The National Aquatics Center "Water Cube" is the iconic venue of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, undertaking swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and other water competitions. As the curling and wheelchair curling venue for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the National Aquatics Center completed the conversion of swimming pool and ice rink for the first time in 2019, and the transformed "Ice Cube" will become the world's first double Olympic venue to set up a curling track on the swimming pool, and will also become the first double Olympic venue in the history of the Winter Olympics to lay a track on temporary ice.
In December 2019, the National Aquatics Center successfully held the China Youth Curling Open and completed the track certification, becoming the first Winter Olympic venue to open a high-level ice event and take the lead in entering the actual combat test stage.
A pair of "skeletons" support the curling ice surface
To set up a curling track on the pool, you first drain the water in the pool and then set up a convertible frame in the pool. "Erecting a shelf" in a swimming pool may seem simple, but the design considerations and installation accuracy of this ice rink's convertible steel structure are precise. How to ensure that the ice surface is stable and firm, but also meets the requirements of the Winter Olympic Games? The secret is hidden in the convertible steel structure that supports the ice surface. It is made of 2600 thin-walled H-beams of 3 m high and 2 m long, each beam and column is equipped with a column foot, and each connection point is equipped with removable high-strength screws to ensure that the steel frame is strong and strong. After the erection of the frame, the construction team conducted a load test, and the final test results showed that the maximum deformation of the steel structure was only 1.6 mm with an increase of 1 ton of load per square meter, which met the design requirements of less than 3 mm. As part of the "skeleton" that supports the ice surface, the construction of the ice foundation layer is also very important. First of all, a layer of PE film should be laid on the surface of the concrete precast panel, and then two layers of extruded insulation board should be laid, and a layer of PE film and anti-slip layer should be laid on top of the insulation board, and the top layer is the ice pipe rack. The seemingly simple process requires extremely high construction quality.
Two "systems" create the event environment
The water cube becomes an ice cube, and the key link is ice making. An important part of the renovation of the venue is the addition of ice-making equipment. The newly added ice-making unit is located on the outdoor east side of the venue, how the outdoor unit is connected with the indoor pipeline, the National Aquatics Center Winter Olympics transformation project has applied BIM technology to carry out a lot of deepening design work on the equipment installation, and also carried out relevant experiments with the manufacturer to optimize the parameters and configuration of the ice-making unit, providing convenient conditions for subsequent installation and construction. In order to ensure that the race time is foolproof, the construction party adopted dual use and one preparation for the three ice-making units, and conducted research on how to control the two-use and one-backup and how to seamlessly connect with the group control system. There are now two sets of pipes next to the arena, one entering and one looping to form a circuit, just like the arteries and veins of the human body. The densely packed and orderly arrangement of ice pipes on the ice-making base layer is connected to arterial veins like capillaries. The outdoor refrigeration unit is the "heart", which opens the ice-making unit to make it run, and transports the refrigerant through the pipeline circulation to the ice-making rink to ensure the smooth progress of ice-making in the arena.
As we all know, "Water Cube" as a swimming and diving and other water sports competition venues, the environment during the game is high temperature and high humidity, then to the "Ice Cube", the curling competition field environment requirements are low temperature and low humidity. How to achieve and ensure a low temperature and low humidity environment in the huge competition hall, the mystery lies in the dehumidification system of this venue transformation. "The dehumidification system of the venue is like the respiratory system of our human body, continuously sending dry and cold air into the competition hall and bringing out the hot and humid air in the hall."
A "hub" enables real-time tuning
How to ensure that the ice used for the game does not melt and the spectators are not cold, which involves a major difficulty in the transformation of the venue - the temperature partition control of the venue. In order to ensure the humid and hot environment of the arena, the competition hall must first be airtightly modified. Because the curling competition has extremely high requirements on the live environment, if the competition venue is not effectively sealed, then the humid and hot air will enter the arena, causing the ice surface to fog, which in turn directly affects the curling competition. To this end, the National Aquatics Center has physically modified the entrances and exits on the first floor of the competition hall and the pool shore floor to increase indoor and outdoor air isolation facilities. In addition, the gaps between the roof membrane structure and the wall panels were sealed.
The renovated venue will not only increase the functionality, but also achieve intelligent upgrades. The new group intelligence system will effectively monitor changes in the hot and humid environment and light environment in the competition hall. This group intelligence system is like the nerve center of the human brain, adjusting the operation of the relevant equipment in the stadium in a timely manner according to the changes in the environment in the venue to meet the needs of the venue. At the same time, in the transformed competition hall, sensing devices are set up at different points according to the needs, these sensing devices are like the sensory organs such as our human eyes, ears, skin, etc., sensing the changes in the temperature and humidity, sound and light environment of the competition hall, and timely feedback these data to the "nerve center", and the group intelligent system of the venue will automatically adjust the actual situation. Through a series of measures, the curling stadium competition hall is finally realized to ensure that under any heat load conditions, the ice surface temperature of the curling track reaches -8.5 °C, the temperature at 1.5 meters above the ice surface is maintained at 10 °C, the relative humidity does not exceed 30%, and the grandstand temperature is 16 °C to 18 °C, which realizes the partition control of the indoor tall space temperature, which not only meets the needs of the curling competition environment, but also creates a comfortable viewing environment for the audience.
In addition, the venue also carried out an architectural acoustics research project, using the most advanced architectural sound absorption materials in the hall, ensuring that athletes who are more than 40 meters apart at both ends of the track can communicate clearly through shouting. Prior to this, the project has completed the transformation of the lighting facilities in the competition hall, and a total of 314 LED lamps have been updated. The updated competition lighting is not only more energy-saving, but also realizes the upgrading of lighting functions, and the lighting of swimming mode, curling mode and commercial performance mode can be switched with one click to meet the lighting needs of event dissemination and different types of large-scale activities.
Barrier-free facilities serve winter paralympic events
At the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the National Aquatics Center "Ice Cube" will undertake the service guarantee work during curling and wheelchair curling competitions. To this end, the National Aquatics Center has implemented the Barrier-free Environment Construction and Improvement Project for the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, covering the entire venue of the National Aquatics Center, including the periphery and front and back yards of the venue, the entrances and exits of the venue, the public areas on the first floor, and the B1 competition venue area; the project functions involve barrier-free roads, barrier-free parking spaces, barrier-free entrances and exits, barrier-free elevators, barrier-free ramps, barrier-free toilets, barrier-free changing rooms, low-level service desks, voice prompt systems, and barrier-free identification systems. For wheelchair curling, the venue has also adopted humanized epidemic prevention measures, such as increasing the width of the temperature measurement door to ensure that the wheelchair passes; reducing the height of the disabled epidemic prevention items to facilitate the use of disabled athletes.
From the effect point of view, after the construction and upgrading of the barrier-free environment of the "Water Cube" venues, a perfect barrier-free facility system has been formed, and the service standards of barrier-free facilities have been improved, which can not only meet the operational needs of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games of the venues, but also better provide a long-term guarantee for the sustainable use of the venues after the games. Pyeongchang Winter Paralympic wheelchair curling champion Wang Jianxin once said when experiencing the barrier-free environment of the venue: "Ice Cube" is the best barrier-free venue in the world he has seen. This year, in the national barrier-free environment construction achievements display and application promotion activities, the project was also rated as "2021 Excellent Typical Case of Barrier-free Environment Construction". Barrier-free facilities not only fully demonstrate the development level of China's cause of the disabled and the degree of social civilization in China, but also let athletes and officials from abroad feel China's humanistic care as a host.
Kate Kesnis, President of the World Curling Federation, praised: "The National Aquatics Centre is the best curling venue I have ever experienced at the Winter Olympics. Athletes' locker rooms, barrier-free ramps and other facilities are very well designed, very thoughtful, and various epidemic prevention measures are in place, and I am full of confidence in the success of the World Championships and the Winter Olympics. ”
Litchi News Beijing Work Department reporter / Liu Xin Xu Dikan
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