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1.The main body of the National Stadium has a design life of 100 years. Its fire resistance capability is first-rate, and it can withstand an eight-magnitude earthquake. The water-resistance capability of its underground project is also first-rate.
2.The main body of the National Stadium is a colossal saddle-shaped elliptic steel structure weighing 42,000 tons. It is 333 meters long from north to south, 294 meters wide from east to west, and 69 meters tall.
3.To earthquake-proof the stadium, the bowl and roof were split into two separate elements and the bowl split into eight zones, each with its own stability system and effectively its own building.
4.The ground was broken on Christmas Eve December 2003, and construction started in March 2004. Construction was halted following the collapse of Terminal 2E at Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport, which had a similar design to the National Stadium.
5.The stadium can seat as many as 91,000 spectators during the Olympics. The capacity will then be reduced to 80,000 after the Games.
6.The stadium is 330 metres (1,082 ft) long by 220 metres (721 ft) wide, and is 69.2 metres (227 ft) tall. The stadium uses 258,000 square metres (2,777,112 square feet) of space and has a usable area of 204,000 square metres (2,195,856 square feet). It was built with 36 km of unwrapped steel, with a combined weight of 45,000 tonnes.
7.The stadium will cost up to 3.5 billion yuan (423 million USD).
8.The large steel skeleton of the project weighs 42,000 tons, with the roof and the hanging parts around it accounting for 11,200 tons.
9.According to the plan, the outer circle will vertically drop by 67-70mm, the middle by 161-178mm and the inner by 208-286mm.
10.The skeleton can now bear a load of 11,200 tones of its roof and hanging parts.
11.Computer simulation, synchronized control and structure monitoring techniques were all used to ensure accurate operation, even unloading and timely observation.
12.In 2002, Government officials engaged architects worldwide in a design competition. Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron collaborated with ArupSport and China Architecture Design & Research Group to win the competition.
13.The opening and closing ceremony of the Beijing olympics will take place in the bird’s nest.
14.The Beijing National Stadium’also known as the National Stadium, or the “Bird’s Nest” for its architecture is a stadium finished for the Olympic Green in Beijing, China that was completed in March 2008.
15.The stadium will host the main track and field competitions for the 2008 Summer Olympics, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies. It is located east of the Beijing National Aquatics Centre.
The National Stadium is a complex structure, posing great difficulties for its designers and constructors.
1. Large and heavy steel parts
The fracture surface of the largest truss column — the major load-bearing component of the roof structure — measures 25m x 20m, with a height of 67m. The maximum weight of a single column is 500 tons. The main truss is 12m tall. The maximum span between and through the two columns amounts to 145.577+112.788m, and the maximum span between the two trusses stands at 102.39m. Each truss column is of great bulk and weight, and so are the main trusses.
2. Complex nodal joints
Because the structural elements in the project are box-typed, many elements intersect spatially among the steel parts. Besides, the complex nature of secondary structures has resulted in the diversity of nodal joints of the main structures, requiring accurate and sophisticated manufacturing and installation.
3. Tight schedule
In addition to the huge workload, the allotted construction period is short. Having started on December 24, 2003, the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2007, with the inauguration time scheduled for March 2008. Therefore many operations have to be conducted on a limited terrain, causing a very tense situation.
4. The hoisting work extended across the winter and spring, so the workers have had to defy both rainy and cold conditions in the winter to continue their work.
The workers have overcome tremendous engineering and technical challenges in the process of construction:
1. Difficult work arrangement
They need to do very detailed research of operations and follow meticulous arrangements to complete various kinds of work within a limited workspace.
2. Difficult hoisting of steel parts
To facilitate the assembly of the steel parts, the workers have to use a prone position to assemble the truss columns, which requires a turnover process before they are hoisted. The choice of the hoist points and lug hooks pose great difficulties in the face of bulky and cumbersome steel parts, and the change of pulling stress from three directions must be taken into consideration. The workers need to meticulously rectify angles and positions of the box-typed sectional parts to ensure accurate abutment during the hoisting process.
3. Difficult stabilizing process
They also have to fight the heavy wind load and keep the stability of the steel parts by following a strict working order and use lateral stability measures including the use of anchoring method and wind-holding ropes.
4. Difficult welding
The welders not only face a huge work volume, but also have to work on both the thin steel sheets and thick steel slabs, on high-strength and cast steel elements, and take downward, vertical or overhead positions while welding. They face temperature changes, steel deformation and intensive labor. They need to work above ground, in winter rain and under windy conditions.
5. Difficult installation
The workers face difficulties in ensuring accurate installation as the steel parts and the related gigs and fixtures can be deformed easily under their own dead weight and the change of temperatures. The workers must take pre-installation measures to rectify and relieve the errors that might occur in the process of installation.
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Showing posts with label engineering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label engineering. Show all posts
9 Aug 2008
2 Aug 2008
Burning F1 car facts
01. F1 car is made up of 80,000 components, if it were assembled 99.9% correctly, it would still start the race with 80 things wrong!
02. Formula 1 cars have over a kilometre of cable, linked to about 100 sensors and actuators which monitor and control many parts of the car.
03. F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOUR seconds!!!!!!!
04. F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of racing mostly before blowing up on the other hand we expect our engines to last us for a decent 20yrs on an average and they quite faithfully DO....thats the extent to which the engines r pushed to perform...
05. When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a BRICK wall at 300kmph !!!
06. An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one race due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour (Yeah thats right!!!)
07. At 550kg a F1 car is less than half the weight of a Mini.
08. In F1 car the engine typically revs upto 18000 rpm,(the piston travelling up and down 300 times a second!!) wheres cars like the palio, maruti 800,indica rev only upto 6000 rpm at max. Thats 3 times slower.
09. The brake discs in an F1 car have an operating temperature of approx 1000 degees Centigrade and they attain that temp while braking before almost every turn...that is why they r not made of steel but of carbon fibre which is much more harder and resistant to wear and tear and most of all has a higher melting point.
10. If a water hose were to blow off, the complete cooling system would empty in just over a second.
11. Gear cogs or ratios are used only for one race, and are replaced regularly to prevent failure, as they are subjected to very high degrees of stress.
12. The fit in the cockpit is so tight that the steering wheel must be removed for the driver to get in or out of the car. A small latch behind the wheel releases it from the column. Levers or paddles for changing gear are located on the back of the wheel. So no gearstick! The clutch levers are also on the steering wheel, located below the gear paddles.
13. To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and added downforce can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.
14. Without aerodynamic downforce, high-performance racing cars have sufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160 kph. They usually race at over 300 kph.
15. The amount of aerodynamic downforce produced by the front and rear wings and the car underbody is amazing. Once the car is
travelling over 160 kph, an F1 car can generate enough downforce to equal it's own weight. That means it could actually hold itself to the CEILING of a tunnel and drive UPSIDE down!
16. In a street course race like the monaco grand prix, the downforce provides enough suction to lift manhole covers. Before the race all of the manhole covers on the streets have to be welded down to prevent this from happening!
17. The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 litres of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 litre family car.They use the same refueling rigs used on US military helicopters today.
18. TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds. It took me 8 sec to read above point ( no.17).
19. Race car tyres don't have air in them like normal car tyres. Most racing tyres have nitrogen in the tyres because nitrogen has a more consistent pressure compared to normal air. Air typically contains varying amounts of water vapour in it, which affects its
expansion andcontraction as a function of temperature, making the tyre pressure unpredictable.
20. During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5 kg in weight due to wear.
21. Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to last 90 - 120 km (That's Khandala and back from Mumbai).
22. A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (best grip) when tread temperature is between 900C and 1200C.(Water boils boils at 100C remember) At top speed, F1 tyres rotate 50 times a second.
02. Formula 1 cars have over a kilometre of cable, linked to about 100 sensors and actuators which monitor and control many parts of the car.
03. F1 car can go from 0 to 160 kph AND back to 0 in FOUR seconds!!!!!!!
04. F1 car engines last only for about 2 hours of racing mostly before blowing up on the other hand we expect our engines to last us for a decent 20yrs on an average and they quite faithfully DO....thats the extent to which the engines r pushed to perform...
05. When an F1 driver hits the brakes on his car he experiences retardation or deceleration comparable to a regular car driving through a BRICK wall at 300kmph !!!
06. An average F1 driver looses about 4kgs of weight after just one race due to the prolonged exposure to high G forces and temperatures for little over an hour (Yeah thats right!!!)
07. At 550kg a F1 car is less than half the weight of a Mini.
08. In F1 car the engine typically revs upto 18000 rpm,(the piston travelling up and down 300 times a second!!) wheres cars like the palio, maruti 800,indica rev only upto 6000 rpm at max. Thats 3 times slower.
09. The brake discs in an F1 car have an operating temperature of approx 1000 degees Centigrade and they attain that temp while braking before almost every turn...that is why they r not made of steel but of carbon fibre which is much more harder and resistant to wear and tear and most of all has a higher melting point.
10. If a water hose were to blow off, the complete cooling system would empty in just over a second.
11. Gear cogs or ratios are used only for one race, and are replaced regularly to prevent failure, as they are subjected to very high degrees of stress.
12. The fit in the cockpit is so tight that the steering wheel must be removed for the driver to get in or out of the car. A small latch behind the wheel releases it from the column. Levers or paddles for changing gear are located on the back of the wheel. So no gearstick! The clutch levers are also on the steering wheel, located below the gear paddles.
13. To give you an idea of just how important aerodynamic design and added downforce can be, small planes can take off at slower speeds than F1 cars travel on the track.
14. Without aerodynamic downforce, high-performance racing cars have sufficient power to produce wheel spin and loss of control at 160 kph. They usually race at over 300 kph.
15. The amount of aerodynamic downforce produced by the front and rear wings and the car underbody is amazing. Once the car is
travelling over 160 kph, an F1 car can generate enough downforce to equal it's own weight. That means it could actually hold itself to the CEILING of a tunnel and drive UPSIDE down!
16. In a street course race like the monaco grand prix, the downforce provides enough suction to lift manhole covers. Before the race all of the manhole covers on the streets have to be welded down to prevent this from happening!
17. The refuelers used in F1 can supply 12 litres of fuel per second. This means it would take just 4 seconds to fill the tank of an average 50 litre family car.They use the same refueling rigs used on US military helicopters today.
18. TOP F1 pit crews can refuel and change tyres in around 3 seconds. It took me 8 sec to read above point ( no.17).
19. Race car tyres don't have air in them like normal car tyres. Most racing tyres have nitrogen in the tyres because nitrogen has a more consistent pressure compared to normal air. Air typically contains varying amounts of water vapour in it, which affects its
expansion andcontraction as a function of temperature, making the tyre pressure unpredictable.
20. During the race the tyres lose weight! Each tyre loses about 0.5 kg in weight due to wear.
21. Normal tyres last 60 000 - 100 000 km. Racing tyres are designed to last 90 - 120 km (That's Khandala and back from Mumbai).
22. A dry-weather F1 tyre reaches peak operating performance (best grip) when tread temperature is between 900C and 1200C.(Water boils boils at 100C remember) At top speed, F1 tyres rotate 50 times a second.
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