Assessing settlement of high-rise structures by 3D simulations

A number of new high-rise buildings in the Frankfurt region are currently in their planning stage. Most of these high-rise structures will be erected on combined piled-raft foundations (CPRFs). Due to the complex interaction between piles, raft, and subsoil the difficult design of these foundations will be carried out by three-dimensional finite-element (FE) simulations. For the 121 m high City-Tower, which is currently under construction, the design procedure based on a three-dimensional FE simulation of the CPRF is described. The design process for the new 228 m high office tower Max, which will be located in the financial district of Frankfurt, in the direct vicinity of already existing high-rise buildings, has just started. To improve and verify the input parameters for the constitutive modeling and to allow for a cost optimized foundation design, a numerical back-analysis of the 110 m high Eurotheum, located close to the building site of Max, has been performed. For this building comprehensive measurements were carried out starting in the construction stage and lasting up to the present day.