BEARING BEHAVIOUR OF DUBAI SANDSTONE AND DUBAI SILTSTONE DUE

TO HIGH-RISE STRUCTURES

Rolf Katzenbach, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Institute and Laboratory of Geotechnics,

Germany, +49 6151 16 22 810, katzenbach@geotechnik.tu-darmstadt.de
Steffen Leppla, Ingenieursozietät Professor Dr.-Ing. Katzenbach GmbH, Darmstadt · Weinheim ·
Frankfurt am Main · Bensheim · Kiev, +49 6151 130 13 64, leppla@katzenbach-ingenieure.de
Marwan Alzaylaie, Dubai Creative Clusters Authority, UAE, +971 4 36 93 680,
marwan.alzaylaie@dcca.gov.ae

ABSTRACT

Safety, optimisation and the sustainability are the most important aspects for the design of any
foundation system. An optimised and safe design of foundation systems for high-rise structures in
difficult soil and groundwater conditions is based on a reduction of construction material used,
construction time spent, energy consumed and the adequate consideration of the soil-structure
interaction. This is also important for the high-rise structures like skyscrapers and bridge piers in
Dubai, UAE. Due to the large loads most of these structures are founded in the Dubai Sandstone and
Dubai Siltstone. Up to now the rock mechanical parameters for these rock layers have been defined on
the very conservative side which led to over-dimensioned foundations in many cases. In a large
research program the bearing behaviour of Dubai Sandstone and Dubai Siltstone has been investigated
by field and laboratory tests, by in-situ pile load tests and the numerical back-analysis using the Finite-
Element-Method (FEM). The comprehensive research investigations show, that the stiffness of Dubai
Sandstone and Dubai Siltstone is more than 20 times higher as it is assumed up to now. The paper
presents the scope of research, the epoch-making results and the significance for the engineering
practice.

Keywords: Dubai Sandstone, Dubai Siltstone

INTRODUCTION

Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the cities with the biggest density of high-rise
buildings in the world (Fig. 1). All these high-rise buildings are founded on conventional deep
foundation in the Dubai Sandstone and the Dubai Siltstone. The load of the high-rise structures into
the subsoil is transferred by bored piles or barrettes.

Fig. 1. Skyline of Dubai, UAE

30 © 2018 Deep Foundations Institute

In the scope of a large research program the bearing behavior of the Dubai Sandstone and the Dubai
Siltstone due to high-rise structures has been analyzed at the Institute and Laboratory of Geotechnics
of Technische Universitaet Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt), Germany. This research program included a
high amount of field and laboratory tests. The area for the research program was the Business Bay
District of Dubai (Fig. 2). This area is about 3.5 km long and about 2 km wide. The subsoil conditions
in the Business Bay District are representative for whole Dubai.

Fig. 2. Business Bay District, Dubai (UAE)

At the moment the highest high-rise building of the world, the Burj Khalifa, is located in this area
(Fig. 3). The Burj Khalifa has 163 floors and a height of 828 m. This impressive high-rise building is
surrounded by a water basin where every 30 minutes fountains accompanied with music enthuse the
inhabitants and the many guests and tourists (Fig. 4). In a few years the Burj Khalifa will be only the
second highest high-rise building in the world. The Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia will be 1,007 m
high. The Business Bay District is located about 2.5 km landwards of the coast line (Fig. 5).

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Fig. 3. Burj Khalifa, Dubai (UAE), h = 828 m

Fig. 4. Fountains at Burj Khalifa in Business Bay District, Dubai (UAE)

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 Fig. 5. Palm Island and Business Bay District, Dubai (UAE)

SUBSOIL AND GROUNDWATER CONDITONS IN DUBAI

The subsoil and groundwater conditions in Business Bay District in Dubai have been investigated by
166 core drillings. The results can be summarized as follows:

Under the surface middle dense sands and partly gravels can be detected unto a depth of about 15 m.
Below the sands and gravels follows the Dubai Sandstone with a thickness of 15 m to 40 m. Under the
Dubai Sandstone follows the Dubai Siltstone. The two rock layers are also named as “Weak
Sandstone” and “Weak Siltstone” (Sharif & Ahmed 2010, Stipho 1984). The groundwater level is
similar to the sea water level. That means that the groundwater level is about 3 m to 4 m below the
surface. The subsoil and groundwater conditions are shown in Figure 6.

Fig. 6. Subsoil and groundwater conditions in Dubai (UAE)

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The subsoil reports are normally developed by geotechnical consulting engineers from UAE, UK,
USA and Australia. In these reports the following shear parameters and deformation parameters are
given:

• angle of friction φ'

- Dubai Sandstone: 30-45 °
- Dubai Siltstone: 38-45 °
• cohesion c'
- Dubai Sandstone: 20-105 kN/m2
- Dubai Siltstone: 50-155 kN/m2
• Young´s Modulus E
- Dubai Sandstone: 24-120 MN/m2
- Dubai Siltstone: 60-180 MN/m2

PILE LOAD TESTS

The scientific research of the authors covers 28 large construction projects with more than 40 high-rise
buildings. For these large construction projects 116 static pile load tests have been carried out, which
have been analyzed scientifically by the authors.

108 of the static pile load tests have been carried out on the final building piles. 8 of the static pile load
tests have been carried out on separated piles that have not been used for the load transfer. Only 3 of
the test piles have been instrumented with strain gauges, extensometers or load cells. Due to this fact
for the most static pile load tests only the load and the pile head settlement have been recorded. A
typical example of the pile load tests is shown in Figure 7.

Fig. 7. Pile load test at pile No. 73

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The test pile No. 73 is 1.3 m thick and 40 m long. The pile goes through the Dubai Sandstone and ends
in the Dubai Siltstone. The maximum load was about 32 MN. The measured settlement at the pile
head was only 0.7 cm.

The pile load test No. 73 was back-analyzed with numerical simulations using the Finite-Element-
Method (FEM). For the first back-analysis the mechanical parameters of the soil reports have used.
The comparison of the first back-analysis (grey line in Fig. 8) and the measurement data (red line in
Fig. 8) shows no good accordance. Based on this insight additional numerical simulations have been
carried out to calibrate the mechanical parameters (green line in Fig. 8). As a result of the calibration
the stiffness of the Dubai Sandstone respectively of the Dubai Siltstone is about E = 5,500 MN/m2.
Using the information of the existing soil reports, the stiffness of the rocky subsoil is definitely under
estimated. Based on this follow a totally wrong estimation of the bearing capacity and the load
deformation behavior of the pile.

Fig. 8. Measured and calculated load-settlement curves of pile No. 73

To proof the research results of Figure No. 8 a simple calculation of the necessary shaft area of the pile
for the maximum load was carried out using two simplifications:

• the settlement of the pile head is only due to the compression of the concrete
• the shaft resistance creates no settlements

With these simplifications the elastic relationship between stress and stiffness can be used which is
given by Hooke´s Law in Equation 1.

σ = E⋅ε [1]

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The requirement for this simple calculation is that the calculated length L is smaller than the length of
the test pile and the bearing capacity of the test pile is not reached. If the pile load is reduced by the
shaft resistance linearly with the depth Equation 3 can be used which is a transformation of
Equation 2.

F ⋅L
s= 2 [2]
E⋅A

s⋅E⋅A
L= [3]
0 .5 ⋅ F

In these Equations are: s = settlement at pile head [m]

E = Young´s Modulus of the concrete [MN/m2]
F = load at pile head [MN]

With a maximum load at the pile head of 32 MN and a maximum settlement at the pile head of 0.7 cm
Equation 3 gives a length of the pile of about 18 m, which is necessary for the load transfer via shaft
resistance. The result is visualized in Figure 9.

Fig. 9. Calculation of the necessary length L based on the maximum load and the
measured settlement at the pile head

The scientific research for test pile No. 73 was carried out for all of the 116 test pile in Business Bay
District. Some more data about the results of the pile load tests, the numerical simulations using the
mechanical parameters of the soil reports and the numerical calibrations of the mechanical parameters
are shown in the Figure 10, 11 and 12. For the Dubai Sandstone and the Dubai Siltstone the stiffness
of E = 1,500 - 2,700 MN/m2 gives a good accordance between the measurement data and the
numerical results.

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Fig. 10. Measured and calculated load-settlement curves of pile No. 67

Fig. 11. Measured and calculated load-settlement curves of pile No. 74

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 Fig. 12. Measured and calculated load-settlement curves of pile No. 76

Another possibility to proof these research results is the simplified back-analysis of the settlements of
the Burj Khalifa (Figure 3). The measures settlements are about 5 cm, caused by an average load of
the total building of about 8.000 MN. Neglecting the fact that the Burj Khalifa is founded on a large
pile group, the stiffness of the subsoil can be calculated to E = 1,600 MN/m2 using the equations of the
classic settlement analysis. This result is in the range of the stiffness that is determined by the
scientific research of the authors.

SUMMARY OF THE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

The results of the scientific research show, that the stiffness of the Dubai Sandstone and the Dubai
Siltstone is much higher than estimated in the soil report. The stiffness of the rocky subsoil of Dubai
given in the soil report is about 70-80 MN/m2. The detected stiffness of the scientific research is more
than 1,500 MN/m2. The relation factor is between 21 and 70. A summary is given in Table 1.

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Table 1. Comparison of the estimation and of the back-analysis of the stiffness of Dubai
Sandstone and Dubai Siltstone

Young´s Modulus E [MN/m2] factor

pile No. estimation back-analysis
Eback-analysis/Esoil report
Esoil report Eback-analysis
67 72 1,500 21
73 78 5,500 70
74 75 2,700 36
76 78 2,100 27

This totally new knowledge is proofed scientifically and will lead to an optimized planning and design
of the foundations of large construction projects in Dubai and the whole UAE. This optimized
planning and design lead to massive reduction of construction material, money and time and reduces
the CO2 output significantly.

This optimization can be increased in combination with the hybrid foundation system Combined Pile-
Raft Foundation (CPRF). The design principles and the application of a CPRF are explained in the
CPRF Guideline (ISSMGE 2013) and in Katzenbach et al. (2016).

Regarding the necessary safety and quality assurance including the observational method practical
information is given in Katzenbach et al. (2010) and Katzenbach et al. (2013).

REFERENCES

ISSMGE International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (2013). Combined
Pile-Raft Foundation Guideline.

Katzenbach, R., Bachmann, G., Leppla, S., Ramm, H. 2010. Chances and limitations of the
observational method in geotechnical monitoring. 14th Danube-European Conference on Geotechnical
Engineering, 2.-4. June, Bratislava, Slovakia, 13 p.

Katzenbach, R., Leppla, S., Weidle, A., Choudhury, D. 2013. Aspects regarding management of soil
risk. 4th International Seminar on Forensic Geotechnical Engineering, 10.-12. January, Bengaluru,
India, 12 p.

Katzenbach, R., Leppla, S., Choudhury, D. 2016. Foundation systems for high-rise structures. CRC
Press Taylor & Francis Group, New York, USA.

Sharif, E.Y., Ahmed, M.J., 2010. Engineering Geology of Dubai. Arab Centre for Engineering Studies
(ACES).

Stipho, A.S., 1984. Soil conditions and foundation problems in the dessert regions of the Middle East.
First International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering, St. Louis, Missouri,
USA, 21-25.

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