Accepted manuscript doi:

10.1680/jcien.19.00044
Accepted manuscript
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Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering

 Accepted manuscript doi:
10.1680/jcien.19.00044
Submitted:​ 7 November 2019
Published online in ‘accepted manuscript’ format:​ 2 March 2020
Manuscript title:​ Innovations at Beijing Daxing International: the world’s biggest airport
terminal
Authors:​ Man Zhou​1​, Haiyan Zhuang​2*​, Shujun Fang​3
Affiliation:​ 1​​ Assistant Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Central South University,
Changsha, China; 2​​ Postgraduate student, School of Civil Engineering, Central South
University, Changsha, China; 3​​ Associate Professor, School of Civil Engineering, Central
South University, Changsha, China
*Corresponding author:​ Haiyan Zhuang, Postgraduate student, School of Civil Engineering,
Central South University, Changsha, China
E-mail:​ [email protected]

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering

 Accepted manuscript doi:
10.1680/jcien.19.00044
Abstract

Beijing Daxing International, which officially opened in September 2019 after 5 years

of construction, is the largest airport in China and has the world’s biggest airport

terminal. It is also the first to feature double-deck arrival and departure lounges and

an underground high-speed rail service. Engineering highlights include a world-class

seismic base isolation system, a long-span irregular curved node truss structure, a

glazed roof with 12 800 panes, eight hyperboloid C-shaped columns as the main

load-bearing elements, and multiple energy-saving systems.

Keywords:​ airports; columns; energy conservation

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering

 Accepted manuscript doi:
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1. Introduction

With the development of the economy and tourism in China, the existing Beijing

Capital International airport (PEK) was reaching full capacity, making it nearly

impossible for airlines to add further flights. Beijing Daxing International has therefore

been built as the city’s second international airport. It was officially opened in

September 2019.

There were many difficulties in the airport’s design and five-year construction, such

as a high-speed railway under the terminal building and the need for strong seismic

isolation, snow-melting capability and lateral runways for use during monsoons. The

user-friendly, highly efficient and ‘post-modern’ design achieved at Daxing’s vast new

‘starfish’ terminal has set a new global standard for airport construction (Figure 1).

2. Airport overview

Daxing is located between Daxing District, Beijing, and Guangyang District,

Langfang, Hebei in China. The design of the airport’s iconic terminal building is the

outcome of a collaboration between ADP Ingénierie (ADPI), a French airport

construction company, and Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) from the UK. Construction

was undertaken by a team led by China State Construction Engineering Corporation

(CSCEC). Work started in September 2015 and was completed in July 2019.

The six-spoked terminal building covers an area of 1·4 million m​2​, of which the core

area for air services accounts for 0·7 million m​2​. The length of the airside concourse

for docking aircraft is more than 4 000 m. The airport was designed to handle 72

million passengers, 2 Mt of cargo and mail, and 620 000 aircraft movements a year

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering

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by 2025, with plans to handle 100 million passengers annually in the long term.

The main engineering works at Daxing took just 45 months to build, making it the

most rapidly constructed international airport in the world. Construction teams were

required to complete the main project of the terminal in 10 months, which is

equivalent to completing 25 18-storey buildings each month. During peak periods, the

volume of an 18-storey building was completed every day (China News, 2019).

The £8·8 billion project set several world records. These include being the world's

largest single terminal, the world's most difficult construction technology terminal, the

world's largest vibration-isolation building, the world's first terminal to have

high-speed railway passing underneath (Zhang, 2018), and the world's first terminal

to have double-deck arrival and departure lounges (Hong, 2019). Because of these

records, Daxing was named as one of the new seven wonders of the modern world

by ​The Guardian ​(2015).

Daxing has five airside concourses at 60° to each other, while the sixth spoke

accommodates a ground transportation centre. The spokes radiate out from the core

area of the terminal building, which is 50 m high with two basements and four floors

above ground. The main structure is a cast-in-place a reinforced concrete frame with

concrete-encased steelwork applied in some areas. The roof is a steel space frame

supported internally by eight large steel truss columns, while the exterior facade is a

glass curtain wall (Meng ​et al​., 2018).

It is approximately 600 m from the centre of the terminal to the furthest boarding gate

(Figure 2) and takes 8 min. at most for passengers to walk there.

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering

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3. Construction technology

3.1 C-shaped columns

To create a large indoor space, there are only eight large hyperboloid C-shaped

columns under the roof of the terminal central area, which weights 42 000 t. Each

curved column has two main parts—a base made from box-sections using 40−60 mm

thick plate, and an upper steel truss upper grid of circular tubes welded to spherical

nodes. The columns are clad with over 3000 aluminium panels (see Figure 3).

The bases are supported by the reinforced concrete substructure via spherical steel

hinge bearings (Chen ​et al.​ , 2018), while the tops of the columns are rigidly

connected to the roof structure (Huang, 2017). The width of the columns increases

from 3 m at the base to 23 m at the top, while heights vary from 38·5 m for columns

supported on the ground floor to 19·8 m for those supported on the fourth floor.

Generally, airports or large stadiums use circular or rectangular section columns, so

the unclosed C-shaped cross-sections at Daxing are unusual. This required extensive

investigation and simulation of horizontal and vertical stiffness, ductility and bearing

capacity to verify their design. The shape of the columns allows natural light into the

terminal through rooflights immediately above them.

3.2 Glazed cladding

The terminal’s glazed cladding is divided into a facade macro-plate glass curtain wall

system and a glazed roof system.

The terminal has the largest roof in the world, with an area of 180 000 m​2​ (Zhang,

2018), of which the glazed roof system accounts for is 47 000 m​2​. To make full use of

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering

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natural light and reduce energy consumption, the main natural lighting system at the

consists of a large central skylight, six strip-type skylights (Figure 4) and eight bubble

windows over the columns. These provide natural lighting in 60% of the building area.

A total of 12 800 panes of glass are used throughout the terminal, including 8232

panes for the roof.

The free-form curved roof structure is made from 12,300 spherical steel nodes and

63 450 steel bars. The connection between each bar and spherical joint is locked into

a unique position by three-dimensional coordinates. This design results in the size of

each of each glazing pane being unique.

Daxing uses an innovative sunshade method by having an aluminium alloy mesh

sandwiched between the two tempered glass panels of each double-glazed unit. In

this way, 60% of natural direct light can be converted into diffuse light. The mesh was

installed during the manufacture of the glazing panels, so did not delay construction,

and neither will it need cleaning or maintenance. The mesh effectively changes a flat

skylight into a north skylight (Wang and Shi, 2019). Even without air conditioning in

summer, the sun-shading will be sufficient to avoid making passengers feel

uncomfortably hot.

3.3 Seismic isolation technology of the terminal

The longitudinal and lateral stiffness of the core structure of the airport terminal

building is asymmetrical and the structure is very large (approximately 545 × 445 m)

(Zhong, 2018). In addition to earthquake loading, there is a high-speed railway under

the terminal building that causes vibration. Seismic isolation design was therefore

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering

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critical.

If the seismic isolation bearings had been placed on the top of the C-shaped

columns, a significant part of the horizontal shear force of the large roof generated by

earthquake action would be transmitted to the columns through the bearings, which

would have been unfavourable to the column stability. Additionally, the weight of the

roof only accounts for 7% of the whole structure, so it was of little significance to

adopt roof isolation. Meanwhile, high-speed trains and metros pass through the

basements of the core area, and different foundation elevations made seismic

isolation base level difficult. Therefore, the seismic isolation layer was constructed in

the top slab of the basement (see Figure 5).

Daxing is the world's largest seismically-isolated building (Shi, 2019). Storey isolation

technology is used to reduce the impact of high-speed underground trains on the

terminal. That is, the seismic isolation bearing is set under the first floor of the

terminal to completely seperate the first floor of the terminal from the underground

floor. This method ensures not only the ability of the trains to pass through the

terminal building at high speed but also the stability of the structure of the terminal

building. The seismic isolation bearing can reduce the transmission of ground motion

to the superstructure and greatly reduce the seismic response of the superstructure

to realise ‘earthquake isolation’. Generally, the seismic response of the seismic

isolation structure is only 1/4 to 1/8 of the non-isolation structure, which can greatly

improve the seismic performance of buildings.

The application of the seismic isolation technology makes the seismic fortification

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering

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intensity of the Daxing up to 8° (zone 4 in the Uniform Building Code 1997). The

seismic isolation devices at the top of the first basement columns in the core area of

the terminal adopt lead−rubber isolation bearings, common rubber isolation bearings,

sliding isolation rubber bearings and viscous dampers.

A total of 1320 sets of seismic isolation devices are used throughout the terminal.

Among them, the rubber bearings account for 1152 sets, with a maximum

displacement of 66 cm, which is the world's largest usage in a single building (Zhong,

2018). In addition, the largest diameter of the seismic isolation bearing is more than 2

m, which is also the world's largest. The seismic isolation bearings are connected

with the upper and lower supports by anchoring bars.

3.4 Energy-saving systems

Daxing has reached the top international level in terms of construction quality, green

ecology and other construction standards. Remarkably, the construction of the

Daxing meets the one-star or above green building standard. By constructing

renewable energy systems such as a ground-source heat pumps and solar

photovoltaics, the renewable energy provided by the Daxing accounts for 12% of total

energy demand, which is currently the highest proportion of renewable energy of any

airport in China.

The terminal uses the world's first large-scale intelligent lighting system (see

http://www.rmfz.org.cn/contents/3/237736.html). The lighting system of the terminal

has been systematically designed, with natural light effectively replacing artificial

lighting in the daytime. The adopted combination of natural lighting and intelligent

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lighting achieves the unification of energy conservation and technology. Electric lights

are designed with brightness and time controls. When natural lighting is not enough,

the lights will automatically be turned on, or the brightness of the lights will be

increased, or the time period can be set ahead to turn on the lights on time. In this

way, the lighting effect can be guaranteed under the condition of saving energy.

The heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system of the airport adopts the

ground-source heat pump system. It is an efficient energy-saving and

environmentally friendly air-conditioning system that uses the geothermal resources

in the shallow underground layer to provide indoor heating and cooling. This system

saves nearly 20 million m​3​ of natural gas a year.

3.5 Other new technologies

Daxing’s passenger security-checking system has introduced new intelligent

technologies such as face recognition (Figure 6). From entering the terminal building

to leaving the boarding gate, all check-in, baggage consignment and registration

processes can be achieved by passengers through direct face recognition.

The security-checking efficiency for each channel has increased from 180 people an

hour to approximately 260, and baggage-checking efficiency has reached 792 pieces

an hour. These numbers are substantially higher than those of the traditional airport

security-checking systems, which reduces passenger waiting time. It takes only

approximately 20 minutes from check-in and baggage consignment to the boarding

gate.

Automatic guided vehicle technology has also been introduced in the Daxing for car

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parking (Figure 7). Passengers only need to drive their cars into the transfer station

and subsequent parking and pick-up work is done by parking robots. The whole

process takes only a few minutes, which solves the problems of not enough parking

spaces or the poor parking skills of passengers. When picking up their car,

passengers make an appointment by mobile phone in advance, and a robot then

parks their car at the exit.

4. Conclusions

Daxing, which has the world's largest single terminal, took nearly five years to build. It

is the world's largest comprehensive transportation hub, reflecting China's rising

industrial and engineering capabilities over the past decade.

The design of the eight C-shaped columns in the core area of the terminal ensures

the 180 000 m​2​ roof is stably supported while maximising the public space for

passengers.

Since the terminal has the largest roof area in the world, to ensure good heat

insulation and avoid direct light entering the room, engineers have creatively

designed an innovative sunshade that adds metal mesh between glass panes and

converts 60% of the natural direct light to diffuse light.

Daxing uses the storey seismic isolation technology first developed in China, and this

technology ensures seismic insolation as well as full use of the basement levels.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China

(Grant 51808559). The authors also express their gratitude for the funding provided

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering

 Accepted manuscript doi:
10.1680/jcien.19.00044
by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province and Shandong Province

(Grant 2019JJ50770 and Grant ZR2017BEE017). Their financial support is gratefully

acknowledged.

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Hong Y (2019) Top 50 face recognition technology. China Internet Weekly, 2019(21):

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Huang BN (2017). ‘Study on the construction process and the construction

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Meng Y, Liu HB, Huang BN, Chen ZH ( 2018) Study of the Closure and Unloading

Techniques of the Steel Roof of Beijing Daxing International airport

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Shi S, Wang , Li ZW, Zhang Z, Liu JZ, Xu BS, Che Y (2019) Application Analysis of

Seismic Support and Hanger for Beijing Daxing International airport

Terminal Building. Construction Technology ​48(14)​: 30-32, 71 (in

Chinese).

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The Guardian (2015)

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/nov/09/megastruc

tures-seven-wonders-of-the-modern-world-near-completion.

Wang YZ, Shi YL (2019) The Lighting Roof of Beijing Daxing International airport,

Beijing, China. World Architecture ​40(4)​: 97-99 (in Chinese).

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Figure 1.​ Opened in September 2019, Daxing airport’s single terminal is the biggest

in the world

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering

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Figure 2.​ Layout of the new terminal – maximum walking time from the centre is 8

min

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering

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Figure 3.​ One of the eight massive C-shaped columns under construction (a) and

completed (b)

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Figure 4.​ Natural lighting is provided by a central skylight (a) and six strip-type

skylights (b) – both are fitted with aluminium mesh to diffuse light

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Figure 5.​ Typical basement cross-section showing seismic isolation system (a), view

of completed isolation bearings in the basement (b) and bearing detail (c)

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Figure 6.​ Intelligent security-checking is based on facial recognition

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Figure 7.​ Robots are used to park passengers’ cars

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering