FUNDAMENTAL OF TALL BUILDINGS

Why tall buildings?

What is tall buildings?
Source: en.wikipedia.org
 3

Ancient Tall Structures

~30m

Ancient pyramids of Egypt El Castillo, Mayan pyramid

• The ancient tall structures were infrequently used as human habitats.

• Ancient structures primarily served more as monuments than as space
enclosures.
• The Pyramid of Cheops was built by piling huge masonry blocks one on top
of another to a peak of 146.7 m (similar to a 40-story office building).
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• Monadnock Building

Location: Chicago, USA

Completion: 1893
Number of storeys: 17
Height: 60 m
Status: Completed
Materials: Masonry
Architect: Holabird & Roche; Burnham & Root
Main Contractor: George A. Fuller Co.

o Around 2 m thick load-bearing masonry

walls at the ground floor were used.
o Low net usable area was achieved owing
to the excess dead loads and wide cross-
sections.
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Tall Buildings Development

• Technological developments
1. Construction materials
2. Vertical transportation
system - elevator
3. Construction technology
4. Structural form
5. Computer simulation
6. Building information
Home Insurance Building Empire State Building modelling (BIM)
10+2 storey (55 m) 102 storey (381 m)
Steel frame Braced steel frame
Chicago, USA New York
1885 / 1890 1931
First skyscraper Tallest in the world from 1931 to 1970
Demolished
 6

Why Tall Buildings

• The growth in modern tall building constructions has been
largely for commercial and residential purposes.
• Tall commercial buildings are primarily a response to the
demand by business activities to be as close as possible.
• They form distinctive landmarks so that they are frequently
developed in city centres as prestige symbols for corporate
organisation.
• The rapid growth of the urban population and the consequent
pressure on limited space have considerably influenced city
residential development.
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What is Tall Buildings

Tall building / High-rise building / Skyscraper

• Height • Construction technology

• Number of storey
• Wind effect / Lateral loads

Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)

http://www.ctbuh.org/
 8

a) Height relative to context

A tall building is not just about the height, but
about the context in which it exists.

b) Proportion
A tall building is not just about height but also
about proportion (aspect ratio).

c) Tall building technologies

A building contains technologies which may
attributed as being a product of “tall” (e.g., specific
vertical transport technologies, structural wind
bracing, etc.)

A building of perhaps 14 or more stories, or more

than 50 metres in height, could perhaps be used as
a threshold for considering it’s a tall building.

CTBUH, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Illinois Institute of Technology,
http://www.ctbuh.org/TallBuildings/HeightStatistics/Criteria/tabid/446/language/en-US/Default.aspx
 9

CTBUH
Tall buildings Buildings of 14 storeys or 50 metres height
Super-tall buildings Buildings of 300 metres height
Mega-tall buildings Building of 600 metres height

Emporis Standards
High-rise buildings Buildings of 12 storeys or 35 metres height
Skyscrapers Buildings of 100 metres height

Ali and Armstrong (Architecture of Tall Buildings, 1995)

The tall building can be described as a multi-storey buildings generally
constructed using a structural frame, provided with high-speed elevators,
and combining extraordinary height with ordinary room spaces such as
could be found in low-building. In aggregate, it is a physical, economic, and
technological expression of the city’s power base, representing its private
and public investments.
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Tall Buildings in the World

• 10 tallest completed buildings in the world (Skyscrapercenter, Jan 2018)

http://skyscrapercenter.com
 11

• 10 tallest completed buildings in the world (Skyscrapercenter, Jan 2019)

 12

Name: Burj Khalifa

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Completion: 2010
Buttressed core system
Number of storeys: 163
Height: 828 m
Status: Completed
Materials: Steel/Concrete

http://skyscrapercenter.com

Mehmet Halis Günel and Hüseyin Emre Ilgin (2014). Tall Buildings Structural Systems and
Aerodynamic Form. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
 13

Name: Shanghai Tower

Location: China
Completion: 2015
Number of storeys: 128
Height: 632 m
Status: Completed
Materials: Composite

http://skyscrapercenter.com
Jun Xia, Dennis Poon, Douglas C. Mass (2010) “Case Study: Shanghai Tower”, CTBUH Journal, 2010 Issue II.
 14

One World Trade Center Taipei 101 International Commerce

New York, 2014 Taipei, 2004 Centre
541.3 m 508 m Hong Kong, 2010
94 storey 101 storey 484 m
108 storey

http://skyscrapercenter.com
 15

Height of Buildings
• CTBUH recognises to measure tall building height in three
categories:
1. Height to architectural top
2. Highest occupied floor
3. Height to tip

CTBUH, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Illinois Institute of Technology
 16

1. Height to Architectural Top (widely used)

• Height is measured from the level of the lowest, significant, open-air,
pedestrian entrance to the architectural top of the building, including
spires, but not including antennae, signage, flag poles or other
functional-technical equipment.

CTBUH, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Illinois Institute of Technology
 17

2. Highest Occupied Floor

• Height is measured from the level of the lowest, significant, open-air,
pedestrian entrance to the finished floor level of the highest occupied
floor within the building.

CTBUH, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Illinois Institute of Technology
 18

3. Height of tip
• Height is measured from the level of the lowest, significant, open-air,
pedestrian entrance to the highest point of the building, irrespective of
material or function of the highest element (i.e., including antennae,
flagpoles, signage, and other functional-technical equipment).

CTBUH, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Illinois Institute of Technology
 19

Tall Buildings in Hong Kong

• 10 tallest completed buildings in the HK (Skyscrapercenter, Jan 2018)

http://skyscrapercenter.com
 20

Central Plaza
Wan Chai, 1992
373.9 m
Tubular system

HSBC Main
Building
Central, 1985
Bank of China Tower 178.8 m
Central, 1990 Hanger system
367.4 m
Space truss system

International Commerce Centre

Kowloon, 2010
484 m
Outrigger system

http://skyscrapercenter.com
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Jardine House (1973) – First 150m+ Building in HK

Material Concrete
Floor 52
Height 178.5 m
Function Office

http://skyscrapercenter.com
BEHAVIOUR OF TALL BUILDINGS
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Tall Buildings
• A tall building may be defined as one that, because of its
height, is affected by lateral forces due to wind or earthquake
actions to an extent that they play an important role in the
structural design.
• The influence of these actions must therefore be considered
from the very beginning of the design process.
• High-rise behaviour:
A high-rise building behaves as a
G vertical cantilever
Subjected to
1. Vertical loading by gravity
P 2. Transverse loading by wind or
earthquake
 24

• The key idea in conceptualising the structural system for a

narrow tall building is to think it as a beam cantilevering from
the earth.
• The laterally directed force generated
either due to wind or seismic actions
tends both to snap it (shear), and
push it over (bending).
• Therefore, the building must have a
structural system to resist shear as
well as bending.
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• Tall building under lateral loads (UDL)

L/3
At i-th storey
𝑉 = 𝑤𝐿/3
L
𝑀 = 𝑤𝐿2 /18

At the base
𝑉 = 𝑤𝐿

𝑀 = 𝑤𝐿2 /2
 26

Effects of Gravity Loading

Loading transfer: Slab -> Vertical walls and columns -> Foundations

G G

G G
= 𝐺𝑖

G G G

3𝐺
 27

Effects of Horizontal Loading

• Single storey frame Shear Moment Deflection
P Δ

P Ph
• Multi-storey frame

P 6Δ

3P 6Ph
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• For an n-storey building:

Force / Displacement
Drift
• Axial load  n
Moment
• Lateral shear  n
• Overturning moment  n2 Force

• Lateral drift  n4
Storey

 Tall building analysis and design should be placed on the structural

behaviour of the systems under lateral loading.
 Traditionally, much attention has been absorbed in the design for strength.

 This is particularly true for the design of buildings in Hong Kong since
most of the Hong Kong buildings can be classified tall buildings.
 Their design is generally controlled by lateral stiffness criteria rather than
by element strength requirements.
STRUCTURAL FORM AND FLOOR
SYSTEMS
 30

Common Structural Forms

• Frame structures • Core wall structures
• Rigid frames • Tubular structures
• Braced frames • Framed-tube structures
• Infilled frames • Tube-in-tube structures
• Shear wall structures • Exterior diagonal tube
• Linked shear walls • Bundled tube
• Coupled shear walls • Diagrid Structures
• Wall-frame structures • Mega-braced framed systems
• Outrigger-braced systems • Transfer structures
• Hybrid systems
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Rigid Frames
• A rigid frame structure consist of columns and girders joined by
moment-resisting connections.
• The lateral stiffness is governed mainly by the bending stiffness
of columns, girders and connections in the plane of the bent.
• Rigid framing is generally economic
for buildings of up to about 25
storeys.

Beam-column
joints
 32

Braced Frames
• Braced frames may be considered as vertical trusses resisting
lateral loads primarily through the axial stiffness of columns
and braces.
• The columns act as the chords in
resisting the overturning moment.
• The diagonals work as web members
resisting the horizontal shear in axial
compression or tension.
 33

Shear Wall Structures

• Concrete continuous vertical walls may serve both
architecturally as partitions and structurally to carry gravity and
lateral loads.
• Their very high in-plane stiffness and
strength make them ideally suited
for tall building structures.
• A shear wall structure may be
economically up to about 35 storeys.
 34

Wall-frame Structures
• A wall-frame structure consists of shear wall structure and rigid
frame structures.
• The walls and the frames are
constrained to adopted a common
deflected shape by the horizontal
rigidity of the girders and slabs.
• It Is appropriate for building in the
40 to 60-storey range.
 35

Outrigger-braced Structures
• An outrigger structure consists of a central core (braced frames
or shear walls), with horizontal cantilever “outrigger” trusses or
girders connecting the core and the outer columns.
• The outriggers are made one or
often two stories deep.
• It have been used for buildings
from 40 to 70 storeys height.
 36

Framed-tube Structures
• The lateral resistance is provided by very stiff moment-resisting
frames that form a “tube” around the perimeter of building.
• It has been used for buildings ranging from 40 to 100-storeys.
Core (inner tube)
Columns to carry
gravity loads Hull (outer tube)
Framed-tube to
carry gravity and
lateral loading

Framed-tube Tube-in-tube
 37

Mega Frame/Trussed Systems

• Mega frame/trussed systems consist of RC or composite
columns, braces, and/or shear walls with much larger cross-
sections than normal, running continuously throughout the
height of the building.
 38

Common Floor Systems

• Reinforced concrete floor systems:
• One-way slabs
• Two-way slabs
• Flat slabs
• Waffle flat slabs
• Steel framing floor system
• One-way beam system
• Two-way beam system
• Concrete-steel composite floor systems
 39

Reinforced Concrete Floor Systems

One-way slab Two-way slab

Flat slab Waffle flat slab

 40

Concrete-Steel Composite Floor Systems

Steel decking composite slab

Composite frame system

Composite frame and steel decking

 41

Typical Structural Form

Plan of office block Residential block

 42

Foundations
• Shallow foundations
• Pad footing
• Strip footing
• Raft footing
• Deep foundations/Pile foundations
• Steel H-piles/Steel tubular piles
• Socketed steel H-piles
• Precast prestressed spun concrete piles
• Driven cast-in-place concrete piles
• Bored piles
• Mini-piles
 43

Construction Materials
• Common construction materials
• Concrete
• Steel
• Composite
• Timber
• Masonry

http://en.wikipedia.org
 44

Weight of Materials in Tall Building

The materials weight (and thus
cost) increases non-linearly with
increasing building height due to
the influence of lateral loads.

Appropriate structural form should

be selected to reduce the cost.

(Steel usage per floor area)

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
 46

Aims of Structural Design

• Safety and Serviceability
• Not only must a structure safely support the loads to which it is subjected,
but is must support them in such a manner that serviceability issues are
not so great as to frighten the occupants or cause structural damages.
• Cost
• The designer must always bear in mind to lower cost without sacrifice of
strength. Savings can be achieved by minimising material weight,
construction time, maintenance cost and maximising structural
performance.
• The structural cost typically accounts for 20% - 30% of the overall building
cost.
 47

• Practicality
• The designed structure must be fabricated and erected without great
problems arising both in construction and in future maintenance.
• The engineer should understand fully the method of construction and
the availability of manpower and construction facilities.
• Probability
• Uncertainties in loading conditions, material properties and structural
behaviour do exist in constructed facilities.
• Whilst it is certainly the desire of the engineer to provide a safe and
serviceable structure, there is always a risk element in the design
decision making process that does not guarantee 100% safety resulting in
risk free structures.
• Others (fire resistance, aerodynamic effect, stability, durability,
sustainability, environmental issue, etc.)
 48

Buildings Department: Practice Note for Authorized Persons, Registered Structural

Engineers and Registered Geotechnical Engineers, ADM-19 – Building Approval Process
 49

Overall Design process

System level design
Design for structural systems
Difficult task which requires
creativity, originality and
experience of the engineer

Member level design

Design for structural members
Routine and time consuming
task which often an iterative
process.
 50

Structural System Design

• A structural system is an assemblage of structural members.
• These members are interconnected to each other to transfer
forces from top to the foundation.

Decision of making a
structural system depends on
1. understanding of the
system level behaviours;
2. limitations of all possible
alternatives; and
3. design requirements.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Skyscraper_structure.png
 51

Factors of Consideration
• Function of the building
• Number of storey / Height of building
• The spans involved
• Special consideration is necessary if there is a requirement for long spans
or large, clear floor areas.
• The vertical loading
• The presence of heavy point loads on floors or the need to accommodate
cranes.
• The horizontal loading
• Attention must be given to the way in which horizontal loading is to be
resisted. This aspect of design is of particular importance for very tall
building.
 52

• The service required

• These include water, electricity and gas and often nowadays significant
computing facilities, and are usually accommodated under the floors.
• In situations where large volume of services are needed (e.g. hospitals),
special forms of flooring permitting easy incorporation of the necessary
pipework and ducting may be necessary.
• The ground condition
• Clearly the type of ground on which the building is to be erected will
dictate the form of foundation that must be used and this in turn must be
taken into consideration when selecting the super-structure.
• The structural performance, practicality and cost.
• Sustainability consideration.
 53

Structural Member Design

• Once a structural system is defined, the detailed design is then
performed on the member level.
• Given the geometric layout of a structural framework, a
structural analysis is then carried out to obtained its structural
responses.
• Depending on the internal force action on each individual
member, a specific size of each member is then estimated and
designed in according with a design standard.

Beam member Beam-column

member
 54

Structural Analysis
• Internal forces and displacements can be obtained via
structural analysis.
1. Classical analytical approach
2. Approximation method
3. Computer simulation (Finite element method / FEM)

Braced frame structure Rigid frame structure

 55

Finite Element Method

ETABS, Computers & Structures, INC (CSI), Structural and Earthquake Engineering Software.
 56

Building Information Modelling (BIM)

• Building Information Modelling (BIM) is the process of
generating three-dimensional, digital representation of building
data throughout its life cycle.
• BIM is an innovative technology for bridging communications
between the architecture, engineering and construction
industries.
 57

REVIT, AUTODESK
 58

Structural Elements
Reinforced Concrete Design Steel Design
• Beams • Tension members
• Slabs • Compression members
• Short columns • Beams
• Walls • Beam-columns
• Footings • Steel connections
• Pilecaps
 59

Limit State Design

• A structural engineer has to design structures that are both
safe and economic.
• It is difficult to assess at the design stage how safe and
economic a proposed design will actually be in practice since
there are too many uncertainties.
• Uncertainties fall roughly into groups:
• Loading;
• Material strength; and
• Structural behaviour.
 60

• Limit state design is a modern approach for structural design

based on the concept of probability.
• It aims to ensure an acceptable probability that a structure will
perform satisfactorily during its design life.
• Two main limit states

Ultimate limit state (ULS)

Ultimate limit states concern the safety of the whole or part of the
structure at ultimate loading conditions.

Serviceability limit state (SLS)

Serviceability limit states correspond to limits beyond which the
whole or part of the structure becomes unserviceable under working
loads.
 61

• It requires that a member be designed such that

(𝛾𝑓 × 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑) ≤ 𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦/𝛾𝑚

where γf and γm reflect the degree of uncertainties in the

various loads and the resistance.

• The above approach is for ULS checking. On the other hands,

SLS checking in principle uses mean values instead of
characteristic values and almost always does not apply partial
factor of safety.
 62

• Characteristic load = magnitude of load that is

Design Load sufficiently larger than the average load so that
only a very low probability it will be exceeded
during the design life.
• Design load = Characteristic Load x γf
 63

Design Capacity • Characteristic strength = value of the strength

of the material that is sufficiently lower than
the mean value so that only a small portion of
the materials in the structure is expected to
fall below it.
• Design strength = Characteristic Strength / γm
 64

Design Standard in HK
Type of Works:
• Civil Engineering Works
• Central Kowloon Route
• Tseung Kwan O–Lam Tin Tunnel
• Buildings Works
• Private Buildings Works (Built on non-Government Land Lots)
• Government Buildings Works (Built on Government Land Lots)
 65

Design Standard in HK
Private Buildings Works:
• Buildings Department / Buildings Authority (Approval &
Consent)
• Following Cap. 123 Buildings Ordinance
• Key personnel: AP (Authorized Persons) / RSE (Registered
Structural Engineers) / RGE (registered Geotechnical Engineers)
/ Registered Contractors (AS / Authorized Signatory)
• Types of works:
1. New Buildings
2. Alteration & Additional Works
3. Minor Works
4. Demolition Works
 66

Design Standard in HK
Design Standards and References:
• Architectural / Buildings Services related
• Structural related
1. Code of Practice for Fire Resisting Construction
2. Code of Practice for Dead and Imposed Loads
3. Code of Practice for Foundations
4. Code of Practice for Structural Use of Concrete
5. Code of Practice for the Structural Use of Steel
6. Code of Practice on Wind Effects in Hong Kong
7. Practice Notes for Authorized Persons, Registered Structural Engineers and
Registered Geotechnical Engineers (PNAP)
8. …
• Safety Related
1. Code of Practice for Site Supervision
2. …

https://www.bd.gov.hk/english/documents/index_crlist.html
LOAD PATH
 68

Load Paths
• Buildings typically consist of (1) vertical structural frameworks
and (2) horizontal floor plans.
• The vertical elements that transfer lateral and gravity loads are the shear
walls and columns.
• The horizontal elements such as floor and roof slabs distribute lateral
forces to the vertical elements acting as horizontal diaphragms.

• Load path is a continuous passageway

that transfers gravity and lateral loads
on a building into the foundation and
then to the supporting soil.
 69

• Loadings primarily originate from gravity loads, lateral loads,

settlement, temperature difference, creep, shrinkage, elastic
shorting, etc.
• Gravity loads are supported by a part of the structure called the
floor system.
• The gravity system in a typical building consists of beams, girders, and
columns.
• Lateral loads are transferred to the ground by following a load
path via a lateral load-resisting system.
• The lateral load transfer path depends on the structural form adopted in
the building.
• To develop an effective structural system, it is important that
the engineer is able to visualise the path the external loads are
transmitted through the structure.
 70

Vertical Force Flow

Frame system

E
Secondary beam
E F

A B Primary beam
A F B
 71

Vertical force flows for various structural systems:

Core wall

Transfer plate
 72

Hanger

Transfer slab/beam
 73

Diaphragm Action
• To form a lateral load-resisting system, the vertical elements
are typically connected by floor and roof planes often referred
to as diaphragms.
• The lateral load can be distributed to shear walls or frames via
in-plane stress.
 74

Horizontal Force Flow

p = 2 kPa
75
 76

Framed tube Tube-in-tube

Outrigger
 77

Load Paths – Gravity Load

Girder Girder Girder

Beam Beam Beam

Column Column Column

1 2 3

Load path:
Slabs > beams > columns Girder Girder
Beam Beam
> foundation

Column Column
5 4
 78

Load Paths – Lateral Load

Diaphragm Diaphragm

Beam Beam

1 Column 2 Column

Diaphragm

Load path:
Diaphragm (slab) > columns >
foundation Beam

3 Column
 79

Load Paths 2 – Lateral Load

Diaphragm Diaphragm

Beam Beam
Brace Brace

1 Column 2 Column

Diaphragm Diaphragm

Beam Beam
Brace Brace

4 Column 3 Column
80
81

i-th storey
82
 83

References
• Bryan Stafford Smith, Alex Coull (1991). Tall Building Structures: Analysis and Design. John
Wiley & Soons, Inc.
• Bungale S. Taranath (2004). Wind and Earthquake Resistant Buildings: Structural Analysis and
Design. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
• Bungale S. Taranath (2010). Reinforced Concrete Design of Tall Buildings. CRC Press, Taylor &
Francis Group.
• Bungale S. Taranath (2012). Structural Analysis and Design of Tall Buildings, Steel and
Composite Construction. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
• Lin, T.Y. and Stotesbury Sidney D. (1981). Structural Concepts and Systems for Architects and
Engineering, 2nd ed. Van Nostrand Reinhold.
• Mark Sarkisian (2012). Designing Tall Buildings, Structure as Architecture. Routledge, Taylor &
Francis Group.
• Mehmet Halis Günel and Hüseyin Emre Ilgin (2014). Tall Buildings Structural Systems and
Aerodynamic Form. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
• Dave Parker and Antony Wood (2013). The Tall Buildings Reference Book. Routledge, Taylor &
Francis Group.