Lateral load resisting structural systems for high-rise buildings

Hira

esign of High-rise Structures - State-of-the-Art

LATERAL LOAD RESISTING

STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS FOR HIGHRISE BUILDINGS - PART A
Anil Hira

SUMMARY
The significance of lateral loading increases with increasing height, in terms of
serviceability, strength and stability limit states. Although for normal buildings the
structural system is generally governed by non-structural factors, for the taller and
more slender buildings the structural form becomes increasingly important. This
necessitates the structural engineer to choose the appropriate structural form at a very
early stage of the design development and to have a greater interaction with the other
disciplines.
For the very tall buildings the structural engineer will work closely with the architect
form the initial conceptual stage. Often the structural aspects will dictate the
Architectural form of the building.
This lecture will introduce the basic lateral load resisting structural systems and some
basic guidelines on the structural efficiency of each system.

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1.

INTRODUCTION

The action comprises of transferring the lateral

shear (sum of the lateral forces imposed on the
structure above the storey that is being
considered) and the overturning moment (sum
of the product of lateral forces above the storey
being considered times the distance to load
from the storey being considered).

In the previous lectures it has been noted that

the vertical load effects essentially increase
linearly with building height however the
effects due to lateral loads increase more
rapidly with increasing building height. It has
been shown in simplistic terms assuming an
idealistic uniform structural system up the
height of the building, the following
relationships hold:

The basic structural systems to transfer the

lateral loads from one level to the next can be
broken into four basic systems. They are:

The base overturning moment (M)

MH 2

(1)

Deflection at the top of building ()

H 4

(2)

By considering the above it is clear that the

deflections and to a lesser extent strength
increases rapidly with height suggesting the
importance of overall stiffness. Providing
adequate stiffness forms the primary
objective in determining the structural form
of high-rise buildings.
2.

Flexural cantilever (see Figure 2) The

lateral load is resisted by cantilever action,
via flexural action (bending) of the vertical
elements, which can be columns or wall
elements. The relative deflection of the
storey will be dependent on the EI value of
the element. Conversely the load attracted
by the vertical element will depend on the
flexural stiffness. ie

EI
L

(3)

Assuming that the vertical elements

between a floor are the same material the
load resisted by each of the elements will
be proportional to the I value.

BASIC STRUCTURAL SYSTEM

TO RESIST LATERAL LOADS.

Before discussing LLRSS for buildings it is

important to have a clear understanding of the
basic structural systems to transfer lateral loads
acting on a building to the foundation. The
simple approach is to determine the ways of
transferring the actions due to lateral loads
from one storey to the storey below as
illustrated in Figure 1.

F10

F9

TYPICAL STOREY

F8

V6 =

F7

10
x =6

Fx

M =

10
i =6

Fi h6 i

F6
F5
h6 = dist. from floor 6 to
floor i

F4
F3

Level 6
Level 5

SCHEMATIC 10
STOREY
BUILDING

F2
F1

M = Fh
V=F

WIND OR EQ
LOAD

Figure 1 . Concept of transferring lateral

loads.

Figure 2 Cantilever

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In typical high-rise buildings, wall

elements fall in this category where the
lateral deflection is primarily due to
flexural deformation.

Shear action Similar to cantilever

elements except the lateral load is resisted
by cantilever action via shear deformation.
The relative deflection of the storey is
primarily dependent on the EA value of
the element.
Squat reinforced concrete walls, where the
length of the wall is relatively large
compared with the height of the wall.

Figure 4 Frame action

Braced action (see Figure 5) The lateral

load is transferred by direct axial tension
and compression by triangulated member
arrangement. A greater stiffness is
associated with this system compared with
the others in terms of mass of material to
achieve the stiffness. It is by far the most
efficient system as all the stiffness is
provided by axial stiffness.
Although very efficient it has one big
drawback as it imposes many constraints
on the architectural planning and in many
cases is not practical.

V
M

M = Fh
V=F
Figure 3 Frame action

Frame action (see Figure 4). This

system consists of columns and beams
connected rigidly. The lateral load
resistance is provided by the flexural
resistance is provided by the flexural
resistance of the columns, beams and the
joints. Buy considering the actions in
Figure 4, lateral stiffness will also be
dependent on the axial stiffness of the
vertical elements.
Such a system has the advantage in highrise construction due to maximum
flexibility in architectural planning, as the
frames can be located along the perimeter
or internally with minimal interference
with space.

Figure 5 Braced action

The basic structural systems given above to
transfer lateral load from one level to the level
below can be extended vertically and
horizontally with the objective to transfer the
lateral loads down to the ground.

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3.

RIGID FRAMES

A typical frame subjected to lateral loads is

illustrated in Figure 6. The size of members in
a moment resisting frame, subjected to lateral
loads, is often controlled by stiffness rather
than strength to control to control the
deflection, especially with frames of increasing
height.

b) Frame racking due to beam flexure (5060%)

c) Frame racking due to column flexure (1520%)
The maximum height for an efficient rigid
frame system is approximately 30 stories after
which the required beam stiffness and column
stiffness to limit the deflection due to shear
racking starts becoming excessive.

Figure 6 Frames subjected to lateral loads.

The lateral stiffness of the frame is made up of
two components

Cantilever moment
Shear racking

The components can be explained by

considering a prismatic cantilever beam where
the deflection is made up of two components:
bending deflection and shear deflection. For
typical cantilevers with span to depth ratio is
greater than 10, bending deflections is the
predominant component and shear deflections
are small and often ignored. The deflection
characteristic of a rigid frame on the other
hand is just the opposite where the shear
deflection of the frame (shear racking) can
amount to as much as 80% of the total and the
remaining 20% is attributed to flexural
deflection. (Cantilever moment)
The two components of the frame behaviour
are illustrated in Figure 7.
By noting the behaviour of the frame it can be
seen that the total stiffness (lateral load
deflection at the top of the building) is
dependent on
a)

Axial deformation of the column (15-20%)

Figure 7 Cantilever moment and shear

racking.
4.

BRACED FRAMES

A braced frame attempts to improve upon the

efficiency of a rigid frame by virtually
eliminating the bending of columns and beams.
This is achieved by adding diagonals to the
frame and hence triangulating the frame and
therefore allowing the applied horizontal forces
to be resisted by direct axial forces. The
stiffness of the braced frames therefore is
directly related to the axial stiffness of the
diagonals and column.
Similar to the rigid frames the stiffness of the
braced frame can be broken into the two
components.

Flexural deformation due to the axial

extension and shortening of the columns
and,
Shear deformation due to the axial
deformation of the chord members.

The above deformations are illustrated in

Figure 8

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Figure 8- Braced frame deformations (a)

flexural deformations (b) shear
deformations (c) combined configuration.
The bracing system is not just restricted to
cross bracing. Other forms of bracing are
illustrated in Figure 9. It can be seen by
considering Figure 10 that some of the
configurations will attract gravity loading into
the diagonals elements whereas for some
configurations the diagonals only attract lateral
loads.

Figure 9 Bracing types

a. single diagonal bracing
b. X bracing
c. Chevron bracing
d. Single diagonal (alternate
direction)
e. Knee diagonal

Figure 10 Gravity load paths in bracing

frames.
5.

STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS FOR

BUILDINGS

The structural system for buildings will

comprise of one of the systems or more likely a
combination of the systems discussed in this
lecture. There are many factors that will dictate
the likely system. Some of the factors include

Height of the building

Magnitude of the design wind loads
Magnitude of the seismic load
Architectural considerations
Limitation on size of the members
Ductility of the frame.
Material availability
Specialised labour availability.

Are just a few of the main parameters. The

following sections will discuss some of the
commonly adopted structural systems in highrise building design.
In tall building design it is important to
recognise the importance of the interrelationships between the many disciplines that
participate to develop that final solution. The
crucial conceptual stage of the design process
is often very short in duration. The distinctive
features of tall building design at conceptual
stage are:
close communication required with other
disciplines, in particular the clients and
Architect.

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 structural system is based on minimum

information and therefore significant
engineering judgement is required.
short time duration during concept stage
often precludes the luxury of carrying out
complex analysis etc.
once the structural system is selected there
is virtual impossibility of altering the
system.
Regardless of all the factors that dictate the
structural system it is fundamental that the
select system satisfies all the structural criteria
outlined earlier.
The following sections will outline a guide on
the common types of structural system adopted
and its optimum structural efficiency in terms
of building height. Each of the systems is
essentially a combination of the basic lateral
load systems outlined in the previous sections.

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