Researchers from Zonge Engineering in my own Tucson, Arizona along with researchers at the University of Arizona’s Mining and Geological Engineering Department (my alma mater) have completed a report on a fiber optic monitoring system that has wide-ranging applications in border security, prison perimeter protection, mine safety and other applications. The Helios system uses the principle of ‘optical backscattering’ to detect small acoustical vibrations, such as an illegal border crosser, or a trapped miner tapping on a wall. Because of the speed with which the lasers can travel in the fiber optic line, the system can be deployed in lengths up to 50-km, and can locate the source of a signal within 1-m. If there are source lasers at each end of the cable, they can even detect exactly where the cable is cut and it can continue functioning. [Source: UANews.org. Image: UANews.org]
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Foundations and Geotechnical Engineering for the Burj Dubai – World’s Tallest Building
The Burj Dubai Tower has recently reached it’s final height of 818m (2,684-ft or almost exactly 1/2 a mile!). The foundation system for the Burj Dubai is comprised of 192 bored piles (drilled shafts in my practice) 1.5-m (approximately 5-ft) in diameter and approximately 50-m deep (164-ft). A 3.7-m (12-ft) thick raft foundation sits on top of the piles under the full footprint of the structure. (Image from BurjDubaiSkyscraper.com)
The geotechnical investigation for the Burj Dubai (now to be known as Burj Khalifa after the UAE President) is described in detail in a paper by the geotechnical engineer of record, Grahame Bunce of Hyder Consulting (UK) and the independent technical reviewer for the geotechnical design, Harry G. Poulos of Coffey Geotechnics. Click through for the link to the paper and more details. […]