Structural Retrofit Inside Danube Home Mall, Doha Festival City

The new floors had to be placed inside a building already in service. Every new load had to be checked against the capacity of the existing columns, beams and foundations before a single member was sized. That meant Column Axial Overload Verification, Foundation Settlement Tolerances and a Stability Check of the building as modified.

The connections between the new steel frames and the existing reinforced concrete were the most sensitive point: loads had to transfer safely without overstressing the original structure. We verified Anchor Bolt Anchorage Capacity and Development Length in the existing concrete and connection type of movement fixed/free, used a Shear Friction Design Methodology for load transfer, and detailed each joint under Concrete Connections Design.

Each of the three composite steel structures sits at a different level, so each needed its own analysis, framing layout and connection details rather than one repeated design. Effective Flexural Stiffness was set for each level, and the Modal Mass Participation Ratio was checked for the combined model.

Adding floors changes how the whole building behaves. The work had to merge old and new components without compromising overall stability or safety. We reviewed Second Order Effects, Lateral Drift and Rigid / Semi-Rigid Diaphragm Modelling for the whole building.