Location
Chicago, Illinois
Date
01 May 2013, 2:20 pm - 2:35 pm
Abstract
One of the challenging engineering aspects of the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas was design of foundations for the retractable roof arches. The two arches, with a clear span of approximately 1,290 ft, produce a lateral thrust of approximately 19,500 kips at each foundation. The Author was on a consultancy board related to foundation design with Mr. Clyde Baker during the design phase of the project. Design criteria included a maximum allowable deflection of approximately 0.5 inches for the foundations. Adding to the complexity was the varying geologic conditions at each arch foundation location. After eliminating numerous options, the geotechnical design team proposed a foundation system consisting of slurry-placed diaphragm walls. This option resulted in a stiff foundation system that could meet the deflection criteria. Each of the four foundations consists of two parallel walls approximately 12.5 ft apart with 22.5 ft wide perpendicular end walls that form a box foundation. The foundations were designed using classical soil mechanics methodology, load testing of sacrificial panels, and the observational method. Details of the geotechnical design were presented in ASCE GSP-198 (2010). The foundations have performed well since completion in late 2008. The Author has “revisited” the foundations by performing 2-D finite element method (FEM) analysis of the foundation systems for comparison with the original classical soil mechanics methods. Similarities and differences between the two methods are presented and discussed. The comparative study can be useful when considering analysis methods for future complex foundation systems.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
7th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2013 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Gregory, Garry H., "Cowboys Stadium Roof Arch Foundations — Revisited" (2013). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 6.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/7icchge/session17/6
Cowboys Stadium Roof Arch Foundations — Revisited
Chicago, Illinois
One of the challenging engineering aspects of the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas was design of foundations for the retractable roof arches. The two arches, with a clear span of approximately 1,290 ft, produce a lateral thrust of approximately 19,500 kips at each foundation. The Author was on a consultancy board related to foundation design with Mr. Clyde Baker during the design phase of the project. Design criteria included a maximum allowable deflection of approximately 0.5 inches for the foundations. Adding to the complexity was the varying geologic conditions at each arch foundation location. After eliminating numerous options, the geotechnical design team proposed a foundation system consisting of slurry-placed diaphragm walls. This option resulted in a stiff foundation system that could meet the deflection criteria. Each of the four foundations consists of two parallel walls approximately 12.5 ft apart with 22.5 ft wide perpendicular end walls that form a box foundation. The foundations were designed using classical soil mechanics methodology, load testing of sacrificial panels, and the observational method. Details of the geotechnical design were presented in ASCE GSP-198 (2010). The foundations have performed well since completion in late 2008. The Author has “revisited” the foundations by performing 2-D finite element method (FEM) analysis of the foundation systems for comparison with the original classical soil mechanics methods. Similarities and differences between the two methods are presented and discussed. The comparative study can be useful when considering analysis methods for future complex foundation systems.
