Efficient structural system : Performance and economy

Taller structure: More lateral load(earthquakes and wind).

Increases with slenderness and flexibility.

Structural system should resist lateral load(stiffness and strength).

Functionality
Aesthetics
Leasability
Construction issues.

‘tall’: Height, Number of floors or Proportion?

Dynamics more important than statics.
Lateral load more.
• All buildings should have either a
braced frame or a shear wall or
moment resisting frame or their
combination to take care of lateral
forces.
• Shear wall gives more stiffness
compared to braced frame but costs
more.
• Shear wall has no opening so used as
core.
• Moment resisting frames more space
windows(earlier sky scrapers)
• Empire state building(Steel moment
resisting frame)

• John Hancock Building(Fazlur R. Khan)

• Tube structure(truss on the outside)
• Instead of regular column aligned in
grids, most of the columns are taken
outside which is more effective in
resisting lateral forces.
• Tube frame system(Sears Tower)
Buildings above 30
storey
Core supported structure
Outrigger braced
structures
Shear wall structures
Tubular structures
 •Beams and columns are constructed
Rigid frame structural system monolithically
•Lateral stiffness depends on the bending
stiffness of the columns, girders and
connections
•Suitable for reinforced concrete buildings
and partly for steel construction (connections
will be costly).
•Ease of fitting of windows due to open
rectangular arrangement.
•Suitable for 20 to 25 storey buildings.

Benefits:
Ease of construction, cost, pace of
Members of rigid frame system withstand bending moment,
shear force, and axial loads. (Moment frame)
construction.

Maximum beam span is 12.2m and larger span beams would

suffer lateral deflection.
Infilled frame structural system
•Beam and column framework with some bays infilled with
masonry/reinforced concrete/block walls.
•Infill walls can partly or fully fill the frame.
•The walls may or may not be connected to the formwork.
•Increases stiffness and prevent bending of beams and
columns.
•During an earthquake, structure behaves more like a
Braced Frame rather than a Moment Frame.
•Suitable upto 30 storey buildings.
Flat plate and flat slab structural system

•This system consists of slabs(uniform

thickness) (flat or plate) connected to
columns (without the use of beams).
•Concrete framing system
•Flat slab is a two-way reinforced
structural system that includes either drop
panels or column capitals at columns to
resist heavier loads and thus permit longer
spans.
•Lateral resistance depends on the flexural
stiffness of the components and their
connections, with the slab corresponding
to the girder of the rigid frame.
•Suitable for building up to 25 stories.
Wall frame system

• Wall and frame interact

horizontally to provide stronger and
stiffer system.

• Walls are usually solid (without

openings) and can be found around
stairwells, elevator shafts, and/or
at the perimeter of the building.

• Walls prevent soft storey collapse.

• Suitable for buildings (40-60 storey)

Shear wall system
•Continuous vertical wall of reinforced concrete or
masonry.
•Withstand both gravity and lateral loads
•Acts as narrow deep cantilever beam(vertical).
•Commonly, constructed as a core of buildings.
•Suitable for bracing tall buildings (RC or steel
structure)

•Shear wall system is appropriate for buildings with

same layout in all floors (hotel, residential apartment)

•Helps in acoustic and fire insulation.

•Suitable up to 35 stories.

•Symmetry is preferred(though not required) in order

to avoid torsional effects.
Braced frame system Bracing members together with girders, form
a “web” of the vertical truss, with the
columns acting as the “chords’’.
Bracing members eliminate bending in beams
and columns.
Used in steel construction

Bracing types
Braced frame structure
This system permits the use of slender members.
Repetitive up the height of the building
(economical).
May create problem with doors and windows
(incorporated internally with lines of walls and
partitions). Mega braced
frame system
Core Supported Structures
• Rectangular box-shaped cores using shear walls
• Encloses stairs, elevators, and other shafts.
• Commercial buildings
• Maximum flexibility in layout

Structural benefits:
Walls around the core are capable of resisting all
types of loads.
Vertical forces, shear forces, and bending moments in
all directions, as well as torsion is taken care of by the
core.
No need for column and bracing elements.

Shear cores resist lateral loads (similar to massive

beams cantilevering out of the foundation)
The core also carries significant axial load (gravity
load)
Core Supported Structures

Shape and location of the core (no restrictions).

Depends on elevator and stair layout.
Single rectangular box core or,
Complex arrangement of multiple shear walls.

Core location:
Middle/At perimeter/ At external part of the building
Symmetrical or asymmetrical.

Positioning of cores is influenced by:

• Horizontal distribution systems for mechanical services.
• Fire safety requirements(distance to evacuation routes,
reduced compartment sizes.)
• Distribution of the core more-or-less symmetrically
throughout the building plan.
Types of cores
 Perimeter columns with a flat plate floor system.
Burj Khalifa At mechanical floors: 3-story high outrigger walls linking perimeter
828m tall reinforced concrete core supported columns to the interior corridor walls.
structure. As tower rises, the wings are setback.
Both core and other vertical members support 26 spiral levels (seems like series of towers)
both gravity and lateral loads. Columns are aligned above with walls below.

Structural system:
Six-sided central hexagon core with three wings
around.
‘buttressed core’, Central core with bundled tube.
Corridor walls extend from central core to end of
each wing.
Sydney Olympic park
Opal tower
Hotel and offices building in
the Plaza Europa. Barcelona

Designed by the Japanese architect Toyo

Ito and b720 Arquitectos, lead by Fermin
Vázquez

Hotel building
PTTEP By HASSELL
Thailand’s national petroleum
exploration company.
18 floors in the ENCO building
Open plan workplace, around a
new internal stairway.
It provides a physical and visual
link between all levels of the
45,000 square metre tenancy.
G-TOWER
HAEAHN ARCHITECTURE +
DESIGNCAMP MOONPARK DMP +
GYUNG SUNG ARCHITECTS+
TCMC-ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS
Outrigger Braced Structures

Central core and flexurally stiff horizontal cantilever

‘outrigger’ girders connecting the core to the exterior
columns reduces both lateral deflection and bending
moments in the core from that if the free-standing core.

Under lateral loads, the windward column-restrained

outriggers restrain the vertical plane rotations through
tension and the outriggers in the leeward columns
through compression.

Using up to four outrigger levels has been shown to be

economical in very tall buildings.

Shear resistance of the structure is almost entirely

provided by the core.
 Outrigger Braced Structures
Aston Apartments, Sydney
•The outriggers are in form of walls in
Residential building (145
reinforced concrete building and serviced and owner
trusses in steel structures. apartments)
•Multilevel outrigger systems can Reinforced concrete framed
provide up to five times the moment structure
resistance of a single outrigger system. 30-story tower (height-to-base
•Practically, outrigger systems used for ratio of 7:1) (90m high and only
buildings up to 70 stories. only 13 meters wide in the
•Can be used for higher buildings north-south direction)
though.
Conventional outrigger system:
Requires the core and external columns to be directly coupled.
Outrigger arms obstruct valuable serviceable floor space.

An ‘offset’ system allows the outrigger arms to be placed across the width of
the building at locations away from the central core as shown in image.

Floor diaphragms transfer opposing shear forces at the top and bottom levels
of the outriggers to activate the perimeter columns of the building by
introducing a coupling action between the columns and the core
Tube structural system •Exterior columns and beams create rigid frame
and take care of lateral and other loads whereas,
interior part of the system is a simple frame
designed to support gravity loads.
•The building behaves like a hollow tube.
•Efficient economically and need half the material
compared to framed buildings.

•Lateral loads are resisted by various connections,

rigid or semi-rigid, and additionally by bracing and
truss elements.
•Suitable up to 60 storeys.

Framed tube system

Trussed tube system
Bundled tube system
Tube in tube system
 Trussed tube system (external bracing to increase stiffness) (up to
100 storeys).
Bundled tube system (connected tubes, can withstand massive
loads)
Tube-in-tube system (core is placed inside the tube frame
structure)

Trussed tube system

Bundled tube structure system Tube in a tube system

Types of
tubular
systems
 Hybrid structural system
•It is the combination of two or more of basic structural forms
either by direct combination or by adopting different forms in
different parts of the structure.
•Its lack of torsional stiffness requires that additional measures
be taken, which resulted in one bay vertical exterior bracing
and a number of levels of perimeter vierendeel “bandages”
It can be used for the buildings of as high as 300m.
According to chines code (JGJ3-2002), hybrid system can be
used for the construction of buildings with maximum 150m
height in seismic regions

Vierendeel frame

Hybrid structure system