Luxury on springs

Structural design of the new 245-room seafront Sofitel Resort in Limassol, Cyprus needed some geotechnical expertise to provide pile spring stiffness values for the two residential tower and hotel foundations that took proper account of the ground conditions, pile group effects and interactions between the structures.

By constructing a 3D FEA model of the ground, all the piles and structural loads, spring stiffness values for axial and lateral load were obtained for a range of load cases. This required several iterations with the structural engineers as the new foundation stiffness caused load changes in their structural model which were then re-applied in the geotechnical FEA until the two model outputs agreed. 

Highlights

• 3D FEA model of the ground, all piles and structural loads.

• Output of pile spring values for axial and lateral loads.

• Re-analysis with revised structural loads until geotechnical and structural models agreed at the soil-structure interface.