Kaktus Towers
High-rise residential building
"Maturix gives us good documentation of when we can remove the formwork and gives us a good idea of how the temperature, strength, and maturity develop. Maturix is also fun as we can see how quickly the maturity hours are achieved!”
Søren David Skov
Project Manager, LM Byg
The Kaktus Towers (Kaktustårnene) are distinctive residential buildings for youth housing in central Copenhagen. The two twin towers have a hexagonal core with square decks that are almost twisted, creating levelled balconies. The two towers of 60 and 80 meters will house 495 apartments in the city center of the Danish capital.
Challenges
As the building consists of two high towers, the number of floors and the tight schedule are the two main challenges of this construction project. The construction phase is planned for two years’ time and with its foundations and the significant number of stories, the work has to be well-planned and the (sub-)contractors are required to deliver on time.
To be able to deliver on time, it is important to adjust to the circumstances on site. The curing status of concrete is crucial for many working steps and it can help to answer the questions regarding the optimal formwork removal time and if the next section can be started on top or if post-processing can start. The solid foundation or slabs with a thickness up to 1,5 meters are further challenging, as vast structures often require cooling to ensure consistent curing for high product quality.
LM Byg used traditional data loggers to gain insights into the curing process. These loggers require workers to manually collect the data on-site, transfer it to the office, and then calculate the concrete strength based on the temperature logs using concrete maturity. After this time-consuming collection and processing, LM Byg was able to estimate the concrete strength at that that moment when the data was collected. However, the contractor doesn’t get live insight into the curing status as the data only shows past temperature logs.
Key challenges
- Tough deadlines: To be finished in Spring 2022
- Lack of insights into the curing process
- Logging temperature data manually with is a time-consuming & error-prone task
“Using traditional data loggers was too cumbersome and time-consuming for us. Thus we only used it on the critical points of the structure. Maturix makes the monitoring very easy!” – Søren David Skov, Project Manager, LM Byg
Solution
By using thermocouples that are cast directly in the structure and connected to a transmitter, the temperature inside the concrete is measured continuously. The data is sent wirelessly to the cloud platform. The software automatically calculates maturity and strength based on the history data and the concrete mix and the strength development process can be followed. The data is accessible in real-time from any device via the web portal or app and provides LM Byg with live insights into the actual curing status inside the structure – with multiple positions for each cast.
Among other structures, LM Byg uses Maturix for monitoring large foundations of 1.5 meters in thickness. It is essential to have insights into the curing status of vast foundations and mass concrete: If approved too early, the foundation can get damaged resulting in enormous repairing costs. If you wait too long, it is inefficient for the whole construction project, where good timing is essential and schedules are tight. Gaining insights into the accurate real-time status enables adjustments to the overall project management and in particular, for extensive projects with numerous subcontractors, continuous adjustments and updates are key.
Maturix is not only used for the Kaktus Towers’ foundations, it is also used for the slabs, in-situ walls, and post-tensioned beams. For those elements, a specific strength is required before starting to process the post-tensioning element, as otherwise, the element breaks during the tensioning. Further, the estimation of the optimal time to remove support for e.g. floors or other formwork is a challenge. As the formwork equipment is rented from an external supplier, these insights offer high saving potential through reduced rental periods.
Thus, Søren David Skov project manager at LM Byg, always knows exactly how the concrete is curing and if he has to adjust his processes on-site according to data. With the smart solution, he has access to the data from anywhere using Maturix.
Key Benefits
- Fast & easy installation and usage of the system
- Get real-time insights from anywhere
- Get automatic documentation
Results
In particular in critical points of the structures, a monitoring solution is a great help, as broad estimations are determined to fail, as the curing process is highly influenced through external temperature factors and the hydration from concrete itself also produces heat while curing.
A traditional approach is to use data loggers, which also LM Byg had used on site combined with a local software to calculate the strength. These solutions provide insights into the curing process based on the principle of Concrete Maturity.
Maturix replaces the manual and time consuming task of collecting and calculating – with the smart solution, LM Byg follows the temperature, maturity and strength development in real-time, sets alarms to get notifications according to their needs and can be sure, that all monitorings are automatically documented.
Key Results
- Get accurate strength data based on real temperature measurements
- Follow the concrete maturity and strength development from anywhere
- Easy implementation and usage
- Automatic temperature documentation
- Enables data-based decisions to save time and money
"Using Maturix makes it much easier for everything to run online, and you can follow it from the office, home, or wherever you want. Furthermore, it is cool to paint strength and maturity, which can otherwise be difficult to estimate yourself.”
Søren David Skov
Project Manager, LM Byg
About Kaktus Towers
The high-rise residential tower twins in Copenhagen with their spiky facades and ultramodern living opportunities are joining the Copenhagen’s skyline in 2022. The towers are 60 and 80 meters tall and overlooking Copenhagen’s Vesterbro district. The distinct design was created by the award-winning architects at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).
