TALL BUILDING

LECT 2

INTRODUCTION

The term tall buildings is not defined in specific

term related to height or the number of storeys. A
building is considered tall when its structural
analysis and design
areinsomewayaffectedbythelateralloads,
particularly sway caused by such loads.

According toEmporis Standards Committee

(ESC)Tall Building is defined as a building 35 meters
or greater in
height,whichisdividedatregularintervalsinto
occupiable levels. To be considered a high-rise
buildingastructuremustbebasedonsolidground,
and
fabricatedalongitsfullheightthroughdeliberate
processes(asopposedtonaturally-occurring
formations).

According tothe regulations ofDanish, German and

some other European countries, the 72ft. (21.6m =
8stories buildings), having fire-fighting equipment,
are known as tall buildings.

DefinitionsrepresentedbytheU.S.Councilontall
buildings and urban settlement refers to tall

THE FACTS ABOUT TALL

BUILDING

REASON FOR USING TALL

BUILDING

SPACELIMITATION

theprocessurban
migration
increaseinthe
population density
ofcities
increasinglandprices
makeitnecessaryto
maximize space
utilization by building
upwards.

PRESTIGE

free imposing
advertisements for their
owners and even the
city it is sited.
asashowofpoliticalo
r economic power
dominatethelandscap
e and easily
becomelandmarks
human ego and
competition

EVOLUTION OF TALL
BUILDINGS
Reinforced concrete established.
Architectural emphasis on reasons,
functional and technological facts.
Transition of structural systems from
rigid frame to more efficient
structural systems
Steel structures and sophisticated
services such as mechanical lifts and
ventilation, limitations on the height
of buildings were removed
Masonry wall bearing structures with
thick and messy walls. The horizontal
and lateral loads of the structures
were mainly resisted solely by the
load bearing masonry wall

1st. EVOLUTION OF TALL

BUILDINGS

Reliance Building
Chicago,1894

Guaranty
Building,Buffalo, 1895

Carson Pirie Scott

Department
Store,Chicago,1904

2nd. EVOLUTION OF TALL

BUILDINGS

Woolworth
Building,New York,
1930

Chrysler Building,New
York, 1930

Empire State Building,

New York, 1931 (highest
structure in 19th century)

3rd. EVOLUTION OF TALL

BUILDINGS

World Trade Centre,

New York,1972

Sears Tower,
Chicago,1974

Petronas Twin Tower,

Kuala Lumpur,1996

WORLD TALLEST
BUILDING

WORLD TALLEST
BUILDING

WORLD TALLEST
BUILDING

TRY TO GET LISTS OF A

WORLD TALLEST
BUILDINGS

PLANNING
CONSIDERATION
S
The selection of a tall building structure is
notbasedmerelyonunderstandingthe
structure in its own context.
Theselectionmaybemorefunctionoffactors
relatedtocultural,social, economical and
technological needs.
Some of the factors are
GeneralEconomicConsiderations
SoilCondition
HeighttowidthRatioofaBuilding
FabricationandErectionConsideration
MechanicalSystemsConsiderations
FireRatingConsiderations
LocalConsiderations
AvailabilityandCostofMain Construction
Materials

GENERALECONOMICCONSIDE
RATIONS
How much theprojects costs tobuild.
Howmuchthefinishedprojectcoststo
operate(e.g
expensesassociatedwithutilities,mai
ntenance,insurance, taxes, interest on
borrowed money)
As the height of the building increases,
more and more space is needed for
structure, mechanical systems and
elevators, leaving less rental space.
The costs of elevators and mechanical
systems increase with height.
Cost for sophisticated construction
equipment as building get taller

SOILCONDITION
Theperformanceofabuildingisdepen
dentonthe strength of the soil which it
is founded.
The foundation or substructure binds
the superstructure to the soil.
If the bearing capacity of the soil is
rather low, piles or caissons may be
required to reach the proper foundation
support.

HEIGHTTOWIDTH
RATIOOFABUILDIN
G

As the minimum height-towidthratioincreases,so

shouldthebuildings inherent
stiffness
The stiffness of thebuilding
structureisdependenton
sizeandnumberofbays,
structuralsystemsand
rigidityofmembersand
connections.
The general height-to-width
for a plane frame structure in
the range of5 to 7

FABRICATIONANDERECTI
ON
CONSIDERATION

Theplanningoffabricationand
erectionproceduresmayindicate
importantfactorsconcerning
structural systems selection.
Shouldbeaminimumnumberofstru
cturalpiecestoshorten
constructiontime,complicated
closedformshapesshouldbe
avoided and field welding should be
minimized.

MechanicalSys
temsConsidera
tions
Average more than onethird of total tall building
costs.
Effects on the building
overall appearance and
economic selection of a
structural systems

FIRERATING
CONSIDERATIONS
Almostallfloorsarebeyondthe
reachoffiretruckladders,firefighting and rescue action are from
the inside of a building.
Totalemergencyevacuationis impossible within a reasonably short
period of time.
Must be able to ensure the following:
structuralintegrityforacertain period of time.
confinementofthefire,to preventitfromspreadingto certain
building areas.
adequateexitsystems.
effectivesmokeandfire detection systems.
sprinklersandnecessarysmoke and heat venting

LOCAL
CONSIDERATIONS
For example, height limitation, zoning regulations

AVAILABILITYANDC
OSTOFMAIN
CONSTRUCTION
MATERIALS

If a desired material is hard to acquire,

it may delay the building schedule and
add significantly to building costs

DESIGN CONSIDERATION

METHOD OF
CONSTRUCTION

CONVENTIONAL?
In Malaysia, in-situ reinforced concrete is the
norm for constructing tall buildings. Skilled and
unskilled workers experienced in such work
and the associated machinery and materials
are readily available. Pre-cast concrete is
sometimes used in low and medium rise
residential buildings. Concrete is either mixed
on site or ready-mixed. The concrete is poured
into a hopper and usually lifted by crane to the
final position. The concrete is emptied in the
formwork, vibrated and cured.

INDUSTRIALISED?

Prefabrication do not necessary has to be in a factory

located away from the site. The prefabricated
components could be built on a production line on site.
But if the high rise building has limited space, this
approach is not suitable.
The principle of prefabrication is that the components
should be made at a place where workers could work
safely and comfortably, thus ensuring better quality and
then transported to the site to be assembled in their
final positions. This principle could be used for many
types of components that are normally associated with
in-situ production. It is safer and better quality work is
provided if these components could be assembled on
site and then lifted in its assembled form to its final
position rather than the normal practice of in situ
production. For example, reinforcement cages for the
columns and beams could be fabricated on the ground
and then lifted by lift to be placed at their final positions.

STEEL OR REINFORCED CONCRETE?

Reinforced concrete is the normal way of constructing high rise

buildings in Malaysia. This is partially due to the abundance of
limestone and the setting up of several large cement factories around
Malaysia. Steel rebar is manufactured in Malaysia but hot rolled
structural steel has to be imported. One often quoted advantage of
using structural is that unlike reinforced concrete, it is a dry form of
construction involving only assembly of the steel thus a shorter period
of time. However, the use of steel structural members for the structural
frame of the building in Malaysia requires a period of preplanning and
takes account of transport times as these have to be sourced from
India, South Korea, China and Japan where there are hot rolled steel
producers. This consumes some of the so-called time savings. In
addition, the assembly of the steel structural frame needs the
involvement of teams of highly skilled structural steel workers and
crane operators. These persons are mostly found in North America and
Europe. Their wages are relatively higher than the imported
Indonesian, Bangadeshi and Vietnamese workers. Furthermore, there is
an available pool of foreign workers who have had sufficient experience
and some measure of skill in concreting despite them not having any
formal training in concreting. The major drawback of reinforced
concrete is that it is a wet process and needs more working space.

SPECIAL TECHNIQUES?
Sometimes the architects of tall buildings wish
to create exclusivity of their designs by
employing innovative construction techniques
and structural systems.
The use of innovation construction techniques
must take into account the economic
availability of local and foreign workers and
consultants who are skilled and capable of
handling the technology. It must be
remembered that new systems will have
teething problems and time will be spent
solving these problems during the construction
period.

ARCHITECTURAL
CONSIDERATION

The shape of a tall building is basically a

long vertical box or cylinder. There is
limited scope to create innovative building
shapes .
Architects give tall buildings their identity
by the way they design the facade or
outside appearance of the building. They
also design the interior finishes of the
building.
When an architect designs the floor plan of
the building, he has to aim for maximum
floor area to sell or rent to possible
tenants.

BUILDING SERVICES
CORE AREA

He has to leave aside space on the floor plan for

the service core area and the building
occupiers circulation paths. In the building
service core area, the architect allocate space
for the:

toilets,
the riser cables for electricity and
telecommunication
lift shafts
staircases
plumbing pipes for drainage, sewerage and water
supply
airconditioning and ventilation riser ducts
airconditioning chilled water pipes

With so many things to put in the core

area, the architects try to reduce the
amount of core areas.
In addition, the architect may leave aside
certain floors to house the airconditioning
plant, the water tanks for water supply,
airconditioning and fire fighting systems,
and the electicity distribution equipment.
These floors are usually in the basement,
at the roof or in floors where giant internal
beams or girders called outriggers are
located.

Air Conditioning System

TIME CONSUMING

Tenants in tall buildings make the journey

from their top floor offices to the outside
the building at ground level to eat. This
will be too time consuming and tiring,
especially in a supertall building.
Thus the architect will try to provide areas
for canteens, restaurants, shops and other
facilities within the building plan especially
if it is a tall or supertall building.

In this way, people do not have to leave

the building for lunch or to shop or for
leisure. In some supertall buildings such as
the Sears Tower, sky lobbies are provided
at certain floors to house shops, eating
and recreational places.
Thus, a supertall building is normally a city
with a city. We can see that the more taller
a building is, the more space is used for
the building services and the less the
usable floor space per level.

The floor plan of the 78 storey Central Plaza in

Hong Kong

Service core area

Tenants usable
space area

Circulation space

STRUCTURAL
CONSIDERATION

The structural system is an

integrated system of the
arrangement of members of the
structure so that it can withstand
several types of loads such as
below: Live and Dead Load
Wind Load
Differential Temperature Load
Vibration Load
Impact Load

Designing for Live and

Dead Loads

The loads exerted on a building are generally

vertical due to dead and live gravity loads. The
structure transfers the vertical loads as well as
the horizontal loads to the ground. The building
can be structurally divided into two parts :i. Superstructure.
This consists of the floors, walls and roof that are generally
above ground level. In addition to the loads of the
superstructure, there are the loads of equipment,
machinery, M&E services and people inside the
superstructure that have to be transferred to the
substructure.

ii. Substructure.
This consists of the foundations that lay below ground level.
The foundations may be piles, caissons, rafts, pads or even
strips. The materials used are generally reinforced concrete
or concrete encased steel members.

Superstructure

SUPERSTRUCTURE

Walls
Frame cages
Suspension system

Hanger

Bridge

Catenary
System

The main function of the vertical loading

subsystem is to transfer the dead and live
loads of the superstructure to the
substructure. There are many ways of
transferring the loads.
Walls

Most walls in a tall building are non-load

bearing. The self-weights of these non-load
bearing walls are transmitted to the ground via
the floor slab and then the columns
Load bearing walls in tall buildings are
generally made of reinforced concrete. They
are normally used as shear walls and together
with a frame cage.

FRAME CAGES
Known as a framed structure, skeleton
structure and moment resisting frames
The frame cage consisted of rolled iron
beams and stanchions arranged in square
or rectangular grid. The loads of the walls
and floors are transferred to the beams
and column grid to the ground. Most
modern buildings use the frame cage
system. Iron have been superseded by
high strength structural steel and
reinforced concrete.

In order to transfer lateral loads to the ground,

mega-bracing is sometimes used in the steel
frame. These are giant diagonal members that
span between giant mega columns. The mega
braces transfer the loads of the floors to the
mega columns. The mega columns transfer the
loads to the foundations.
Compared to load bearing walls, the self-weight of
the frame cage is less although the point loads at
the base of the columns may be rather high.
Frame cage construction is also relatively faster
to erect especially when structural steel is the
material used. The frame cage structural
members also occupies a smaller area of the
building footprint. This allows more usable floor
space for the building.

Steel frame cages are

more susceptible to wind
loads due to their relatively
lighter self-weight. Thus
expensive damping
mechanisms have to be
incorporated into the
structure.
Reinforced concrete frame
cages are more rigid and
thus are less likely to sway
in the wind. However,
excessive wind loads may
cause tensile cracks in the
structure and thus
additional measures must
be taken to increase the
R.C. frame cages tensile

DIAGRID
The latest innovation to
the frame system is the
diagrid. Instead of boxlike grid arrangements of
beams and columns, a
building with a diagrid
structure uses diagonal
members that function
as both the beam and
column.. The most
famous example of the
diagrid frame structure is
that of the Londons
Swiss Re building.

DIAGRI
D

Diagrid system
The diagrid is often
used for the perimeter
exterior wall. It is
usually part of a tubewithin-tube structural
system.
Examples IBM
building, Pittsburgh

SUSPENSION SYSTEM
As the name implies, the floors of the buildings
are suspended over a long span. The supports
for these floors may be towers, hangers or
catenaries. The main advantage of these
systems is the ability to provide a column free
ground floor which could then be used as a
public space, exhibition areas etc. The other
floors also enjoy column free space which
allows an infinite number of space partitioning
options.
There are three main types of suspension
system:
Hanger
Bridge
Catenary systems:-

Hanger systems
In this system, the floor and wall
loads are transmitted upwards
through vertical tensile members
to outrigger arms. The loads are
then
transferred
from
the
outriggers to one or more pier
towers that transmit the loads to
the ground. The tensile members can
be hangers or cables. The pier towers
are
either
monolithic
reinforced
concrete load bearing walls or a steel
framed tower.

There are few buildings

using
this
system.
These
buildings
are
difficult to design and
construct.
Examples of buildings
with hanger systems
are Hong Kong and
Shanghai Bank building
in Hong Kong, Sabah
Foundation Building in
Kota Kinabalu and the
AAP building in Sydney.

Catenary system
The catenary system usually consisted of a
pair of catenary members that span
between two towers of the building. Both
catenary members lie on the long facades of
the building. The catenary spans in a U-shaped
configuration somewhat like a suspension
bridge between the towers. Each catenary
member supports hangers and columns. These
hangers and columns support the floor
structure.
There are two examples of this catenary
system. This is the 10 story Federal Reserve
Bank of Minneapolis in USA and the 10 story
First Exchange House, London.

The original design of the catenary structural system of the

Minneapolis
Federal Reserve Bank (right) and photo of asbuilt building (left)

Designing For Horizontal Forces

The higher the building, the more

exposed it is to wind forces. The wind
exerts horizontal loads on the
building that causes the building to
sway. This is normally felt in medium
rise and tall buildings that have steel
structural frames.
Buildings that have reinforced
concrete structural frames do not
suffer this problem.

Another horizontal force that has to be

considered by engineers is the force due
to earthquakes.
The type of movement due to an
earthquake is actually up and down, and
from side to side. In other words, during an
earthquake, the building feels like it is on a
boat.
Buildings in earthquake areas are normally
fitted with shock absorbers in their
foundations and structural frames.

There are three main ways of

preventing swaying (or oscillation) of
tall buildings due to wind forces
STRUCTURAL METHOD
DAMPING METHOD
AERODYNAMIC METHOD


STRUCTURAL
METHOD

Shear Wall
Brace frame and moment
resistant frame systems

DAMPING
METHOD

Passive Dampers

Tubes systems

Composite systems

Friction dampers
Passive tuned mass dampers
Passive pendulum dampers

Active dampers

AERODYNAMIC METHOD

Tuned Liquid Dampers (aka Tuned

Sloshing Water Dampers (TSWD)
aka Tuned Liquid Column Dampers
(TLCD))

Structural
Method

The oscillation is minimized or

removed increased stiffening the
structural frame. Four ways can be
used :

making the building stiffer by using

increasing its weight
fixing structural tie members (braces) in
the building structural frame
reducing the size of the vertical bays in the
frame and
guying the structure to the ground by
structural ties


Structural
Method (Shear Walls)

Monolithic shear walls of reinforced concrete

are used to provide stiffness. By using a
monolithic wall, the wall will be more heavier
and thus stiffer. Yet increasing weight has a
disadvantage. It means that the foundations
have to be stronger and this in turn means
more cost.
Therefore heavy shear walls may not be the
suitable solution. Stiff but relatively slender
shear walls are preferable. Shear walls can be
pre-stressed to increase stiffness yet give a
relatively thin wall.
By the way, shear walls do not have to be of
reinforced concrete, it may be made of
reinforced steel plate and even reinforced

Shear walls are located in one or

more of the following locations on
the building footprint plan.

Central core of building

Ends or corners of building
As vertical fins for a tower
As the vertical tubular wall of the tower


Shear wall

Monolithic shear walls of

reinforced concrete are
popular in Malaysian tall
buildings because
reinforced concrete
structural frames are Shear wall
used in most buildings.
Monolithic shear walls of
reinforced concrete are
often used to enclose the
building services core
area. These walls are
natural firewalls that
enclose the lift shafts,
escape stairways and
electrical risers.

Building with shear walls at its ends

Brace
frame and moment resistant

frame systems
Increasing the mass of building is the most effective way
to resist lateral forces (ASCE, 2005) but this is relatively
uneconomic today. The trend is for lighter but stiffer
buildings
i. Moment resistant frame
The moment resisting frame is a three dimensional
grid of linear columns and beams. The members of
the frames are connected each other using rigid or
semi-rigid connections.
ii. Braced frame
Moment resistant frames can be stiffened by adding
braces to vertical and horizontal bays of the frame. A
megaframe structure also use megabraces to stiffen
the megaframe and to transmit the floor loads of the
building to megacolumns that rests on the
foundations

Some vertical and/or horizontal

bays of the structural frame are
braced. This creates stiffness to
the overall frame. The
arrangement of the braces
usually result in vertical truss
configuration or perimeter belt
trusses or outrigger trusses. In
some frames, a vertical
megatruss is used insteaad of a
shear wall to further stiffen the
frame.
A megaframe can be built to
carry the floors of the building. To
stiffen the megaframe,
megabraces are placed across
the vertical megabays. Thus the
building behaves like a vertical
megatruss.

A mega space frame can

be used to support the
floors of the building. The
concept
of
load
transmittance is the same
as that of the vertical
megatruss
Many
structural
steel
pencil thin towers use the

There are many configurations of the

moment resistant frame and shear
walls to increase the building
resistance to the wind. The systems
are: Tube system
Composite system

Tubes
Syste
ms

Load bearing columns

of the exterior
perimeter are placed
closely together to
form a tube. Tubes
can also be formed
from configurations of
shear walls that form a
tube. Shear walls can
be perimeter walls or
cores.
Towers use either
tubular r.c. stem
structures or large

Another way to create a building tube is to have

an outer perimeter of mega columns. A building
tube may have mega bracing, mega columns and
mega beams that form a perimeter box truss for
the building. A perimeter box space truss
configuration can be used instead of the box truss
Several configurations of the tube system can be
found

- Single tube
- Tube within tube (One Shell Plaza Building)
- Bundling of tubes (Sears Tower)
- Braced tubes (see Alcoa Building)

One Shell Plaza building,

Houston Texas.Tube in
tube structure. Note the
closed spaced columns in
the outer tube.

Bundled tube system as used

in the Sears Tower, Chicago,
U.S.A.

View of Sears Tower structure

In tall buildings using tube lateral

systems, further lateral restraint can be
provided by reducing the vertical bending
moment of the buildings.
The building structure is designed such
two or more vertical zones of floors share
the bending moment. Each zone will thus
experience a lower bending moment.
The overall effect is that the building
structure will not experience a much lower
bending moment and less sway.

There are three ways of doing this:i.

Using perimeter structural belts

every certain height of building

The perimeter structural belts are located

on the external perimeter wall line of the
building. These structures can be trusses,
girders or monolithic walls and usually one
story in height. They are positioned at
every other number of floors so as to
break up the building into two or more
vertical zones

ii. Using outriggers at every certain

height of the building

The outriggers are located within the building. On

plan, they connect the outer tube with inner tube
structure. A group of outriggers are positioned at
every other number of floors so as to break up the
building into two or more vertical zones Outriggers
can be formed from trusses or girders or monolithic
walls and usually one floor in height.
The monolithic wall outrigger will usually have
perforations to allow the people circulation and
service runs

iii.

Combined systems
Combination of structural belt and
outriggers.
Outriggers of a floor level is tied together by
the structural belt located on the exterior
perimeter face of the building

Composite / Hybrid

The computer allows engineers to shorten the time for

designing tall building. It also allows more complicated
designs to be feasible.
More and more composite systems that combine several
structural systems such as shear walls, tubes and bracing
systems together.
Some types are as follows;

Shear walls and skeleton frame acting as tubes. Shear walls

are placed on certain positions of the exterior perimeter of
building frame
Tube within tube system using shear wall core and columnade
tube on exterior perimeter
Tube within tube system with shear wall core and braced mega
frame for exterior perimeter of building.
Tube with tube system using shear wall construction. Interior
wall fins connect the exterior and interior tubes together.
Tube system of steel construction with guying cables

Damping Devices

These devices are generally used in lighter

tall buildings (normally of steel frame
construction). Heavy buildings use mass
and stiffness as natural dampers (normally
r.c. frame buildings). Thus dampers are
seldom found in r.c. building for resisting
wind forces.
There are several types of dampers: Passive dampers
Active dampers

Passive Dampers
There are two types i.e. the hydraulic piston
dampers and the viscoelastic friction dampers: Hydraulic pistons are placed at various points in the
structure. These pistons are filled with oil. The pistons
absorb most of the resulting movement or vibration
due to wind. They are usually fitted in the vertical
bays in a bracing configuration.
Viscoelastic materials are placed at various points in
the structural frame. They are sandwiched between
the steel plate connections of the structural frame.
The material inserts provide shear resistance to the
oscillation forces. See friction dampers

Friction dampers
The friction damper consists of a steel
plate that is sandwiched by two plates A
special lubricant coats the area where
the plates touch so that stability is
maintained even after repeated
deformation of the plates due to
movment. When the building sways
during a high wind or earthquake, the
plates absorb energy by friction and
thus minimise the swaying.

Friction damper

Application for the bolt-type friction damper

Passive tuned mass dampers

This damper type consists of a sliding or
horizontal moving mass tuned to move
in reaction to the horizontal movement
of the building. Either large springs or
dampers are fitted to the mass and the
building structure. Passive tuned
dampers are usually found at the
topmost floor. A good example is the Citi
Corp Centre building in New York.

Example
of Tuned Mass Dampers in Citi

Corp Centre Building in New York

Passive pendulum dampers

This is a suspended mass acting as
pendulum. The concept is similar to the
passive tuned massive damper. The new
Taipei 101 building uses a 730-ton
pendulum tuned mass damper (TMD).
Eight steel cables form a sling to support
the ball, while eight viscous pistons act
like shock absorbers when the sphere
swings.

Passive pendulum TMD of Taipei 101 building

Tuned Liquid Dampers (a.k.a. Tuned

Sloshing Water Dampers (TSWD)
a.k.a. Tuned Liquid Column Dampers
(TLCD))
This damper type consists of two or more tanks
(or liquid columns) whose water contents change
in response to lateral forces. The damper can be a
pair of large tanks or number of small ones.

Tuned Liquid Dampers

(a.k.a. Tuned Sloshing
Water Dampers (TSWD)
a.k.a. Tuned Liquid Column
Dampers (TLCD))

Active dampers
Active tuned mass dampers are tuned to
a certain frequency. Computers allow it
to adapt itself to a big range of tuning.
This makes it more effective.
Actuators such as pistons move the
mass in response to the actual
horizontal movement of the building.
The main disadvantage is its reliance on
electricity. Backup electricity supply is
needed in case of blackouts

Active Damper Simulation for building

Kyobashi Seiwa Building using Active

Mass Damper

Active tuned mass damper system in Kyobashi Seiwa

building, Tokyo, Japan

Tuned Liquid Damper at Wall Centre building,

Vancouver, Canada

Active-passive tuned mass dampers. In

these damping systems, there is active
damper actuator working with the
passive damper. The active mass
damper works within the capacity range of
the actuator. But, outside the range, the
passive damper and the hydraulic become
detached and the damping is provided by
the passive damper. This method allows
the use of a smaller sized passive damper
at a lower cost. This method is used
primarily for lateral forces due to

Aerodynamic

Tower cross-sectional plan is designed to

have minimum air turbulence that could
cause swaying of the building. Reduction
of air turbulence can be obtained by:i.

Have a circular plan rather than rectangular

or
square plan for tower
ii.
Flattening (or tapering) of the corners
iii. Providing for perforations at either the
corners or top of the tower
iv. Having channels in the building silhouette
that allow the wind to be channeled away
from the face of the building

Thank You