (it does not consider plastic mate capacity. The loads, moments and spring
behaviors relating to creep and/or cracking). stiffness for each barrette were applied in the Struc-
Moduli for the ground profile were selected based tural design in an iterative approach. Close interaction
on expected strain levels and in relation to the de- between the structural and geotechnical engineers
scribed lower, best and upper bound estimate ground was critical as an iterative process was required for
models. For the wind load case, the modulus was in- computing structural loads and foundation response
creased to 0.7E0 for induced strains in relation with and in developing an understanding of the full struc-
dynamic loading. The workability of each design case ture-foundation-ground interaction.
was considered by evaluating the SLS geotechnical
design limits testing working structural capacity of 9.2.3 Design Strategy
the barrette, settlement tolerances and induced This developed design strategy required complex ge-
stresses in the rock being below bond strength limits otechnical modelling using 3D finite element meth-
(as discussed in Section 4). Seismicity was not con- ods. The pile cap geometry was modelled and the
sidered in SLS. structural loads applied at top of pile cap to develop a
deeper understanding of load sharing across the pile
9.2.2 Ultimate limit state cap especially for the pile cap stiffness range consid-
For the ultimate limit state (ULS), the foundation sys- ered (looking at a more rigid versus flexible system).
tem was evaluated within upper and lower ground These 3D finite element analyses were utilized to
model bounds. These bounds were defined for the determine the settlement profile of the Tower core
ground model parameters as well as the concrete foundation; to calculate the stiffness of the barrettes
modulus of the pile cap. The lower bound ground and the pile cap for use in structural analysis of the
modulus was set at 0.1E0 and the upper bound ground foundation system; to calculate barrette actions (axial
modulus was set at 0.7E0. Upper and Lower Bounds force, shear force) and mobilised skin friction within
were applied in Ultimate Limit State (ULS) only as the barrettes; to estimate the vertical shear stress in-
these were expected to be too onerous to generally ap- crease below the toe as well as along the pile length
ply in Serviceability Limit State (SLS) analyses. of the barrettes under serviceability load conditions
for estimation of potential long term settlement 12 REFERENCES
(creep); and to undertake parametric studies to con-
vey the driving mechanisms and parameters for de-
sign. Fookes PG, Baynes FJ, Hutchinson JN. 2000. Total
geological history: a model approach to the antici-
In addition to the separate models developed for the pation, observation and understanding of site con-
Tower Core and CAF systems, a model of the full ditions, Invited Paper, Geoeng 2000 Conference.
foundation structure with the Tower core and CAF as Technomic Publishing, Melbourne, pp 370–460.
one model was created. This was an immense value Evans, P.L. 1978. The Middle east – An outline of the
add to the project as the combined effect of the CAF geology and soil conditions in relation to construc-
tion problems. BRE CP13/78, Building Research
and Tower core could be analysed and the complex Establishment, Watford, UK.
soil-structure interaction between the different struc- Haberfield, C., Ervin, M and Faul, D. 2008. Golder
tures investigated. In addition, the model allowed the Associates, Report on Nakheel Tall Tower Dubai
team to simulate construction sequences and investi- Geotechnical Schematic Design Report,
gate the changes in load sharing that occurred Z6TT.2.01.01.01.CA.
throughout the system due to changes in construction Haberfield, C. M. 2013. Tall Tower Foundations –
From Concept to Construction. Advances in Foun-
sequences. An example of the combined PLAXIS 3D dation Engineering, Ed. K. K. Phoon et al., Re-
model is shown in Figure 5. search Publishing Services, 33-65.
Kent, P.E. 1978. Middle East -the geological back-
ground. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geol-
ogy and Hydrogeology, 11, 1-7.
Mair, R.J. 1993. Developments in geotechnical engi-
neering research: application to tunnels and deep
excavations. Unwin Memorial Lecture, Proceed-
ings of Institution of Civil Engineers: Civil Engi-
neering 93, 27-41
Nikolau, S., Mylonakis, G., Gazetas, G., and Tazoh,
T. Kinematic pile bending during earthquakes:
Analysis and field measurements, Geotechnique
51, No. 5, 425-440, January 2001
Poulos, H. G. and Badelow, F. 2015. Geotechnical
Parameter Assessment for Tall Building Founda-
Figure 5. Plaxis 3D model tion Design, International Journal of High-Rise
Buildings, Vol. 4, No. 4, Council on Tall Buildings
and Urban Habitat.
Poulos, H.G. and Bunce, G. 2008. Foundation design
10 CONCLUSIONS for the Burj Dubai – The world’s tallest building.
Proceedings of the 6th International Conference
The innovation for the design of the Dubai Creek on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering,
Tower Foundations resided in the combined pro- Arlington, VA, August 11-15, Paper No. 1.47, 1-
16.
cesses of Total Engineering Geological approach, ef- Poulos, H.G. 2009. Tall buildings and deep founda-
ficient parameter selection and testing, good under- tions – Middle East challenges. In M. Hamza et al.
standing of driving mechanisms, sophisticated (ed.), Proceedings of the 17th International Con-
geotechnical modelling and close partnership be- ference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical En-
tween the architect, structural and geotechnical de- gineering, Alexandria, Egypt, 3173-3205.
signers on the project. This resulted in a more effi- Poulos, H.G. and Davids, A.J. 2005. Foundation de-
sign for Emirates Twin Towers, Dubai. Canadian
cient ground mobilisation, more efficient foundation Geotechnical Journal 42: 716-730.
system, shorter construction times and more opti- Russo, G., Abagnara, V., Poulos, H.G. and Small,
mised construction sequencing. In doing so, the pro- J.C. 2013. Re-assessment of foundation settle-
cess involved deliberate application of information, ments for the Burj Khalifa, Dubai. Acta Geotech-
imagination and initiative in deriving greater or dif- nica, 8, 1, 3-15.
Vorster, TEB and Wojtowitz, G. 2019. O-cell testing
ferent value to the owner of Dubai Creek Tower from for the Dubai Creek Tower: Advancing under-
the available resources. Innovation by design. standing of the load bearing capabilities of weak
rocks in Dubai. Proceedings of the 17th African
11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Regional Conference on Soil Mechanics and Ge-
otechnical Engineering, Cape Town, 7 – 9th Octo-
The authors would like to thank Emaar Properties ber.
Wojtowitz G and Vorster, TEB. 2017. Geotechnical
(developer of the master plan and Dubai Creek drivers for super tall buildings in the Middle East,
Tower) and Calatrava International for their support Proceedings of the 9th South African Young Ge-
of this paper and for allowing the sharing of this in- otechnical Engineers Conference, September,
formation. The authors would like to thank Prof. Durban, South Africa.
Harry Poulos for his contribution to this work.