

A massive dome-shaped structure, developed at the Jebel Ali Free Zone facility of Al Khaleej Sugar (AKS) to provide additional storage of over one million tonnes of raw sugar, could make its way into the Guinness Book of World Records, according to the dome’s developers.
The structure is said to feature the biggest spaceframe free-span dome in the world.
It consists of a cylindrical storage facility housed within a structural steel spaceframe dome with a height and diameter of 80 m and 117 m respectively. The steel dome is mounted on a post-tensioned concrete wall rising up to 25 m in height.
The contract for the design, fabrication and execution of the structural steel part of the dome-shaped structure was awarded to Rasana Engineering Industries as a turnkey project.
Because of the complexity of the project, the firm passed on the design part to its Singaporean sister concern Rasana-Anlida Spaceframe International, a specialist in the design of large and complex spaceframe structures.
The top of the dome is designed to receive a conveyor gallery with an electric belt to transport the raw sugar up to the centre of the dome before its final drop-off point into the storage tank.