High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

INDEX:

1. Introduction
2. Literature review
3. Problems in construction of high-rise buildings
4. Types of structural systems
5. Case study on Burj Khalifa
6. Conclusion
7. References

1. INTRODUCTION

High-rise buildings are basically tall structures whose definition varies

with its height in different jurisdictions. However, according to
Development Control Regulation (D.C.R 2017) of Mumbai, a building is
termed as high-rise building when its height is above 24m. With
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

technological advancements, growing population and scarcity of lands, etc.

application of such buildings has become a necessity in today’s world.

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Types of high-rise buildings:

a. Residential buildings are built all over the world solving housing
problems in many countries.

b. Office buildings are built in many urban areas especially in developed

countries. They make up most of the skyscrapers of an urban fabric.

c. Hotel buildings, especially 3-4-5 starred hotels are generally high-rise

buildings for certain leisure and views.

d. Mixed-use buildings are multi-purpose skyscrapers built to accommodate

both dwelling units and office rooms together in an urban area.

Residential complex at Andheri, Mumbai First Canadian Place, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2.2 Major factors contributing in construction of high-rise buildings:

a. Elevators made the vertical transportation in a tall structure easier and

more comfortable.

b. Building materials like Reinforced concrete and steel frame made

construction of a high-rise building possible with their respective synergic
properties.
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3.0 PROBLEMS in construction of high-rise buildings

3.1 Cost is a major factor. It includes construction, planning, execution

costs which are always higher or more than previously estimated cost.

3.2 Planning permission, often there will be certain rules to comply to

when using a certain amour of space.

3.3 Shadows of such skyscrapers can cast over other buildings and mess
with light levels.

3.4 Materials being Able to take certain strains. Glass needs to be strong
enough not to break on impact of a person falling into it and strong wind
loads at extreme heights.

3.5 With really high buildings the wind and temperature becomes a major
factor, and the building needs to accommodate for the sway and stretch of
the skyscraper.

3.6 The foundations need to be much deeper. About one third of the
height in pile foundations.

3.7 Earthquake or seismic loads must be taken into consideration

especially in seismic zones.

4.0 TYPES OF STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS

4.1 Braced frame structural system:

 Braced frames are cantilevered vertical trusses resisting laterals loads

primarily diagonal members that together with the girders, form the “web”
of the vertical truss, with the columns acting as the “chords”.
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

 Bracing members eliminate bending in beams and columns.

 It is used in steel construction
 This system is suitable for multi-storey building in the low to mid height
range.
 Efficient and economical for enhancing the lateral stiffness and resistance
of rigid frame system.
 This system permits the use of slender members in a building.
 An outstanding advantage of braced frame is that, it can be repetitive up
the height of the building with obvious economy in design and fabrication.
 However, it might obstruct internal planning and the location of doors
and windows. That is why it shall be incorporated internally along with
lines of walls and partitions.

4.2 Rigid frame structural system:

 In rigid frame structure, beams and columns are constructed

monolithically to withstand moments imposed due to loads.
 The lateral stiffness of a rigid frame depends on the bending stiffness of
the columns, girders and connections in-plane
 It is suitable for reinforced concrete buildings.
 It may be used in steel construction as well, but the connections will be
costly.
 One of the advantages of rigid frames is the likelihood of planning and
fitting of windows due to open rectangular arrangement.
 Members of rigid frame system withstand bending moment, shear force,
and axial loads.
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

 20 to 25 storey buildings can be constructed using rigid frame system.

 Advantages of rigid frame include ease of construction, labors can learn
construction skills easily, construct rapidly, and can be designed
economically.
 Maximum beam span is 12.2m and larger span beams would suffer lateral
deflection.
 A disadvantage is that the self-weight is resisted by the action from rigid
frames.
 Finally, Burj Al Khalifa which is the tallest structure in the world is
constructed using rigid frame system.

4.3 Shear wall system:

 It is a continuous vertical wall constructed from reinforced concrete or

masonry wall.
 Shear walls withstand both gravity and lateral loads, and it acts as narrow
deep cantilever beam.
 Commonly, constructed as a core of buildings
 It is highly suitable for bracing tall buildings either reinforced concrete or
steel structure. This because shear walls have substantial in plane
stiffness and strength.
 Shear wall system is appropriate for hotel and residential buildings where
the floor-by floor repetitive planning allows the walls to be vertically
continuous.
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

 It may serve as excellent acoustic and fire insulators between rooms and
apartments.
 shear wall structural system can be economical up to 35 stories building
structure.
 Shear walls need not to be symmetrical in plan, but symmetry is preferred
in order to avoid torsional effects.

4.4 Core and Outrigger structural system:

 Outrigger are rigid horizontal structures designed to improve building

overturning stiffness and strength by connecting the core or spine to
closely spaced outer columns
 The central core contains shear walls or braced frames.
 Outrigger systems functions by tying together two structural systems
(core system and a perimeter system), and render the building to behave
nearly as composite cantilever.
 The outriggers are in form of walls in reinforced concrete building and
trusses in steel structures.
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

 Multilevel outrigger systems can provide up to five times the moment

resistance of a single outrigger system.
 Practically, Outrigger systems used for buildings up to 70 stories.
Nonetheless, it can be used for higher buildings.
 Not only does the outrigger system decline building deformations
resulting from the overturning moments but also greater efficiency is
achieved in resisting forces.

4.5 Flat plate and flat-slab structural system:

 This system consists of slabs (flat or plate) connected to columns

(without the use of beams).
 flat plate is a two-way reinforced concrete framing system utilizing a slab
of uniform thickness, the simplest of structural shapes.
 The 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.
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

 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.

4.6 Coupled wall system:

 This system composed of two or more interconnected shear walls

 Shear walls connected at the floor levels by beam or stiff slabs.
 Stiffness of the whole system is far greater than that of its components.
 The effect of the shear-resistant connecting members is to cause the sets
of walls to behave in their partly as a composite cantilever, bending about
the common centroid axis of the walls.
 The system is suitable for buildings up to 40 storey height.
 Since planer shear walls support loads in their plane only, walls in two
orthogonal directions need to withstand lateral loads in two directions.
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

4.7 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.
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

4.8 Tube structural system:

 This system consists of exterior columns and beams that create rigid
frame, and interior part of the system which is simple frame designed to
support gravity loads.
 The building behaves like equivalent hollow tube.
 It is substantially economic and need half of material required for the
construction of ordinary framed buildings.
 Lateral loads are resisted by various connections, rigid or semi-rigid,
supplemented where necessary by bracing and truss elements.
 It is used for the construction of buildings up to 60 storeys.
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

 Types of tube structure system include framed tube system (fig.9), trussed
tube system (fig.10), bundled tube system (fig.11), and tube in tube
system (fig.12).
 Trussed tube system is formed when external bracing added to make a
structure stiffer. This structure type suitable for building up to 100
storeys.
 Bundled tube system consists of connected tubes and it withstands
massive loads.
 A tube-in-tube system (hull core) is obtained, if the core is placed inside

the tube frame structure

5.0 Case study on BURJ KHALIFA:

5.1 Structural details:

 The world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa took 6 years for its construction
and was inaugurated on 4th January 2010. The structure is 828m tall and
the whole system is a reinforced concrete tower structure.
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

 This was the first attempt in world history to have such a large height for
structures. This reason made the designers to employ one of the best and
latest technology and innovative structural design.
 160 + story tower
 Podium structure adjacent
 Have a six story office adjacent
 A two story pool facility near

5.2 Area details:

 The tower comprises 2,80,000 m2 area. This area is utilized for 700
residential apartments located from 45 to 108 floors. Remaining
spaces is till the 160th floor is occupied by the corporate officers.
The total project cost is estimated to be US$20billion. The tower
construction itself costs $4.2billion.

5.3 The structural elements used and their amount:

 Concrete Used = 250000 cubic meter

 Curtain Walls = 83,600sq.m of glass and 27,900 sq.m of metal
 Steel Rebars Used = 39,000 tones
 Man-Hours = 22million man-hours

5.4 Shape of the tower:

 Adrian Smith is the man behind the structural and the architectural design
of Burj Khalifa. The basic structure is a central hexagon core with three
wings, which is clustered around it.
 While moving up along the tower, one wing at each tier is set back. This
makes decreasing cross section when moving up. The structure consists
of 26 terraces.
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

5.5 Structural system of Burj Khalifa:

 The Burj Khalifa employs a ‘Y’ shaped floor plan. This plan provides
higher performance and provides a full view of the Persian Gulf. The
shape and the upward setbacks help the structure to reduce the wind
forces that is acting on the structure. The shape was finally fixed based on
the series of wind tunnel tests.
 The structural system employed for Burj Khalifa can be called as the
Buttressed Core System. The whole system is constructed by using high
performance concrete wall. Each wing buttresses the other through a
hexagonal central core.
 The central core has a higher resistance towards the torsional resistance.
The structure is more designed for wind force and related effects.
 There are corridor walls that extend from the central core to the end of the
wing. At the end, these walls are thickened by means of hammer walls.
These walls resist the wind shears and moments by acting like the web
and the flanges of the beams.
 There are perimeter columns which are connected to the mechanical
floors. The connection between the perimeter columns and the
mechanical floors is provided by means of outrigger walls. This help to
resists higher wind loads laterally.
 The outrigger depth is three storey heights. There is periodic encounter of
outrigger system through the height of the tower.

5.6 High performance concrete used in building:

 The high-performance concrete used in Burj Khalifa guarantee low

permeability and higher durability. The C80 and C60 cube strength
concrete is used incorporating fly ash, Portland cement, and the local
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

aggregates. A young’s modulus of 43800N/mm2 is said to be granted by

the C80 concrete.
 The largest concrete pumps in the world were used to pump concrete to
height up to 600 m at a single stage. Two numbers of this type of pump
was used.
 As the temperature of the location (Dubai) is very high, there were
chance of cracks due to shrinkage. So, the concrete pouring process was
carried out at night at a cooler temperature. Ice was added to the concrete
mix to facilitate the desired temperature.
 To withstand the excessive pressure caused due to the building weight,
special concrete mixes were employed. Every batch was tested before
placing.

5.7 Foundation of Burj Khalifa

 The superstructure of Burj Khalifa is supported over a large reinforced

concrete raft. This raft is in turn supported by bored reinforced concrete
piles. The raft has a thickness of 3.7m and was constructed in four
separate pours.
 The grade of concrete raft is C50 which was self-consolidating concrete.
The concrete volume used in the raft is 12,500 meter cube. The number
of piles used were 194. The piles were 1.5m in diameter and have a
length of 43m. Each pile has a capacity of 3000 tons.
 The concrete grade used in piles where C60 SCC concrete which were
placed by tremie method. This utilized polymer slurry to carry out the
process. To reduce the detrimental effects of chemicals, cathodic
protection where provided under the raft.
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

6.0 CONCLUSION:

With the advent of growing population and technological advances, need

for more high-rise buildings will become more reasonable. New records
will be made again and again and new architectural masterpieces will
come up.

7.0 References:

https://www.google.com/url?
sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&
ved=2ahUKEwjQpJG34pvdAhXKZCsKHUVHD4YQjRx6BAgBE
AU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rgbstock.com%2Fphoto
%2Fopryg9W%2Fresidential
%2Bskyscrapers&psig=AOvVaw10gJprJwHeOSvwYy_dcT0i&ust
=1535958236505137

https://www.google.com/url?
sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&
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oQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fskysaver.com
%2Fblog%2Ftallest-skyscrapers-north-america
%2F&psig=AOvVaw3OGYe3JRydG4Z4doA8sjEm&ust=1535958
290141969

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-major-problem-faced-and-
presented-to-constructing-skyscrapers-that-non-high-rise-
buildings-do-not-face-in-their-constructions#
 High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta

https://theconstructor.org/structural-engg/high-rise-buildings-
structural-systems/23076/

https://www.google.com/url?
sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&
ved=2ahUKEwjf3Ifd5ZvdAhXJPI8KHVSsCS0QjRx6BAgBEAU
&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.alibaba.com%2Fproduct-detail
%2FDesign-Steel-Frame-Hotel-Building-
Structural_60707868666.html&psig=AOvVaw1bYo4LfSSge1uC9
RV68BEq&ust=1535959618332463

https://theconstructor.org/structures/structural-details-burj-khalifa-
concrete-grade-foundations/20512/
High-rise Buildings Harsh Gupta