Prepared by:

Omar Magdy Nofal

Table of Contents:
1. Historical background about the tall buildings.
2. Lateral Resisting Systems.
3. How to choose the most appropriate system.
4. Conclusion.
5. References
Historical Background:
 In 1885,William LeBaron introduced the steel columns and frames
as modern construction materials.
 LeBaron built 10-stories steel tall building called Home Insurance
building in Chicago.
 The use of steel as a construction materials and the development of
elevator technologies remove the height limitations.
 In 1913, the Woolworth building in Manhattan was the first to reach
60 stories (242 m). This building is still in service till now.
Historical Background (Cont.):
 In the beginning of the twentieth centuries, the large companies
recognized the advertising and publicity advantages of connecting
their names to tall buildings. Chrysler building (77- stories, 319 m)
and Wall Tower Building (66-stories, 290 m) are examples of tall
buildings built in the name of companies.
 After World War II, the need for more space was the drive to build
new tall buildings such as Empire State Building in New York City
(381 m).
 The Table below summarizes examples of the current tall buildings
in the world. The figure below gives pictures of tall buildings.
# Building City Floors Height Year
1 Burj Khalifa Dubai 163 828 m 2010
Makkah Clock Royal Tower
2 Makkah 95 601 m 2012
[Abraj Al Bait]
3 Taipei 101 Taipei 101 509 m 2004
Shanghai World Financial
4 Shanghai 101 492 m 2008
Center
International Commerce
5 Hong Kong 118 484 m 2010
Centre [Union Square]
Petronas Tower 1 [Petronas Kuala
6 88 452 m 1998
Towers] Lumpur
8 Zifeng Tower Nanjing 66 450 m 2010
9 Willis Tower Chicago 108 442 m 1974
10 KK100 Shenzhen 100 442 m 2011
There is a new Tall building under
construction is called the Kingdom
Tower.
It is height almost 1000m which will
break the boundaries and make a new
record in the tall building.
Lateral Resisting Systems:
 Ideally, a structural engineer should choose the most efficient
structural elements to resist gravity and lateral (wind and seismic)
loadings.
 However, ideal design conditions are rarely present. The structural
engineer must accommodate a certain restrictions for the most
efficient design.
 The efficiency of the structural systems is compared via their weight
per unit floor area.
1-Rigid Frames:
 Rigid frames connect the columns and girders via moment-resistant
connections.
 The lateral stiffness of a rigid frame depends on the bending
stiffness of the columns, girders and connections to the frame. A
major advantage of the rigid frame is the open rectangular spaces
which allow grater planning of windows and doors.
 Rigid frames are economical only to 25 stories.
 Rigid frames are ideal for reinforced concrete, because of the
inherent rigidity of the joints.
1-Rigid Frames(cont.):
The deformed shape of the
Frame system shows that the
frame has a high rigidity in
the upper floors where there
is a little deformation more
than the lower floor.

Deformed Shape
2-In Filled Frames:
 The in filled-frame is common in Europe for building up to 30
stories in height.
 The reinforced concrete frame of columns and girders is in-filled by
panels of brickwork, block-work or cast-in-place concrete.
 When subjected to lateral load, the infilled frame acts as a strut
along the compression diagonal to brace the frame.
 The random flow of lateral loads makes the infilled frame difficult
to analyze. In addition, the possible removal of walls by future
tenants may weaken the frame in unpredictable ways.
3-Shear walls:
 The shear walls are primary lateral load resistance.
 Shear walls act as vertical cantilevers, typically around elevator,
stairs and service shafts.
 Shear wall are stiffer than rigid frames and are economical to about
55 stories.
 When shear wall are combined with frames, the wall attract all
lateral loads, so the frames is designed only for gravity.
3-Shear walls(cont.):
The deformed shape of the
Shear Wall system system
shows that the Wall has a
high rigidity in the Lower
floors where there is a
little deformation more
than the Higher floor.

Deformed Shape
4-Shear Wall-frame Structures:
 Wall-frame structure is a combination of shear walls and rigid frames.
 The structure is constrained to adopt a common deflected shape to
both systems through the horizontal rigidity of the girders and slab.
 Combining the two systems in tall buildings:
 The shear walls (flexural deflection) will dominate the lower levels.
 The frames (shear deflection) will dominate the upper levels
 The combination increases the economy of height to the 65 story
range, well above the range of rigid frames or shear walls alone.
4-Shear Wall-frame Structures(Cont.):
5-Shear Wall Frame Interaction With
Haunched Girder:
 The Haunched girder Just enhance the shear wall frame interaction by
better transition of straining action between the shear wall and the frame.
 The Haunched girder system makes a better
distribution of straining action between frame
and shear wall. Hence, drift get decreased and
straining action better distributed.
6-Outrigger-Braced Structures:
 This system consists of a central braced core, which is either a
braced frame or shear walls, plus horizontal cantilever “outrigger”
trusses or girders that connect the core to the outer columns
 When the structure is loaded horizontally, the vertical plane
rotations of the core are restrained by the outriggers through tension
in the windward column and compression in the leeward column.
 The effective structural depth of the building is greatly increased,
thereby augmenting its lateral stiffness and reducing the lateral
deflections and the moments in core
 The outrigger system has been used to 70 stories in height.
6-Outrigger-Braced Structures(Cont.):
6-Outrigger-Braced Structures(Cont.):
 The outrigger makes a better The outrigger
distribution of straining
actions between core and
shear wall or frames.
 The outrigger system also
decreases the total drift of A core inside
the building. the building
 Using another outrigger in
the lower floors will enhance
the distribution of straining
actions
6-Outrigger-Braced Structures(Cont.):
7-Framed-Tube Structures:
 The essence of the framed-tube is the very stiff moment-resistance
frames that form the tube around the perimeter of the building.
 The frames consist of closely spaced columns, typically 1.5 to 3.5m,
tied together by horizontal deep spandrel girders.
 This close spacing must be interrupted at street level with the use of
transfer beams, or like the World Trade Center Building.
 The outer tube carries 100% of the lateral loads, and 75 to 90% of the
gravity loads.
 The remaining gravity load is carried by the small cluster of core
columns (or shear walls).
7-Framed-Tube Structures(Cont.):
 Under lateral loads, the perimeter frames aligned in the direction
perpendicular of loading acts as the flanges.
 The most efficient tube would be a square plan or a circular plan.
 This structure form is suitable for both steel and reinforced concrete,
from heights of 45 to 110 stories.
 This form is the most significant modern development in tall
buildings, although it needs improvement, because the flanges tend
to suffer from shear lag.
 This shear lag is due to the mid-face flange columns being less
stressed than the corner columns.
7-Framed-Tube Structures(Cont.):
Shear Lag Phenomena in Tall Buildings:
Shear Lag Phenomena in Tall Buildings:
 Shear Lag is the phenomena in which the stress
is unbalanced by concentration of stresses on the
edges with respect to the stresses on the other
parts of the stresses flange.
 This shear lag effect reduces the effectiveness of
the box structure by increasing/decreasing the
stress concentration at the web flange junction,
reducing/increasing the axial stresses at the
middle of the frame panels, which accumulates
to increased lateral deflection of structure.
Shear Lag Phenomena in Tall Buildings:
 Shear Lag is very High at the first
floors and get decreased in the upper
floors.
Reducing The Effect of Shear Lag: %
Effect of beam depth on Shear Lag

 There is a lot of ways to decrease the

shear lag in the framed tube system:
 Increase the spandrel beam depth.
depth(cm)
 Increase the spandrel beam width.
Drift(m) Effect of beam depth on Drift
 Decrease the spacing between the tube
columns.
 Increase the tube columns dimensions.

depth(cm)
7-Framed-Tube Structures(Cont.):
8-Tube in Tube Structures:
 A variant of the framed-tube form is the replacement of the inner or core
columns and walls, with another tube.
 The hull (or external tube) and the new core tube act jointly to resist both
gravity and lateral loads.
 This improved form is called a tube-in-tube or a hull-core structure.
 A steel building could provide a core tube made up of braced frames,
whereas a reinforced concrete building would consist of an assembly of
shear walls of the core.
 The outer framed tube and the inner core interact horizontally as the shear
and flexural components of a wall- frame structure.
 It is presumed that this form could push the height to an economical 120
stories.
8-Tube in Tube Structures(Cont.):

Framed Tube System Tube in Tube System

9-Bundeled Tube Structures:
• The difference between the framed tube
system and the bundled tube system is
the using of several interconnected tube
frames.
• The Willis Tower in Chicago used this
design, employing nine tubes of varying
height to achieve its distinct appearance
as shown in the figures.
• The bundled tube system is reducing the
high shear lag by dissipate the high value
of shear lag between several tubes.
9-Bundeled Tube Structures(Cont.):
 The advantage of bundled
tube system:
 Less induced shear lag.
 Higher spacing between
Tube columns.
 Less total drift.
 Less internal columns
which allows more utilized
area which will meet
architecture requirements .
How to choose the most appropriate system:
 Ideally, a structural engineer should choose the most efficient structural
elements to resist gravity and lateral (wind and seismic) loadings.
 However, ideal design conditions are rarely present. The structural
engineer must accommodate the following restrictions to the most efficient
design:
 The architect’s internal planning of spacing.
 The materials selected.
 The architect’s choice of external cladding and decorations.
 The magnitude of the expected horizontal loads.
 The height determined by owner and architectural preferences.
Conclusion:
 The efficiency of the structural systems is compared via their weight
per unit floor area.
 The structure engineer has to do his best to choose the most
appropriate lateral system which meet architecture requirements in
addition less cost and higher resistance for lateral and gravity loads
by making value engineer for the proposed system and compare
between the alternatives.
 We can make composite systems which consists of more than one of
the above systems which allow us to design taller buildings that
could not be designed using one system only.
References:
 Paulino, Madison R., “Preliminary Design of Tall Buildings” a thesis submitted
to the faculty of Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
 Hoogendoorn, P.P., “Lateral Load Design of Tall Buildings” a master submitted
to Delft University of Technology.
 Taranath, Bungale S., “Structure Analysis & Design of tall Buildings”
TH845.T33 1988.
 Leonard, Johan, “Investigation of Shear Lag Effect in High-rise Buildings with
Diagrid System” Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2007.
 L.A. Prieto, Portar, “Structural Forms for Tall Buildings” Florida International
Univeristy 2007.