STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS

Material Properties
Concrete Strength
For the avoidance of doubt, we shall use the Eurocode 2 to describe concrete strength. For
example, C70/85 refers to a concrete mix with a cylinder strength of 70MPa and cube strength
of 85MPa.
Concrete strength in columns and walls varies from a strength of C70/85 in the lower
elements to C40/50 in the upper elements as summarised below:
L34 - L43 C40/50
L22 - L33 C50/60
L08 - L21 C60/75
B04 - L07 C70/85
Whilst it is common practice to reduce the concrete strength in vertical elements with height,
the current cost of rebar in UAE when compared with the cost of concrete suggests that it
would be more economical to maintain the concrete strength further up the building and
reduce the amount of rebar.
Concrete strength in the beams and slabs is C35/45. These strengths are appropriate for a
building of this nature.
Although not stated in ACI 318, it should be noted that C70/85 concrete is high-strength
concrete (HSC). Mendis (2003) and McFarlane (2007) state that the use of normal-strength
concrete (NSC) design equations can result in unsafe designs. Furthermore, HSC requires
more onerous detailing than NSC.
It is strongly recommended that the NSC design and detailing requirements in ACI 318 be
supplemented by world best practice. ACI 363, ACI 441 Mendis (2003) and McFarlane (2007)
provide an extensive literature survey and guidance on HSC. The Australian Concrete Code,
AS 3600, specifies excellent design and detailing principles for HSC.
The detailing of HSC is also discussed in the discussion section of this report. The transmission
of loads from HSC columns through NSC floors should be checked. This is also discussed later.
Young’s Modulus
The Young’s Modulus of concrete is derived from ACI 318 as 40.1 GPa at 28 days and 43.3 GPa
at 1 year for C70/85 concrete. However, NSC codes such as ACI 318, tend to under estimate
the modulus of HSC concrete in general and HSC concrete used in the Middle East in
particular.
Table 8.1 shows the modulus of concrete for a C65/80 mix that was used in the Burj Khalifa
Dubai. It is evident from Table 7.1 that the modulus of concrete for the C65/80 mix is 46.9
GPa at 28 days and 49.2 GPa at 90 days. Therefore, the C70/85 mix proposed for the City
Tower One project should achieve slightly higher modulus values. Mean E-values should be
used for design.
It is recommended that tests in accordance ASTM C469 be carried out to determine the actual
modulus of the concrete for the mixes to be used on the project. This would enable a more
accurate prediction of the structural behaviour of the building and may allow some
economies in member sizes to be achieved.

Cracked Section Properties

ACI 318 recommends the following moment of inertias for cracked sections in the absence of
a more rigorous analysis:
Beams 0.35 Ig
Columns 0.70 Ig
Walls - uncracked 0.70 Ig
- cracked 0.35 Ig
Flat Slabs 0.25 Ig

A1.Vertical & Lateral Structural System

Design Philosophy
The Lateral Framing system of a tall building structure is arguable the most critical
component of the structural engineer’s analysis and design. This is easily observed when
one compares the overall structural member sizes required from the lateral design when
compared to those required from the vertical load design. Important key factors influencing
the analysis and design are the lateral forces and conditions essential in the analysis. The
climatic forces need to be determined, quantified and studied to understand their influence
on the building form.
A structural system is required to resist all applied lateral forces. For the structure, climatic
forces will be generated by the seismic, wind and temperature. The structural system has
been assessed to resist these climate forces in Dubai.
In this project the Lateral Framing system developed for this tower is a core wall and
intermediate outrigger system, this system is not a new theory and is very effective
when the building form presents itself. When adopted it is however a very efficient
system for tall buildings of this height range as it maximises the lever arm for the full
building plan. As a very simple explanation is diagrammatically shown below as actions
on a yacht outrigger system, the outrigger provide extra reach and gives support to the
hull ensuring the yacht does not overturn.
 Figure 1: Diagrammatic Structure Actions

As can be seen the central structure would be assisted by the two outrigger arms, which in turn
are stabilised by the central structure.
The outriggers allow the width of the building to be used, while not impacting the floor space and
use.
In addition the outrigger provide robustness and general stiffness in the case of a catastrophic
event and the outrigger columns fail, the central structure would be sized to have sufficient
structure stiffness to support the building so progressive collapse would not occur.

Lateral Force Resisting System – Outrigger and Core Walls.

To understand the movements of the shear wall and outrigger system it is easiest done by
considering each system on their own.

A typical shear wall building is depicted below, the shear wall structure would deflect as a
typical cantilever shape.
 Figure 3: Deflected Shape of Core-Without Outrigger Stiffening

As can be seen in figure 4, if we consider the core linked by the outrigger arms and columns
when horizontal load acts on the building, the outriggers restrained by the columns resist the
rotation of the core, causing the lateral deflections and moments in the core to be smaller
than if the free-standing core alone resisted the loading.

Figure 4: Deflected Shape of Outrigger System

High-Strength Concrete Columns
High-strength concrete (HSC) becomes increasing brittle as its strength increases. This can
lead to sudden, explosive catastrophic failure as shown in Figure 12.1a. HSC columns can be
made ductile by the provision of sufficient links which confine the column core thus
providing adequate load capacity and ductility (see figure 12.1b). However, if normal
strength concrete detailing of the links (low confinement) is used then sudden catastrophic
failure can take place as shown in Figure 12.1c.

a. Sudden Explosive Failure of b. Failure of Well c. Failure of Poorly

HSC Test Cylinder Confined Column Confined Column

Figure 12.1: Typical Failure of High-Strength Concrete Specimens

In order to provide sufficient ductility closely spaced links must be used in HSC columns.
Walls should be detailed similarly. The links should be anchored into the column core in a
similar manner to seismic detailing. Figure 12.2 shows typical details for rectangular and
circular columns.
 a. Circular Column with Seismic Bends at b. Rectangular Column with 135° Seismic Hooks
Ends of Helix

Figure 12.2: Typical Detailing of High-Strength Concrete Columns

It should be noted that HSC detailing is similar to seismic detailing except that closely
spaced links should be spaced over the entire height of the column and not just the
column ends required for seismic detailing. Furthermore, Clause 9.1.1 of the Saudi
Building Code SBC 301 states that detailing should be adopted even when other loads
exceed the seismic loading. Consequently, a significant amount of the HSC detailing is
required for the vertical elements and only the mid-height portion would require HSC
ductility links.
Transmission of Column Loads through Floors
The loads from the C70/85 high-strength concrete columns are transmitted through the
C35/45 normal strength concrete floors as shown in Figure 12.3.

Figure 12.3: Transmission of HSC Column Loads through NSC Floors

Therefore, the strength of the columns is twice the strength of the floor slabs. Clause
10.12 of ACI 318 states that if the Column Strength is more than 1.4 times the slab
strength then either the column concrete should be used in the slab near to the column
or the column design at the floor junction shall be based on the strength of the floor slab.
This should be investigated during detailed design. Specialist literature (Lee & Mendis,
2004, Ospina et al, 1995, Ospina & Alexander, 1998 and CSTR64, 2007) gives less
conservative advice than ACI 318 and it is recommended that it be consulted during the
detailed design stage. CSTR64 (2007) provides a method of increasing the effective
strength of the slab concrete by using appropriate confinement reinforcement, which
should be particularly useful.