Project

Located in Palm Jumeirah, an artificial archipelago off the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Nakheel Mall is a 418,000-square-meter complex featuring a hotel, medical center, fitness facility, and cinemas, as well as a three-level underground parking structure that accommodates 4,000 vehicles. The AED 2 billion luxury facility boasts a VIP entrance and rooftop fountains and waterfalls plunging 65 feet into the mall. Nakheel Properties retained Rasana Engineering (Rasana) as the sole steel contractor for the project. To design the steel structure economically and safely, without sacrificing quality, Rasana needed interoperable structural design technology with advanced analysis capabilities.

Solution

Rasana used STAAD.Pro Advanced for analysis and design of all steel structures, and Sectionwizard for irregular built-up structures. The project team initially modeled all structures in Tekla and then imported them directly into STAAD.Pro Advanced for further design and analysis. The flexibility and interoperability of Bentley’s 3D structural analysis and design applications enabled an integrated design approach to deliver this unique world-class structure offering sprawling views of Dubai’s skyline.

Outcome

Using STAAD.Pro Advanced helped economize on a majority of the steel sections resulting in a 15 percent savings in design time. The direct integration between STAAD.Pro Advanced and Tekla improved project collaboration and eliminated the rework of inputting information, while the dynamic performance of STAAD.Pro Advanced accelerated the analysis process and helped Rasana deliver on-time, in-budget construction drawings. The focal point of the world’s largest manmade island and popular holiday spot, Nakheel Mall will be a huge boost to the local economy.

Software

Integrating STAAD.Pro Advanced reduced the originally budgeted 7,900 design hours to just 6,656 hours. The flexible modeling environment enabled Rasana to better understand the behavior of the structure more quickly and instilled confidence that the design was 100 percent compliant with local steel requirements. Bentley’s interoperable design and analysis applications optimized analytical modeling, allowing Rasana to efficiently define a complex model, streamline collaboration, and enhance information mobility among the team to meet project deliverables.