[Beijing Winter Olympics] Revealing the whole process of the renovation of the "Ice Cube" to see the venues make use of "Chinese experience"
The Water Cube is the venue for the 2008 Summer Olympics water sports competitions.
Today, the "Water Cube" has been transformed into the "Ice Cube", which will undertake curling and wheelchair curling competitions at the Beijing Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics.
As the world's first venue with intelligent swimming pool conversion ice rink technology, how does the "Water Cube" transform into an "Ice Cube", and how does the pool set up a curling track?
According to the renovation plan, the renovation of the National Aquatics Center involves construction, structure, waterproofing, membrane maintenance and other engineering fields, with about 70 independent construction areas and a renovation area of 50,000 square meters.
Among them, the biggest difficulty in the transformation is the "water-ice conversion" that adds on-ice functions on the basis of retaining the "Water Cube" water function. Curling venue with 4 standard tracks.
To set up a curling track on a swimming pool, first drain the water in the swimming pool, and then set up a frame with a convertible steel structure in the swimming pool.
The convertible steel structure is made of 2,600 thin-walled H-beams 3 meters high and 2 meters 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.
As part of the "skeleton" supporting the ice surface, the construction of the ice-making base layer is also very important. There are ice-making pipes, thermal insulation layers, waterproof layers, precast concrete blocks, steel beams and steel columns under the ice surface, with a total structure of about 100 tons. About 3000 components are spliced together.
In addition to building ice racks, because curling competitions have extremely high requirements on the on-site environment, if the competition venue is not effectively sealed, hot and humid air will enter the competition venue, causing fog on the ice surface and affecting the competition.
Therefore, the temperature, humidity and acoustic environment of the venue have been transformed, and dehumidification systems, sound-absorbing materials, indoor and outdoor air isolation facilities, etc. have been added.
After the "water-ice conversion", the ice surface temperature of the curling track was finally achieved to reach -8.5°C, the temperature at 1.5 meters above the ice surface was maintained at 10°C, the relative humidity did not exceed 30%, and the stand temperature was 16°C to 18°C. The zonal regulation of the temperature in the tall space not only meets the needs of the curling competition environment, but also creates a comfortable viewing environment for the audience.
"Ice Cube" is the largest curling venue in the history of the Winter Olympics, the world's only double Olympic venue that can run both water sports and ice sports, and the first Olympic venue in the world to set up a curling track on the swimming pool .
After the Winter Olympics, the competition hall of the National Swimming Center will realize the free switching between "water function" and "ice function", so that the heritage of the Beijing Summer Olympics venues will be rejuvenated and vividly practice the "repeated use, permanent use, comprehensive use of sports venues". Utilize the "China Experience".
(Reporter Du Yan produced Li Jiali’s video from two Beijing state-owned companies)
Responsible editor: [Li Ji]