Could the Burj Khalifa be a 'storm machine'?

There is much speculation, on various architectural blogs, that the temperature of the Burj Dubai can be as much as eight degrees different from top to bottom. This has led to some pretty wild speculations about the physical properties of the super-tall building.

An article in the German newspaper Das Spegiel provided one of the best examples with the most outlandish claim reading as follows: “The tower is so enormous that the air temperature at the top is up to eight degrees celsius lower than at the base. If anyone ever hit upon the idea of opening a door at the top and a door at the bottom, as well as the airlocks in between, a storm would rush through the air-conditioned building that would destroy most everything in its wake, except perhaps the heavy marble tiles in the luxury apartments.”

There is certainly truth in that that there would be something of a ‘chimney effect’, this is why skyscrapers and other tall buildings with high atriums feature revolving doors which are never fully open to the air outside.

However, the main problem would be an exposed shaft with 850m drop right into the basement, - presumably the facilities managers have got this worked out so that it could not be allowed to happen.

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FEATURED COMMENT What a load of hot air.   4 Comments Read more comments »

However, speculation on various architectural blogs suggests this downdraft might be so great that it could modify, or even cause, extreme weather over continents. The idea of a janitor being able to cause the next cyclone Gonu is an odd one.

Trevor Patt, a Harvard graduate in theoretical maths disputes this, though: “Given that the cubic volume of Burj Dubai is more than 8 orders of magnitude (100 million times) smaller than the cubic volume of even a very small or midget cyclone, I'm guessing the cyclone would be doing most of the negation - my understanding is that the Burj Dubai was tested for winds up to 55m/s or 125 mph, which should make it a decent bet to survive a category one cyclone at least.”

So, no need to bolt a hurricane cage over your villa just yet then.