The Central Market redevelopment project occupies 700,000 square meters (70 hectares) in the heart of Abu Dhabi. This project is designed as a multi-use development which includes three skyscrapers comprising of apartments, an Arabian Souk, various restaurants, luxury offices, a prestigious hotel, a green roof above the market, a bridge system linking these areas together and six stories of parking for a total capacity of  5,000 cars.

Halvorson and Partners was appointed to complete the structural engineering of this prestigious construction development that was proceeding based on a previous project scheme by a different design team. HP’s main concern was to continue the project at a steady pace without compromising the architectural intent. This endeavor required input from various specialty consultants that was instrumental for the successful completion of this unique design.

SIMCO’s experts were called-in when on-site soil and groundwater tests results revealed aggressive environmental conditions that would be very corrosive to the diaphragm wall tie-backs as well as to the slab and perimeter basement walls. Despite compliance to Design Codes, it was agreed that the concrete mixtures needed to be optimized.

SIMCO’s scope of work was to design durable concrete mixtures using local materials for the construction of the tower mats, parking slabs, outrigger walls, perimeter basement walls etc. SIMCO also studied the effects of corrosion inhibitor in foundation elements using its state-of-the-art STADIUM^® software. Numerical simulations were performed to determine the impact of chloride penetration with external sulphate attack on time to initiate corrosion and concrete degradation.

SIMCO’s findings were also used as the basis of HP’s recommendations to include corrosion inhibitor in certain concrete mixtures.

Client Objectives

• Develop concrete durability specifications for an optimal service life
• Fine-tune mixtures for all concrete elements on site
• Assist the structural engineering team in the design of reinforced concrete structures that would be resistant to extreme environmental conditions
• Mitigate risks where cracking and exposure to aggressive environmental conditions could have detrimental effects on performance

SIMCO’s Solution

• Review and analyze concrete materials specifications
• Perform numerical simulations using STADIUM^® to evaluate the service life of concrete mixtures exposed to the severe environmental conditions
• Provide recommendations to optimize the durability of concrete produced with locally available materials
• Define concrete specifications for all reinforced concrete elements

Results

• Highly reliable data for the implementation of effective quality control measures for concrete production
• Cost-effective solutions for the optimization of concrete mixtures using local materials