Shanghai World Financial Center

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Tall Building Stuctures Technical Report Pere Pau Garau, ID:1237102

Shanghai World Financial Center


This is an extraordinary building, one that will attract the eye of all in Shanghai. Making use of
a composite, steel and concrete mega-structure, the structural system is organized to respond
to the beauty of the architecture while meeting extraordinary engineering challenges. While
no two floors are identical, considerable repetition is found in the concrete walls and steel
framing.

The new structural system

In order to decrease the weight of the building, the majority of


that decrease had to be found in a reduction of the thickness of
the concrete shear walls of the services core. This reduction
could be achieved only by decreasing the wind- and earthquake-
induced lateral forces resisted by those walls. That decrease
could be found only by increasing the stiffness of the lateral
force resisting system of the perimeter wall. To achieve this,
LERA resurrected its 1995 design: a diagonal-braced frame with
added outrigger trusses. Further, by making use of outrigger
trusses coupled to the columns of the mega-structure, an
additional reduction was realized.
Tall Building Stuctures Technical Report Pere Pau Garau, ID:1237102

The Mega-Structure

The Mega-Structure concept is shown in Figures (both Figures omit intermediate floors). To
resist the forces from typhoon (hurricane) winds and earthquakes, three parallel and
interacting structural systems were incorporated:

1) The mega-structure, consisting of the major structural columns, the major diagonals,
and the belt trusses.
2) The concrete walls of the services core.
3) The interaction between the concrete walls of the services core and the mega-columns,
as created by the outrigger trusses.

Seeking to improve the quality of the office spaces, on each of the four orthogonal faces, the
new structural system decreases the perimeter framing from seventeen wide columns to just
three narrow columns. Hence, building occupants will be provided an extraordinary sense of
openness and unparalleled views of the surrounding city of Shanghai.

By adjusting the stiffness of the perimeter mega-structure and the outrigger trusses, both the
shears and the overturning moments resisted by the concrete walls of the services core can be
either increased or decreased. In this way, the weight of the services core is subject to control
by the structural engineer. The design both controlled the thickness of the services core
concrete walls and optimized the design of the outrigger trusses.
Tall Building Stuctures Technical Report Pere Pau Garau, ID:1237102

The diagonals of the Mega-Structure

Turning more to the engineering detail, the diagonals of the mega-structure are formed of
welded boxes of structural steel. These steel boxes are in-filled with concrete, thus providing
increased stiffness, non-linear structural behavior, and structural damping. As well, in the
upper reaches of the building and enhanced with stud shear connectors, the concrete is used
to stabilize against buckling the thin steel plates of the diagonals.

The columns of the Mega-Structure

The columns of the mega-structure are of mixed structural


steel and reinforced concrete. At the connection of the mega-
diagonals to the columns, the steel column must be of a size
capable of fully transferring the vertical component of the load
in the diagonals to the composite columns. Above and below
this connection, the size of the steel column is reduced. Away
from the area where the column transfers load to the
surrounding concrete, the steel column only needs to be
strong enough to carry the construction load of the steelwork
above.

Concluding thoughts

Recognizing that there are two basic materials (reinforced concrete and structural steel),
adding considerations of the speed of construction, and recognizing that structural detail is
perhaps more important than are structural quantities, the optimization of this structure relies
in part on experience and in part on judgment. The determination of the proper distributions
of lateral shear and overturning moment between these three parallel systems, then, is not
subject to precise analysis.

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