Rotating Skyscraper in Dubai 2

[J1D]

Structural fellows,

You may have heard the news of rotating skyscraper in Dubai, the world first dynamic architecture. See from the link:

http://www.dynamicarchitecture.net/

What do you think? What would be the challenge in stucture design?

 

[J1D]

It is not very fast. A single rotation would take around 90 minutes, as per the architect.

How plumbing works (and drainage) is something I wonder, also the calculation of seismic load.

 

[randomizer]

For the construction of the original World Trade Center buildings (WTC 1 & WTC 2 = 1400 ft +/-), there was concern about the swayying of the building, and what kind of design criteria they should have.

Thus, psychological studies were conducted at the University of Washington to determine the effects of motion on people's state of mind. The test consisted of people coming to a "doctor's office" for what they thought was a free medical check-up. However, the "MD" was actually a PsyD, Psychologist, and the "office" was on a shake-table.. or sway-table as it were. The sways began shortly into the "check-up", and got progressively larger.
The Psychologist documented, among other things, the time (a) when the subject showed a physical reaction (as small as a shift of the eyes), (b) when the subject showed signs of real disturbance, (c) when the subject voiced their concerns to the PsyD, and (d) when the subject ran out of the room.
Awesome.

The Twirling Tower folks probably did a similar study for tall building, plus a study of other building with rotatin resturants and what not. The building sounds like a pretty good idea to me. And if a few floors somehow stop moving, at least it's not like a draw bridge that got stuck in an upright position.

 

[DarthSoilsGuy]

let me armchair engineer this one,

utilities-
each unit has a rechargable power cell that connects in service position for your household electricity and mechanical not including the turning of the unit.

each unit has a septic tank that connects to the main structure and flushes in service position.

each unit has a water tank that refills in service position.

operations-
rotation and service position cycle controlled by maintenance, but they take requests.

i'll take my fees in the form of barrels of light crude, thank you.

 

[buening]

I wonder if some of the electrical works similar to a steering wheel horn connection. Ever remove and older vehicles steering wheel? There is a round plate on the back of the wheel and there are metal contacts on the turn signal harness that run in the grooves of the round plate, providing constant electricity when the wheel is turned in order to honk the horn. Not sure about the plumbing, but i'm sure something similar could be made with a two piece circular track pipe. Sealing the top and bottom half of the pipes would be tricky though. Just my armchair engineering LOL

 

[civilperson]

The design of emergency stair exits will tax the ingenuity of the designer. I opine that it is not possible to design and construct this building with all the features of a modern building.

 

[buening]

Yeah the emergency stairs would be interesting! From the rotating houses that i've seen on shows, they all had elevators and (obviously) the elevators could not operate until the floor had aligned properly with the lower floor. For a skyscraper and a fire, people would probably burn to death if the building takes a half hour to rotate 360°

 

[prost]

Seems to me the jet engine companies long ago figured out the plumbing issue with respect to rotating machinery--fan blades are all cooled from the inside with some kind of fluid. How does the cooling fluid from a non rotating plenum get into the blade, which is rotating up to 10,000 revolutions per minute?

 

[concretemasonry]

Structural engineers speculating on mechanical and electrical systems for a one of a kind (today)building?

I suspect that there has been some thought given those systems and engineers are already designing.

The question is how would you handle a structural system compatible with the rotational requirement (a given) and work with the mechanical systems. Electrical should not be much of a problem since has been done before.

The owners and developers in that part of the world want the bigest and the best and recognize that the engineering cost is not a barrier. The biggest problem may be getting enough of the skilled tradespeople. There will probably be a 50 to 100% cost over-run, but it may have been budgeted already.

 

[btrueblood]

"Seems to me the jet engine companies long ago figured out the plumbing issue with respect to rotating machinery--fan blades are all cooled from the inside with some kind of fluid. How does the cooling fluid from a non rotating plenum get into the blade, which is rotating up to 10,000 revolutions per minute?"

- Labyrinth seals are used on turbine shaft hubs, but...these leak a bit at all times; the "spill" usually captured and redirected to another part that could use a little compressor bleed air for cooling too. Not sure the concept would be very much fun for sewage...unless the leak path was purged/vented.

- More likely is a setup like that used in the Space Needle (Seattle World's Fair, 1962), the outer ring of the restaraunt rotates, all services (kitchens, restrooms, elevators) are located in the central, non-rotating core. I think only (low-voltage?) power for lighting passes the rotating joint.