The iconic Al-Hamra Tower was designed by SOM in San Francisco. This 412 metre tall skyscraper is the tallest building in Kuwait. The unique asymmetric design of Al-Hamra minimises solar heat gain and the building was named one of the best inventions of 2011 by TIME magazine – http://www.som.com/projects/al_hamra_tower
The Specification required a peak temperature of 71⁰C (160⁰F) for the massive 4 metre thick raft. The premix concrete supplier did not have a flake ice plant and would not have been able to achieve the required peak temperature using traditional practices. Our Technical Director Dr Aldred (who worked with GHD at the time) helped develop a concrete mix with over 50% Type F fly ash to achieve the temperature limit without ice as shown in the thermograph below. Core from the mock-up concrete block showed that all other concrete parameters were achieved.
The temperature profiles from Zone 3 show the temperature rise for concrete with a placement temperature of up to 38°C (100°F), an average ambient of 42.4°C (108°F) and a maximum ambient of 56°C (133°F).
