High Rise Foundations

Foundation for High Rise Buildings

MB Bureau

Due to increasing economic development, rapid industrialization and decreasing availability of land for construction in thickly
populated countries like India, scope for extending construction in horizontal direction is becoming increasingly lesser resulting
in construction of high-rise building with increasing number of floors. In such cases if raft foundations are proposed it is generally
observed allowable bearing capacity of such rafts are quite high so that such foundation can withstand the applied loads due
to high-rise buildings to a great extent without causing shear failure but the major problem of such foundation is that the total
settlement below the foundation at different locations will be very high beyond permissible limits.

I
n the design of foundations for large buildings on deep been recognized if few number of piles are installed at
deposit of cohesive soils it is generally seen that if raft suitable locations below the raft foundation for such
foundation be chosen the foundation will have sufficient structures, the resultant settlement under such structures
factor of safety against shear failure but corresponding will be much smaller and will be within permissible limits
settlement will be very high to permit. In such cases pile compared to that below the raft without provision of piles.
foundations are generally selected causing very large cost Use of raft in conjunction with some piles will be costlier
for such foundations. The settlements are successfully than in case where only raft is used if possible but much
controlled in such foundations. However in the late, it has less than the case when only piles are used. As a result in

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 High Rise Foundations

the past decades there has been increasing recognition to - The safety and stability of nearby buildings and services
use some piles with raft to reduce the total and differential must not be put at risk => ultimate limit state (ULS) /
settlement of raft leading to considerable economy without serviceability limit state (SLS)
compromising the safety and performance of the foundation
The three common types of foundation system that are
structure system. Such a foundation system is called piled-
adopted for High-Rise buildings are-
raft. One of the most important buildings constructed with
such system is for the foundation system of the worlds - Raft Foundation
tallest building the Burj Dubai. Similar foundations are also - Pile Foundation
being adopted in India for twelve storey buildings in Chennai.
- Combined Pile-Raft-Foundation (CPRF)
The adoption of piled-raft foundation for high-rise buildings
is also very common in European cities. Thus it seems on With increasing height of building respectively increasing
the context of increasing construction of buildings of large loads the depicted raft foundation is not suitable to
heights in metropolis in India and other countries, piled- transfer the loads properly into the ground. Therefore a
raft foundation will be increasingly adopted as a most pile foundation is often used. The main function of a pile
economic safe foundation system. In this paper an attempt foundation is to transfer all loads with piles to lower levels
has been made to describe the concept of load transfer of the ground which are capable of sustaining the load with
mechanism for piled -raft foundation from superstructure an adequate factor of safety (ULS). The innovative combined
to the foundation. pile-raft-foundation (CPRF) is nowadays often used to
transfer the loads into the ground. In comparison to a pile
foundation, the combined pile-raft foundation both the
piles and the raft transfer the loads into ground. The loads
are transferred by skin friction and end bearing as well as
contact pressures of the raft foundation (bearing pressure)
(See in Figure 1).

Piled Raft Foundation: Burj, Dubai

The present paper is on customary foundation systems for

high-rise buildings such as raft and pile foundation as well
as the innovative foundation system of combined pile- Figure 1: Load Transfer Mechanism in Combined Pile-Raft-Foundation
raft-foundation. Where piles are primarily used to reduce
settlements and where an adequate factor of safety against The piles are used up to their ultimate bearing capacity (load
failure is provided, the innovative combined pile-raft level) which is higher than the permissible design value for a
foundation (CPRF) has been put forward in the past. Some comparable single pile. The combined pile-raft-foundation
case study of few high rise buildings is included for better represents a complex foundation system, which requires a
understanding. qualified understanding of the soil-structure interactions.

Foundation systems The foundations system of the CPRF can lead to the following
advantages in comparison to a raft or pile foundation:
Every design will have to satisfy the following conditions-
Reduction of settlements and differential settlements of
- The factor of safety against failure of the foundation and structures.
of the supporting soil has to be adequate => ultimate Reduction of tilt in consideration of eccentric loading or
limit state (ULS) inhomogeneous soil conditions.
- The settlement of the foundation as a whole and in In case of hybrid foundation it is possible to avoid joints
particular differential settlements under working load in the raft.
should not be so large as to affect the serviceability of
Reduction of number of piles and pile length in
the structure => serviceability limit state (SLS)
comparison to a pile foundation.

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High Rise Foundations

- Reduction of forces, stresses within the raft in case of

an optimal position of the piles.

Due to the complexity of this foundation system no valid

calculation method has yet been implemented in
national or international technical codes and standards.
Recommendations exist though for CPRF. Therefore the
combined pile-raft-foundation must be monitored by
means of the observational method with a monitoring
programme.

Case studies

- Main Tower Frankfurt, Germany

The building reaches a height of 200 m. The building is

founded on a combined pile-raft foundation. The thickness
of the raft within the tower is between 3 to 3.8 m. A total of
112 piles with diameter of 1.5 m were installed. The length
of the piles varies from 20 m to 30 m (Figure 2).

The ground encountered consists of quaternary sands

down to 10 m below the surface where it is underlain by Figure 2: Main Tower: Ground model /combined pile-raft foundation
tertiary sediments of the Hydrobien. These sediments
(Frankfurt clay) consist of clay interbedded with sands
and limestone bands (Figure 2). The ground layers of the
Inflaten (Frankfurt limestone) and Certithien (marl) were
encountered beneath the Hydrobien.

To ensure an economic design of the Main Tower three

innovative ideas were put forward:

1. The bored piles of the retaining wall are part of the

foundation system (combined pile-raft foundation).
They transfer the loads in addition to the 112 foundation
piles into the ground. Figure 3 shows the position of the
piles of the foundation and of the retaining wall.

2. The building pit and the first floors of the main tower
were constructed in top-down-technique to reduce
construction time and to provide a pit which observe
stability and serviceability of neighboring structure. By
using this technique it is possible to construct the basement
floors and the upper floors at the same time (Figure 3).

3. Apart from their static function the piles of the foundations

and partly of the retaining wall are used for the environ-
mental-friendly heating and cooling of the building. For
this, the piles were additionally installed with heat
exchanger tubes (Figure 4), so that the piles work as
heat exchanging elements to create a closed system.
Energy is transferred to the ground from the exterior
(outside air) and stored until it is needed (Figure 4). The
energy piles can load and unload the seasonal storage.
In winter energy can be withdrawn, thus a cooling of the
ground arises. In summer the cooled down ground can
be used for cooling the building through the ceilings. Figure 3: Plan view of the foundation system / top-down technique

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High Rise Foundations

For this, a very low groundwater velocity is essential. the piles. Beneath the raft a total of 5 earth pressure cells
The monitoring shows that the foundation piles of the were installed. Additionally 13. The settlements of the
Main Tower carry approx. 37 % of the total load of the building are monitored by geodetical points. The maximum
building whereas the piles of the retaining wall carry settlement of the building add up to 2.8 cm. The tilting is
approx. 26 %. smaller than 1/2000. These results cause no negative effect
on the serviceability of the building. The measured mean
value of pile resistance was measured to 15 MN for piles for
a centre pile.

- QIPCO Tower - Doha, Qatar

The QIPCO Tower is situated at the coastline of the West

Bay in Doha, Qatar. The building reaches a height of 200 m
(Figure 6). A ground investigation is currently in progress,
which has been planned by the authors. It consists of drillings,
geophysical methods, field and laboratory tests are the
basis for a successful planning and construction of such a
Figure 4: Seasonal storage of energy with a closed system / energy pile
structure. The combination of different investigation methods
- Sony Center Berlin, Germany makes it possible to detect relevant geological conditions
such as the phenomena of cavities. This innovative
The building reaches a height of 103 m. The building was application of geophysical methods offers the possibility
constructed directly next to an existing railway station. The to screen the ground three-dimensionally in the affected
geometrical position of the high-rise building on the overall zone. This method in combination with drillings can offer
area of the raft causes a large eccentricity of the loads savings in both time and costs. The qualified interpretation
(Figure 5). Due to this fact as well as the geological conditions of all obtained data serves as a basis for the numerical
a combined pile-raft foundation was constructed to transfer simulations to design an optimised foundation system as
the loads into the ground. The thickness of the raft within well as to evaluate all necessary design parameters for the
varies between 1.5 and 2.5 m. A total of 44 bored piles with structural engineer. For the transfer of the loads into the
diameter of 1.5 m were installed. ground, a combined pile-raft foundation for the tower area
is in planning.

Figure 5: Sony Center: Ground model / aerial view

The ground and groundwater conditions were explored by

boreholes. Up to a depth of 4m beneath the surface fillings Figure 6: Animation picture and ground model without foundation system
and organic soils were encountered underlying by loose to
medium dense sands of the Pleistocene. Dense sands were - The Commerzbank , Frankfurt Germany(Pile Foundation)
encountered in depth beyond 15 m. A layer of boulder clay with
a thickness of 5 - 10 m was found. For the verification of the The building is founded on a pile foundation. The building
carrying behaviour of the combined pile-raft foundation a was constructed directly next to an existing high-rise building.
monitoring programme was installed. A total of 4 piles are The existing building reaches a height of 103 m and is
instrumented with measuring devices, such as pressure founded on a raft. A total of 111 telescopic piles with
cells at the top and bottom as well as strain gauges within diameter of 1.8 m within the first 20 m beneath the

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High Rise Foundations

Where piles are primarily used to reduce settlements

and where an adequate factor of safety against failure is
provided, the innovative combined pile-raft-foundation
(CPRF) has been put forward in the past. The essence of
the combined pile-raft-foundation is to employ piles so that
settlements are reduced to an acceptable amount. The
successful design and construction has been verified by
many structures including many high-rise buildings. For
an even more efficient use of foundation piles, the use
of geothermal energy with help of these piles has been
lately carried out. For this, the foundation piles have been
additionally equipped with heat exchanger tubes to use the
ground as an seasonal storage. Many more applications
to use geothermal energy are possible. More effort should
be put into this field of geothermal foundation system to
provide and improve new possible innovative ideas for an
environmental-friendly use of energy.

References
- Braja, D. (2004): Principal of Foundation Engineering, 6th
Edition
- BS (British Standard) 8004 (1986): Code of practice for
Figure 7: Commerzbank in Frankfurt, Germany foundations
- BS 5930 (1999): Code of practice for site investigation
raft, followed by a diameter of 1.5 m were installed. All
- Bajad, S.P. and Sahu, R.B (2009), Optimum design of piled
piles were constructed with a jet grouted shaft as well as raft in soft clay A model study. Proce. IGC Conf., Guntuy,
jet grouting 10 m underneath the piles in the cavernous page 131-134.
limestone. - Balakumar, V. and Ilamparuthi, K. (2007), Performance
monitoring and numerical stimulation of a 12 storey building.
The maximum settlements of the building add up to 2.1 cm. The
Indian Geotechnical Journal 37(2), page 94-115.
minimum settlements were encountered with 1.5 cm. This
- Conte, G., Mandolini, A. & Randolph, M.F. (2003), Centrifuge
leads to a tilting of smaller than 1/2000. These results cause
Modelling to investigate the performance of piled rafts. Proc.
no negative effect on the serviceability of the building. The Of the 4th Int. Seminar on Deep Foundations on Bored and
monitoring shows that the 111 piles of the Commerzbank Auger Piles, Millipress, Rotterdam, page 359- 366.
carry approx. 96 % of the total load of the building. This - Cooke, R.W. (1986), Piled raft foundation on stiff clays, a
indicates that not all loads are transferred by the piles into contribution to design philosophy. Geotechnique, 36(2),
the ground. page 169-203.
- Poulos, H.(2008), The piled raft foundation for the Burj Dubai
Conclusion design and performance IGS - Ferroco, Terzaghi Oretion
2008,Indore.
On the basis of an extensive ground investigation and a
- Randolph, M.F. (1994), Design methods for piled roofs and
detailed description of the ground, the foundation of high- piled rafts. Proce. 13th Int. Conf. on SMFE, New Delhi, page
rise buildings can be planned in an economic and safe 61-82.
manner. The report shows customary foundation systems - Russo, G., and Viggiani, C. (1998), Factor controlling Soil-
for high-rise buildings such as a pile foundation as well as Structure interaction for piled rafts. Int. Conf. on Soil-Structure
the innovative combined pile-raft-foundation. The choice of Interaction in Urban Civil Engineering, Ed. Katzenback, R. and
the adequate system is often depending on the proof of the Arslan, V., Darmstadt.
serviceability of the high-rise building and / or neighbouring - Terzaghi, K., and Peck, R.B.(1967), Soil Mechanics in
structures. Pile foundations have been constructed to Engineering practice. 2nd Ed., John Weley and Sons, New
York.
reduce the settlements and to satisfy the ultimate limit state
and what is more the serviceability. For the design of a pile - Innovative foundation systems for high-rise buildings,
Prof. Hubert Quick, Simon Meissner, Dr. Joachim Michael,
foundation it is often required that each pile must individually
Technische Universitt Darmstadt, Institut fr Werkstoffe und
satisfy an according factor of safety. If a pile foundation is Mechanik im Bauwesen, Darmstadt, Germany (Proceedings
just designed to reduce settlements, the required and known of the 1st Intelligent Building Middle East Conference 5-7th,
geotechnical proofs are a conservative design approach. December 2005, Bahrain).

116 The Masterbuilder - November 2012 [Link]