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Burj Al Arab Hotel located in Dubai City

NickD on Sun September 14, 2008 7:18 AM User is offline

Watched the engineering problems in constructing this hotel, not sure if I want to pay $28,000 per night is stay in a tall skinny rock stuck in the sand, but hey, the engineers are clever. What the heck, my son built his house on sand, pounded a stake in the ground and when he got 12" of rain, that stake washed out and fell over. His house did okay though.

The shek wanted each room loaded with electronics, have to find the dang remote to turn off the lights, that is cool. But what threw me was the current loads can cause harmonic distortion, so used a whole bunch of filters, they called them active but they sure looked passive to me to filter out the high frequency components with all those inductors and capacitors. What they claim is that the harmonic distortion causes a high frequency component in the I believe 60 Hz waveform, but the picture flashed way too quick showing an oscilloscope display, about a second. Did catch the fundamental, about 5% for the secondary running at about 480 Hz. They claim this high frequency component can break down the dielectric strength of the insulation causing a short circuit. And they held a fire in a hotel in Las Vegas responsible for a major fire.

Just sounded a bit outlandish to me as that dielectric and skin effect really don't become noticeable until the higher UHF range, but if the insulation did melt and shorted two conductors together, the circuit breaker should have popped, assuming they are using circuit breakers.

What sounds far more logical to me, is that some electrician didn't tighten all the screws or use those stupid point contact quick connectors where a bit of salt corrosion causes a resistance connection that really gets red hot, but at normal currents where the the circuit breaker will not be tripped. This really can start a fire and the circuit breaker is useless. So it's more of a partially open circuit than a short. But do agree, it would be uncomfortable to stay in a suite 300 meters above the ground with electricians that were severely rushed to get the job done on a hunk of rock stuck in some very soft sand. Trapped like a rat and your credit card won't buy you out of that one.

They claim they are putting up all this fancy stuff to be prepared for when their oil hole runs dry. Well I can have just as much fun or even a lot more by staying overnight in a tent at High Cliff State park and use that $28,000.00 to buy an SUV. And I really do not feel those engineers are so clever.

mhamilton on Sun September 14, 2008 11:48 AM User is offlineView users profile

I wonder if any engineers actually use the over-the-top stuff they design. Like Mercedes... I don't know any engineers that actually drive them (at least not models from the last 20 years). Seem to remember engineering being about designing the simplest solution to a problem.

Have you seen all the commercials telling us to convert our cars to LPG? Seem to remember Checker doing that back in the '80s, they were using the same V6 Chevy engines as in my Malibu.

Karl Hofmann on Thu September 18, 2008 7:44 PM User is offlineView users profile

Nick, since Hong Kong fell to the communists, Dubai has been working hard to be the new centre of trade for the region... They accept that their oil won't last for ever and are investing their cash in a future for themselves. Nothing personal Nick, but they do not want the likes of us who have less than a million in our back pocket.

Intelligent folk gain enjoyment from the simple things in life... Rich people gain enjoyment from being surrounded in opulence or at least surroundings which confirm their own perception of their own importance and value... IE shiny trinkets and baubles. They maintain their position by selling their own brand of "Wealthy" to others who are dumb enough to want to emulate them...

Did the documentary on the Burj Al Arab have any original footage? and did you notice a grumpy, irritable limey on the helipad? I think that there is some video of me supervising the fitting of the GRP panels below the pad.. This was my last project before leaving the Emirates. Sadly I never saw the hotel completed.

LPG is fairly common here, Vauxhall sell some of their vehicles with factory fitted LPG kit on them.. Although LPG gives less milage than petrol, the duty is less and so costs around half the price of petrol... The down side is that to retrofit LPG on to a car is around £1800 so if you buy and sell your car every couple of years, there is no real gain... If you keep the car, then you are on a winner

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Never knock on deaths door... Ring the doorbell and run away, death really hates that!

Edited: Thu September 18, 2008 at 7:58 PM by Karl Hofmann

NickD on Thu September 18, 2008 8:05 PM User is offline

You didn't play tennis on that pad? Or fire off golf balls? Anyone there to retrieve those golf balls? That helipad like a large plate sticking out on a cantilever in free space, must have been a huge challenge to erect, they didn't show that part. Or I missed it, typical one hour long program with about 22 minutes of commercial interruptions. And I usually close my eyes and ears during the commercials and don't wake up in time

Program started off with building the island, then finished off with that I believe, a Chinese interior decorator, every suit had to be different, and it was rush rush rush for every phase of the operation, that sheik must have carried a large bull whip. Ha, wonder if I could afford that interior decorator to redo the inside of my tent?

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