Load distribution to lateral Load resisting structural

Systems for tall buildings

LOAD DISTRIBUTION TO LATERAL

LOAD RESISTING STRUCTURAL
SYSTEMS FOR TALL BUILDINGS
Priyan Mendis, Anil Hira

SUMMARY

In the previous lectures the significance of lateral loads in design of tall buildings has been
emphasised. During the conceptual design phase it is imperative that the structural engineer has a
feel for how the lateral loads are distributed throughout the structure. Although advance three-
dimensional software is now readily available which can easily provide the relevant answers, its
accuracy and relevance is very much dependent on the accuracy of the model, which includes
member configuration and the member properties. However such information is the primary
objective of the conceptual design suggesting that the time and effort required to evolve a
conceptual design using advance software may be ineffective.

Regardless of the effectiveness of advanced software it is essential that engineers appreciate how
the lateral loads are proportioned to the relevant lateral load resisting elements. In previous
lectures the types of lateral load resisting structural systems have been discussed. In a typical
building the overall LLRSS typically comprises of many individual LRRSS. This lecture outlines
approximate method to determine how the overall lateral load is proportioned to the individual
lateral load resisting elements.

1. INTRODUCTION

With the advent of powerful and readily available computer hardware and more importantly
powerful and user friendly analysis software, much of the preliminary analysis work is carried
out on the computer. As a consequence manual computations are becoming rare although it is
imperative that the designer is conversant with the manual methodologies. Advance three-
Load distribution to lateral Load resisting structural
Systems for tall buildings

dimensional analysis during conceptual stage of the design can be impractical and even be seen
as a disadvantage. Reasons include:

The accuracy of the analysis is very much dependent on the input parameters namely the
member configuration, and their corresponding section material properties. At conceptual stage
these are the very parameters one is attempting to determine.
Requires significant time to formulate the model, and more significantly, limits flexibility in
carrying out effective parametric studies to evolve an efficient and novel structural system.
There is a tendency that with use of more sophisticated software the focus at conceptual stage
may shift away from the creative aspects investigating a range of options to a more narrow range
of solutions.
At conceptual stage the evolution of a solution is a multi-disciplinary effort where decisions
and outcomes are based on a collective effort within a short time frame. Decisions on conceptual
structural system have to be made based on manual methods and/or simple computer application.

2. 2-D VERSUS 3-D ANALYSIS

Two-dimensional analysis is an important stepping stone to a more detailed final analysis due to
many factors, infact for many tall buildings; a simple two-dimensional analysis is adequate for
the final design. The reasons include
Software for 2-D is more readily available, however this argument is diminishing rapidly with
time.
The results of a 2-D analysis are a lot easier to interpret for the designer.
Parametric studies are easier to operate on 2-D analysis compared with 3-D analysis.
2-D analysis is considerably quicker involving a lot less data.
For symmetrical buildings 3-D analysis is not justifiable.
Load distribution to lateral Load resisting structural
Systems for tall buildings

Figure 1: 2-Dimensional model and 3-D dimensional model

3. LATERAL LOADS

In future lectures the derivation of lateral loads due to wind and earthquake will be outlined. The
magnitude of the wind loads will be based on either static methods, typical for shorter buildings
or dynamic methods for the more taller buildings where dynamic effects prevail. For the latter
the derived loads are expressed in terms of base overturning moment. The magnitude of the
seismic load in contrast is expressed by the base shear.

For both load types, the method of distributing the load up the height of a building to achieve the
corresponding base overturning moment or the base shear will be outlined in the Wind and
Earthquake Lectures.

Wind and earthquake loads are naturally occurring loads and thus have the capabilities to
impose loads from any random direction. To simplify the procedure structural engineers
adopt the guidelines provided by both the wind and earthquake codes to design for any set
of orthogonal direction, ie four directions at 90o intervals.
Load distribution to lateral Load resisting structural
Systems for tall buildings

Figure 2: Orthogonal set of loads

The set of orthogonal directions should be selected based on factors such as building grid,
building orientation, compass directions, lateral load resisting structural system. Although there
are no set rules for the selection of the directions it should be based on convenience and
simplicity. (Refer to diagrams in Figure 2) For subsequent analysis of the structure, to determine
the actions in the individual elements making up a building structure it is imperative that the
loads are imposed correctly in terms of magnitude and just as important its location.

3.1 Wind Forces

Wind loads on a building are generated via pressures acting on the building surface (façade).
Typical characteristics of wind pressures for rectangular buildings are illustrated in Figure 3.
With reference to Figure 3 wind force at each level can be calculated. For different shape
buildings different wind coefficients apply. The important fact to recognise is that all wind forces
result from air pressure hence act normal to the building face. The resultant force on each surface
acts at the centroid of the surface.
Load distribution to lateral Load resisting structural
Systems for tall buildings

Figure 3: Wind Load locations

3.2 Earthquake Forces

The location of the storey load due to earthquakes is not so obvious. Earthquake forces are
generated by presence of inertial mass and its acceleration. Since most of the building mass is at
storey levels, in a similar fashion to treatment of wind forces seismic forces are imposed at
storey levels. The point of application for the lateral force is at the centroid of the mass for the
corresponding storey which is not necessarily the centre of the building. Due to the uncertainties
associated with mass the earthquake code forces the designer to design for a range of locations in
the form of specifying accidental eccentricities. Refer to Figure 4.
Load distribution to lateral Load resisting structural
Systems for tall buildings

Figure 4: Location of earthquake forces

4. PRIMARY STRUCTURAL OBJECTIVES AT CONCEPTUAL STAGE

The primary objectives in deriving a suitable lateral load resisting structural system in high-rise
building design are:
 The structural system must have sufficient stiffness such that the lateral deflection at the
top of the building and the inter-storey deflections are within acceptable limits.
 The position of the lateral load resisting elements shall be located such that the resulting
rotations are minimised. Excessive rotations are highly undesirable in tall building design
as it results in high local deflections and unfavourable dynamic behaviour. It is highly
desirable to match the centre of stiffness to centre of load.
 Symmetrical buildings are encouraged to minimise torsional behaviour. Asymmetrical
buildings will generally promote applied torsion.
Load distribution to lateral Load resisting structural
Systems for tall buildings

Figure 5: Torsion in Tall buildings caused by (a) Eccentricity between applied loads and centre
of stiffness. (b) Applied torsion

5. Distribution of lateral loads to individual elements for 2-D analysis

To carry out 2-D analysis for a three-dimensional building, there are essentially two basic steps.
They are:
The first task is to identify the structural elements/system that resists the lateral loads acting
along the selected orthogonal directions.
The second task is to allocate a lateral load to each of the load resisting elements depending on
the relative stiffness of each element.

This approach is reasonable for short buildings and/or buildings where all the lateral load
resisting elements fall in the same category of basic action to resist lateral loads and the relative
stiffness between each element is constant for the height of the building. (i.e. Cantilever
action, Frame action, Brace action or Shear action.).
Load distribution to lateral Load resisting structural
Systems for tall buildings

To illustrate the above lets consider a hotel type structure where the primary lateral load resisting
elements consist of a series of wall elements acting as cantilevers and are positioned at select
locations. The following assumptions are made, which typically applies to most high-rise
applications:
 The slab acts as a rigid diaphragm, which prevents the wall elements to move relative to
each other during lateral displacement of the building.
 The slab does not offer any framing action.
 The flexural resistance of the wall when bending about the weak axis is small and is
ignored in the lateral analysis.

Figure 5: Hotel Structure – Distribution of lateral load

The objective is to determine what portion of the storey lateral load is resisted by each of the
elements for the orthogonal direction. The following steps apply:
Load distribution to lateral Load resisting structural
Systems for tall buildings

Determine the location of the force. For seismic loading it is the centre of mass of the building
and for wind it is the resultant reaction of the façade loadings for the select wind direction.

 For each wall element stiffness is proportion to “I” of the element

 Select a convenient origin
 Determine the location of centre of stiffness

where
Xj = X coordinate of the centre of element j (random origin)
Yj = X coordinate of the centre of element j (random origin)
KXXj = stiffness of element j about XX axis
KYYj = stiffness of element j about XX axis

 Designate the centre of stiffness as the origin of the new x,y axis system.
 The x and y eccentricities of the applied loads is given by ex and ey
 The force attracted by each element for the x direction and y direction can be broken into
two components one due to the respective translational force and one due to the applied moment
due to the eccentricity ie:

Due to x direction force

Load distribution to lateral Load resisting structural
Systems for tall buildings

The first component is force attracted by the element due to the translational component of
storey force (Vx) and the second component is force attracted by the element due to the moment
caused by the eccentricity

Similarly due to y direction force

The solution of the numerical values will be given in the tutorial..