NACE Paper No.

MECCOCT18-12660

Use of Advanced FRP to Enable Inspirational Structures

Dr Mark Hobbs
Premier Composite Technologies
Dubai Investment Park
PO Box 282777, Dubai, UAE

ABSTRACT

Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) materials have been widely used across many industries over the last
60 years. The ability to form lightweight structures with excellent resistance to fatigue and
environmental degradation, combined with the ability to form large and complex shapes can enable
structures which may not be feasible in traditional materials. Over the last 30 years high performance
advanced FRP composites, originally introduced in aerospace, have become widespread in the marine
and alternative energy industries and are now becoming increasingly used in civil and architectural
projects. This paper demonstrates how advanced FRP materials have been used to realise
inspirational large-scale structures including the cladding, clock hands and crescent of the Makkah
Royal Clock Tower, the roof of the Haramain High Speed Railway station in Medina, the Temporary
Mataf elevated walkway in Masjid al-Haram and the roof of the Steve Jobs Theatre in California.

The examples these projects will be used to highlight the advantages that the materials can bring to
civil and structural applications and to demonstrate how the perceived challenges of using them have
been overcome by adapting technology from other industries to enable reliable, cost effective
structures.

Key words: FRP, CFRP, carbon fibre, lightweight structure

INTRODUCTION

FRP materials are a composite material consisting of a polymer matrix reinforced with fibres. There are
a wide range of polymer matrices and fibres used to form FRP materials. Within this paper FRP is
used to refer to advanced FRP composites which are made up using a high-performance epoxy resin
matrix with continuous fibre reinforcements of glass and carbon fibre.

Advanced FRP materials offer a number of advantages over traditional materials. They can allow
realization of lightweight structures, both due to the inherently high strength and stiffness to weight
ratios when compared to traditional structural materials such as steel or aluminium, and the ability to
optimize the material to suit the structure by tailoring reinforcements to provide strength and stiffness in
specific directions. The use of sandwich structures, consisting of FRP skins either side of a lightweight
structural core can provide a very efficient method of supporting distributed loads.

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FRP materials have excellent fatigue performance which combined with the ability to form lightweight
structures has driven increasing use of FRP in aerospace structures as well as in modern large wind
turbine blades. The materials also show excellent resistance to environmental corrosion and can easily
form complex curved shapes, which has led to the widespread adoption in the marine industry and
more recently an increasing use in the automotive industry.

The advantages demonstrated in other industries can also bring benefits to civil and architectural
structures. Uptake in his industry has historically been relatively limited due to several factors,
including unfamiliarity with the materials and lack of precedence. In recent years there have been
landmark projects in the Middle East which have demonstrated the advantages of using FRP materials
and have led to the realization of truly inspirational civil and architectural structures.

MAKKAH CLOCK TOWER

The 610m tall Makkah Royal Clock Tower is the central tower of the Abraj Al-Bait hotel complex located
next to Masjid al-Haram in Makkah. The top 200m of the tower is clad in over 60,000 m² of FRP
composite panels, including the clock faces of the largest clocks in the world. Construction of the
building had already started when the decision to add the clock tower was made, and this resulted in a
particular challenge for the design team as the building had not originally been designed with the 200m
extension that included the clock faces, lunar observatory, spire and crescent. This meant that there
was a very strict limit on the additional dead load which could be added to the structure. Use of FRP
sandwich panels to form the cladding was an important factor in enabling the design, as the panels
were less than 20% of the weight of alternatives such as GRC panels. Use of sandwich panels also
enabled large panel spans of up to three metres panels that reduced the requirement for substructure
and secondary steel. The lightweight nature of the panels also allowed the production and installation
of large panels of up to 30m² which led to the rapid and efficient production and installation that was
required to meet the challenging build schedule.

The panels are finished in mosaic tiles, with nearly 100 million 20mm by 20mm tiles arranged in
intricate patterns bonded to the panels with an epoxy based adhesive. These provide both an aesthetic
finish and long-term protection to the surface of the FRP panels. The durability of these surfaces has
been demonstrated by the sliding domes for the Holy Mosque of the Prophet in Medina. These 27
sliding domes, manufactured from advanced FRP and clad with mosaic tiles, were installed in the late
1980’s. A recent survey of the domes after 25 years of continuous operation showed no degradation in
the finish or performance of the dome structure, which gave confidence in the long-term performance of
the finishes. Acoustic testing was carried out on tiled samples of FRP to define cracking strains of the
tiles, and these strain limits were then used to define the design criteria for the FRP panels to avoid risk
of cracking of the tiles during the operation of the structure. The tiles on the Makkah Royal Clock
Tower are expected to provide over 100 years of protection to the FRP structure.

The majority of the cladding uses glass reinforcement combined with a fire-retardant wat laminating
epoxy resin system and a PET structural foam core to form sandwich panels. The resin system was
developed for this project to provide a fire-retardant laminate which had the long working times required
for lamination of large parts and was also able to perform at the elevated temperatures experienced in
Makkah with a moderate post cure. To achieve a consistent resin content and enable high production
rates, wet out impregnators were used on the shop floor to combine the mixed resin system and pre-cut
dry fabric prior to placing into the moulds.

There were two areas of the structure which had particularly stringent structural requirements which
required the use of carbon fibre. The first of these was the clock hands. To enable a central drive
mechanism for the hands, which were up to 21m in length, it was important to provide a very light, stiff
structure that would minimise the loads on the drive mechanism and prevent large deflections of the
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clock hands when subject the high wind loads that occurred over 400m from the ground. This was
achieved using carbon fibre epoxy pre-preg materials which were originally developed for use in large
wind turbine blades, and a laminate build up which was optimized to provide a lightweight, reliable and
stiff structure.

One of the most challenging parts of the structure was the 22m diameter crescent which tops the
building. This was originally conceived as a steel structure with FRP cladding, but during the design
development there was a desire to provide a usable space in the crescent. To achieve this the design
of the crescent was changed to a structural FRP shell with internal stiffeners that also used the internal
floors as structural bulkheads, a similar structural approach to that used in large high-performance
yachts. This enabled the removal of all the internal steel structure with the crescent fixed to the tower
top steel only at the central hub, which opened the interior up to provide the usable space desired. Use
of this efficient structural concept with FRP laminates that were optimised with extensive finite element
analysis enabled realisation of the design and made a significant saving in mass of the crescent with a
final total structural weight of only 24 tonnes. The crescent was manufactured in 13 parts to allow road
transport to site where bolted joints were employed to assemble the structure.

MEDINAH HARAMAIN STATION ROOF

The Haramain High Speed Rail project is a high-speed rail line in Saudi Arabia, running between the
holy cities of Makkah and Medina, with additional stations at Jeddah and the King Abdullah Economic
City. The stations have a modular arrangement, with a steel main structure supporting structural FRP
roof panels which have panel spans of up to nine metres.

The lightweight nature and inherent insulation achieved with advanced FRP sandwich panels,
combined with the accuracy obtained by moulding panels using CNC machined tooling and the
durability of advanced composites offered significant advantages to the project. The large panel spans
which can be achieved using advanced FRP sandwich panels also enable rapid installation of the roof
without requiring any secondary structure, and the modular design of the station meant that there was a
large degree of repetition of panels which allowed efficient use of moulds.

Accuracy of the panels was important as the FRP panels formed the building envelope, with watertight
seals integrated into the panel joints and foil backed rockwool on the underside of the panels which
acted with the panel structural core to provide the required insulation of the roof.

Detailed analysis of the Medina station roof was carried out using a limit state design approach
consistent with traditional materials. Design of FRP structures in civil and architectural projects are
generally driven by serviceability limit state requirements which results in significant margins on global
strength under ultimate limit states. Connections to the main structure are strength critical but it is
possible to locally reinforce these areas without significantly affecting the mass or cost of the FRP
structure. This structure used the same resin and processing methods developed during the Makkah
Clock Tower project.

To provide additional confidence to the client’s representatives testing of a full scale 10m x 10m panel
assembly was carried out. Loading was carried out using sandbags and good agreement was found
between predicted and measured behaviour of the panels, with tested deflections between 2 to 4%
lower than predictions. In addition to testing the structural performance of the panels the waterproofing
of the panel joints was tested with a ponding test that was carried out on the panels whilst they were
deformed by a ram to simulate wind suction loading.

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 TEMPORARY MATAF, MAKKAH

During the busiest times the courtyard area in the Masjid al-Haram mosque, the Mataf, can become
extremely crowded as pilgrims carry out Tawaf. In some areas pedestrian density can exceed 6 people
per square metre.

In 2011 a competition was launched to investigate ways to provide additional capacity during peak
times to ease congestion in the Mataf and reduce the risk to pilgrims. One entry proposed a temporary
elevated walkway, constructed of lightweight carbon fibre to enable the parts to be easily handled and
quickly erected in the courtyard. The initial design was a single level walkway, around 12m wide and
80m in diameter with the walkway 3m in the air, made up of 24 modular segments and accessed via
bridges from the first level of the surrounding mosque.

The proposal was successful, and to solve the numerous challenges faced by this novel structure, a
project team was formed to carry out the design and manufacture of the structure.

One of the main concerns with the structure was the potential for a lively structure, and initial design
criteria were based on research carried out for pedestrian bridges. Analysis of the structure was
carried out to ensure natural frequencies were outside of the range of excitation frequencies for a range
of crowd loading, and to determine the vertical and lateral accelerations expected on the structure to
compare against comfort limits for footbridges.

The structure was designed with carbon fibre reinforced FRP pillars and beams to form a structural
framework, with FRP floor panels which used a mixture of glass and carbon fibre reinforcements. The
beams and pillars are connected using steel brackets on the beams and steel collars on the pillars
which allowed tolerance during assembly by providing steel to steel connections on site. The use of
carbon fibre resulted in a structure which was less than 50% of the weight of a steel equivalent, which
was important for installation of the structure and to keep the natural frequencies high enough to avoid
risk of lateral or vertical resonance. Epoxy resin systems were used throughout the structure, with a
wet laminated system used for the floor panels, and infused shells combined with pre-made pultruded
planks used to create the main structure beams.

Due to the novel nature of the structure a full-scale prototype of two bays was constructed,
instrumented with accelerometers then excited by crowd loading to check the natural frequencies and
both the quantities and qualitative experience of the structure. The structure was testing in two
configurations, as a stand along structure and then with additional bracing added which simulated the
additional stiffness which would result from a complete ring structure. Accelerations of both
configurations were found to agree well with predictions. The unbraced structures had accelerations
which were above the comfort limits and the qualitative feedback was that the motion of the structure
was felt to be quite lively. The braced structure accelerations were below the comfort limit and
feedback was that the motion of the structure was acceptable, which indicated that the comfort limit of
0.2m/s lateral acceleration was suitable for the structure.

During the prototype testing a local high frequency vibration of the floor panels was noticed when
standing on the structure whilst crowds were walking past. Although the natural frequency of the floor
panels was high enough to be outside any resonant frequencies, additional research on lightweight
flooring highlighted that for lightweight floors the static stiffness of the floor was important to minimise
the impact response from heel strike. The initial floor panel design did not meet the static stiffness
recommendations, and a modified floor panel design which met this limit was tested and found to give a
significantly better feel. This additional stiffness limit was included in the design criteria for the final
structure.

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Following the prototype testing the purpose of the structure was changed to provide additional capacity
and access for pilgrims with restricted mobility during the three-year re-development of the mosque, as
the courtyard area would be restricted during this period. As a result the design was changed to a two-
level structure with walkways 3m and 13m from the ground to provide increased additional capacity,
with the walkway to be kept in place for three years. The results of the prototype testing were used to
verify the design of the new structural arrangement, which incorporated bracing to reduce the size of
the structural members to minimise the impact on views of the Kaaba.

Full scale testing was carried out on the beams and pillars, both the verify the calculated stiffness
properties used for the design of the structure and to check the load capacity of the elements.

The structure was installed over two seasons, with the upper ring open in 2013 and both levels open in
2014. During peak times there were up to 12,000 pilgrims on the structure. With a total of 400 tonnes
of carbon fibre FRP laminate the Temporary Mataf is believed to be the largest carbon fibre civil
structure ever built. Following completion of the mosque redevelopment the structure was
disassembled in 2016 and placed into storage.

THEATRE LOBBY ROOF

The design concept for the entrance pavilion to the Steve Jobs Theatre called for an almost impossibly
thin structure supported only on a curved glass façade, forming a structure which appeared to float
effortlessly above the ground that would provide uninterrupted views of the surrounding landscape.

The roof is a shallow disc, 155 feet in diameter which sits on a 135 feet diameter glass wall. To
achieve the thin roof, the first step was to develop a solution where the external shell surface could
form both the building envelope and a structural shell. The roof was split into 44 segments arranged
around a central hub, and the flanges of the panels were used to form stiffeners and incorporate a
watertight seal to form the building envelope.

The laminates of the roof were optimized with finite element analysis resulting in a mixture of biaxial
carbon cloths and unidirectional carbon fibre reinforcements, combined with a fire-retardant epoxy resin
system and a lightweight structural foam core. Use of carbon fibre enabled a very lightweight structure
which reduced both the dead load and the resulting seismic loading on the glass façade. The low
thermal expansion coefficient of the laminate also resulted in a very stable structure where the roof
diameter only changed by around 4mm under a 50 degree increase in temperature. This minimal
thermal expansion allowed thinner silicone joints between the structural glass panels which helped
provide an impression of a seamless glass façade. A fire-retardant thin film resin infusion system was
chosen for the fabrication of the structure. This consists of a fire retardant pre-catalysed resin film
sandwiched between dry layers of fabric that is cured under vacuum to give a very high-quality
laminate.

A high-quality metallic paint finish was specified on the roof. To give a near seamless finish a special
microseam detail for the roof panel joints was developed based on details used in high performance
powerboat chines. To provide an extremely high-quality surface for finishing an epoxy resin pre-preg
surfacing film using technology originally developed for providing a class A surface on supercar body
panels was included in the laminate.

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The roof was manufactured and preassembled in Dubai to check fit of the panels and to carry out a
load test to verify the stiffness of the roof. Following this the roof was disassembled, painted and
shipped to California. Once on site the roof was re-assembled on the ground and then lifted into place
in a single lift by a crane which was possible due to the extremely light weight of the roof. This enabled
a major saving of time of site as the roof could be assembled in parallel with the erection of the glass,
and then was installed in less than a day. The resulting structure is the largest self-supporting carbon
roof ever built and is also the largest structure solely supported by glass.

CONCLUSION

Advanced FRP structures consisting of high performance epoxy resin systems reinforced with
continuous glass and carbon fibres can form lightweight structures with freedom of form that are highly
resistant to corrosion and have excellent fatigue properties. These advantages have seen the
materials widely used in a range of industries, including aerospace, marine, wind energy and transport.
The same advantages can be used in civil and architectural structures where light weight, large format
panels can reduce loads on structures and allow rapid installation saving significant time on site.
Offsite construction reduces waste, and the durability of the materials can lead to through life savings.

The materials can also enable truly inspirational structures, and several ground-breaking projects in the
Middle East have highlighted what can be achieved.

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Figure 1: Makkah Royal Clock Tower

Figure 2: Movable domes, Medina

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Figure 3: Acoustic testing of tiled samples for Makkah Royal Clock Tower facade

Figure 4: CNC machining moulds for Makkah Royal Clock Tower facade

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 Figure 5: Lamination using wet out machine

Figure 6: Trial assembly and testing of Makkah Royal Clock Tower Crescent in Dubai

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 Figure 7: Load testing of HHR station panel

Figure 8: Installation of HHR station roof section

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 Figure 9: Completed HHR station, Medina

Figure 10: Temporary Mataf prototype testing

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Figure 11: Load testing of Temporary Mataf CFRP pillar

Figure 12: Temporary Mataf installation

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 Figure 13: Temporary Mataf in use

Figure 14: Installation of Theatre lobby roof

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Figure 15: Installation of Theatre lobby roof

Figure 16: Theatre lobby roof

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