Amazing facts of civil engineering

by L. E. Carmichael

Amazing facts of civil engineering: Rising from the desert in the heart of the Middle Eastern city of Dubai is the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building ever constructed.

On such a record-breaking project, everything has to be right—from the foundation supporting the tower to the glass and steel cladding separating its interior spaces from the external environment.

The outer covering, or curtain wall, would cost $100 million all by itself.

Amazing facts of civil engineering: Eric Tomich, civil engineer and technical director on the project, was not willing to spend that kind of money without proof the new system would work.

“If you erected a curtain wall,” he said, “and you didn’t find out how it had an inherent design flaw like a leak or

something, until after [the building] was occupied and the first storm came. . . . It’s unthinkable.”2

To ensure the cladding could withstand Dubai’s punishing climate, Tomich partnered with a corporation that had expertise in testing curtain walls.

The team needed to know the system would survive earthquakes, extreme temperatures, and wind forces, all without allowing air or water to penetrate the building.

“We try to put everything that mother nature would throw at the building into these tests,” Tomich said.3 At first, the team was unsure of how to simulate these conditions.