Kifaf Development Phase II-Plot 5
The Kifaf Development Phase 2 project is a landmark development project located in Dubai. It features a construction of tall twin towers structures which is connected by a bridge at the top and a shared podium/basement.
It is well understood that the movements of structural elements in high-rise designs are an important consideration for design and construction. It was important to determine the effects of the building movements and anticipating these movements (which occur during construction and in long term) in order to avoid any adverse affect on the performance of the structure.
This included monitoring building movements such as foundation settlement, axial shortening, creep and shrinkage, deflection, thermal movements (during construction), movements (due to construction loads). Further, the project was monitored for parameters like settlement, deflection, deformation, inclination, direction of movements and stresses are within allowable limits.
Encardio-rite’s sister concern Encardio-rite Geosystems LLC in UAE was awarded I&M sub-contract for the turnkey monitoring solutions that included:
- Supply, install, monitor instrumentation associated with the project during the construction phase
- Provide early warning through continuous settlement monitoring of raft slab
- Monitor horizontal and vertical building movements during the construction phase
- Establish, maintain and measure survey network including leveling
- Manual and automatic monitoring
- Monthly reporting with evaluation & interpretation
Various instruments were installed at selected locations at the Kifaf Development project site during the construction activity. Instruments used for monitoring and surveying during construction activity included:
- Vibrating Wire Strain Gauge Used for strain measurement of steel & concrete in the composite column, core wall, shear wall, and column.
- 3D Optical Prisms Installed at predefined positions on the perimeter of the towers, to measure lateral and vertical movements.
- Building Settlement Point To measure the settlement of composite column and core wall during building construction.
- Pavement Settlement Point To measure the settlement of raft foundation during building construction.
- Prism Target Fixed monitoring targets were installed to monitor 3D movements (x, y, and z).
- Dataloggers were used for the automatic collection and transmission of data of the geotechnical sensors. Robotic total station were used to automatically collect and transmit data from prism targets.