Professional Documents
Culture Documents
org/papers
Subjects: Architectural/Design
Building Case Study
Structural Engineering
Keywords: Construction
Design Process
Form
Foundation
Performance Based Design
Structure
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat / Chris Carroll; Craig Gibbons; Goman Wai-Ming Ho; Michael
Kwok; Paul Cross; Xiaonian Duan; Alexis Lee; Ronald Li; Andrew Luong; Rory McGowan; Chas Pope
Case Study: CCTV Building - Headquarters & Cultural Center
Authors
Chris Carroll, Paul Cross, Xiaonian Duan, Craig
Gibbons, Goman Ho, Michael Kwok, Richard
Lawson, Alexis Lee, Ronald Li, Andrew Luong,
Rory McGowan, Chas Pope
Arup
environmental conditions, in particular wind and Design Institute (ECADI) to act as the essential
local design institute (LDI) for both architecture
caused by these movements. District (CBD), but not necessarily in one build-
ing. In their architectural response, however, Development of the structural form two-storey module (see Figure 2). This was
OMA decided that by doing just this, it should From the outset, it was determined that the chosen to coincide with the location of several
be possible to break down the ghettoes that only way to deliver the desired architectural double-height studios within the Towers. A
tend to form in a complex and compartmen- form of the CCTV building was to engage the stiff floor plate diaphragm is therefore only
talized process like making TV programmes, entire faade structure, creating in essence an guaranteed on alternate storeys, hence lateral
and create a building whose layout in three external continuous tube system. This would loads from intermediate levels are transferred
dimensions would force all those involved to give the structure the largest available dimen- back to the principal diaphragm levels via the
mix and produce a better end-product more sions to resist the huge bending forces gener- internal core and the columns.
efficiently. ated by the cranked, leaning form as well as
loads from wind and extreme earthquakes.
However, results of the preliminary analysis
The winning design for the 473,000m, showed that the forces in the braces varied
234m tall, CCTV building (see Figure 1) thus The tube is formed by fully bracing all sides of considerably around the structure, with
combines administration and offices, news the faade. The planes of bracing are continu- particular concentrations near the roof of the
and broadcasting, programme production ous through the building volume in order to Overhang and at the connection to the Base.
and services the entire TV-making process reinforce and stiffen the corners. The system This led to an optimization process in which
in a single loop of interconnected activities is ideally suited to deal with the nature and the brace pattern was modified by adding or
around the four elements of the building: the intensity of permanent and temporary loading removing diagonals (i.e. doubling or halving
nine-storey Base, the two leaning Towers that on the building, and is a versatile, efficient the pattern), depending on the strength and
slope at 6 in each direction, and the nine to structure which can bridge in bending and stiffness requirements of the design, based on
13-storey Overhang, suspended 36 storeys in torsion between the Towers, provide enough a Level 1 earthquake analysis. This also enabled
the air. strength and stiffness in the Towers to deliver a degree of standardization of the brace ele-
loads to the ground, and stiffen up the Base ment section sizes (see Figure 3).
to reinforce the lower Tower levels and deliver
The public facilities are in a second building, loads to the foundations in the most favour-
the Television Cultural Centre (TVCC), and both able possible distribution, given the geometry. This was an extremely iterative process due
are serviced from a third Service Building that to the high indeterminacy of the structure,
houses major plant as well as security. The with each changing of the pattern altering the
whole development will provide 599,000m The tube was originally envisaged as a regular dynamic behaviour of the structure and hence
gross floor area and covers 187,000m, includ- pattern of perimeter steel or steel-reinforced the seismic forces that are attracted by each
ing a landscaped media park with external concrete (SRC) columns, perimeter beams, element. It was carried out in close
features. and diagonal steel braces set out on a typically
paths are heavily influenced by stiffness, each Inelastic deformation acceptance limits for the tory analysis method were used to determine
small change in element property moves load key structural brace members in the con- the seismic deformation demands in terms of
around locally. Optimizing the elements only tinuous tube were determined by non-linear the maximum inelastic inter-storey drifts and
for capacity would result in the entire load numerical simulation of the post-buckling be- the maximum inelastic member deformation.
gradually being attracted to the inside corner haviour. LS-DYNA, commonly used to simulate These deformation demands were compared
columns, making them prohibitively large, so car crash behaviour, was used for this work. against the structures deformation capacities
careful control had to be made of when an The braces are critical to both the lateral as storey-by-storey and member-by-member to
elements section size could be reduced and well as the gravity systems of the building and verify the seismic performance of the entire
when there was a minimum size required to are also the primary sources of ductility and building. All global and local seismic deforma-
maintain the stiffness of the tube at the back seismic energy dissipation. Non-linear numeri- tion demands were shown to be within their
face. cal simulation of the braces was needed to respective acceptance limits.
establish the post-buckling axial force/axial de-
formation degradation relationship to be used
To further validate the multi-directional modal in the global 3-D non-linear simulation model. Foundation design
response spectrum analyses, Level 1 time- It was also used to determine the inelastic de- The design of the foundations required that
history checks were also made using real and formation (axial shortening) acceptance limit the applied superstructure loads be redistribut-
artificially-generated seismic records. in relation to the stated performance criteria. ed across the raft so as to engage enough piles
Post-buckling inelastic degradation relation- to provide adequate strength and stiffness. To
ship curves illustrate the strength degradation validate the load spread to the pile group, an
Non-linear superstructure seismic design iterative analysis process was used adopting a
as the axial shortening increases under cyclic
For the performance-based design, a set of non-linear soil model coupled with a discrete
axial displacement time history loading. The
project-specific design rules were proposed by model of the piled raft system (see Figure 4).
acceptable inelastic deformation was then
the design team and reviewed and approved Several hundred directional load case com-
determined from the strength degradation
by the expert panel, for example allowable binations were automated in a spreadsheet
backbone curve to ensure that there was suf-
post-yield strains in each type of element. controlling the GSRaft soil-structure interaction
ficient residual strength to support the gravity
Appropriate linear and non-linear seismic solver.
loads after a severe earthquake event.
response simulation methods were selected
to verify the performance of the building
under all three levels of design earthquake. Having established the inelastic global The analysis iteratively modelled the redistri-
Seismic force and deformation demands were structure and local member deformation bution of load between piles when their safe
compared with the acceptance limits estab- acceptance limits, the next step was to carry working load was reached. The analysis was
lished earlier to rigorously demonstrate that all out non-linear numerical seismic response repeated for each load case until the results
three qualitative performance objectives were simulation of the entire 3-D building subjected converged and all piles were within the allow-
achieved. to Level 2 and Level 3 design earthquakes. able capacities. Finally, the envelope of these
Both the non-linear static pushover analysis analyses was then used to design the raft
method and the non-linear dynamic time his- reinforcement.
Connection Design before the braces buckle or yield - assuming columns, spanning between the internal
The force from the braces and edge-beams the maximum probable material properties - core and the external tube structure. They
must be transferred through and into the to evaluate the stress magnitude and degree are typically two storeys deep and located in
column sections with minimal disruption to of stress concentration in the joints. The shape plant floors so as to be hidden from view and
the stresses already present in the column. The of the butterfly plate was then adjusted by to minimize the impact on floor planning. The
connection is formed by replacing the flanges smoothing out corners and notches until po- sizes of the transfer trusses mean that they
of the steel column with large butterfly plates, tential regions of yielding were minimized and could potentially act as outriggers linking
which pass through the face of the column the degree of stress concentration reduced to the external tube to the internal steel cores -
and then connect with the braces and the levels typically permitted in civil and me- undesirable as this would introduce seismic
edge-beams. No connection is made to the chanical engineering practice. CAD files of the forces into the relatively slender internal cores.
web of the column to simplify the detailing resulting geometry of the joints were exported The transfer trusses are thus connected to the
and construction. from the finite element models and used for internal cores and the external columns at
further drawing production. singular pin-joint locations only.
Construction sequencing the lower part of the Overhang at ground level sis and is one of Chinas foremost universities.
The final stresses in the building are linked and strand jack the assembly into position; The independent site supervisor was Yuanda
to its construction sequence. In addition to and constructing incremental cantilevers from International.
regular gravity and lateral forces acting on the each Tower until the two met and connected
structure, there are significant additional con- at the centre of the Overhang (see Figure 8).
struction stage forces due to the fact that the The latter approach was as described in Arups Excavation and foundations
building comprises two separate leaning Tow- documentation, though any construction The ground-breaking ceremony took place
ers with cantilever up until the point at which approach was deemed acceptable provided it on 22 September 2004, and the excavation of
they are joined to become one structure. The could satisfy the locked-in stress limits defined 870 000m3 of earth began the following
additional bending and overturning stresses in the Particular Specification. month under an advance contract. Strict
that get locked into the Towers and founda- construction regulations in Beijing meant
tions prior to joining depend on the amount that spoil could only be removed at night:
of structure and faade completed at the time China State Construction Engineering Corpo- nonetheless, up to 12 000m3 of soil was re-
of connection. ration (CSCEC) was awarded the main contract moved each day, the entire excavation taking
in April 2005. CSCEC tendered on this third 190 days. Dewatering wells were also installed,
approach. since the groundwater level was above the
In essence, the greater the construction load maximum excavation depth of 27.4m below
applied to the building prior to connecting existing ground level.
the two Towers, the more this would manifest Construction team
itself as increased locked-in base moments in CSCEC, a state-owned enterprise under the
the Towers. After the connection was made, administration of the central government, The two Towers are supported on separate
any added weight would result in a thrust was established in 1982 and is Chinas largest piled raft foundations with up to 370 rein-
between the two Towers via the Overhang. construction and engineering group. CSCEC forced concrete bored piles beneath each,
now enjoys an international reputation, having typically 33m long and up to 1.2m in diameter.
completed an increasing number of projects In total, 1242 piles were installed during the
As part of the Particular Specification, the abroad including the Middle East, South spring and summer of 2005.
Construction Sequence report defined an America and Africa. The steelwork fabricators
upper and lower bound range of permissible were Grand Tower, part of the Bao Steel group
locked-in stress, allowing the contractor some based in Shanghai (Chinas largest steel manu- The Tower rafts were constructed over Christ-
flexibility in choosing his final construction facturer), and Jiangsu Huning Steel, based in mas 2005. The 7m thick reinforced concrete
sequence. Jixing, Jiangsu Province. slabs each contain up to 39 000m of concrete
and 5000 tonnes of reinforcement. Each raft
was constructed in a single continuous pour
A number of construction methods were Other members of the team were Turner Con- lasting up to 54 hours. At one stage, 720m3
proposed for the Overhang. These included struction (USA), providing support to CSCEC of concrete was being delivered every hour,
constructing of a temporary tower the full on construction logistics, China Academy of using a relay of 160 concrete trucks from three
162m height to the underside of the Over- Building Research (CABR), one of the major suppliers. Chilled water pipes were embed-
hang, providing a working platform to build design institutes in Beijing, and Tsinghua Uni- ded inside the pour and temperatures were
the Overhang connection in situ; constructing versity, which carried out the presetting analy- monitored for more than two weeks to ensure
that the concrete did not experience too high The elements were lifted into place by two being lifted a short distance off the ground,
a temperature gradient during curing. The two tower cranes working inside each Tower, using a chain block. This simplified the erec-
rafts, poured within days of each other, were including M1280D cranes imported from tion process at height.
the largest single continuous concrete pours Australia the largest ever used in Chinas
ever undertaken by Chinas building industry. building industry.
In total, 133 343m of concrete went into the The vertical core structure was generally
foundations of the Towers and podium. erected three storeys ahead of the perimeter
Each crane not only had to be raised up to frame. This meant that the perimeter columns
14 times during construction, but also skewed could be initially bolted in place and braced to
The seismic analysis indicated that some col- sideways up to four times when it reached the core columns with temporary stays, then
umns and their foundation piles could experi- the upper levels, to maintain position relative released from the tower crane before final
ence tension during a severe design earth- to the edges of the progressively shifting surveying and positioning. The welders could
quake. Some of the perimeter columns and floorplate. then start the full-penetration butt welds re-
their baseplates were therefore embedded 6m quired at every connection: a time-consuming
into the rafts to enhance their anchorage (see task requiring shift work to achieve a continu-
Figure 9). Certain piles were also designed for Due to the 6 slope of the Towers, the perim- ous 24-hour process.
tension. eter elements needed to be adjusted to ap-
proximately the correct installation angle after
The maximum plate thickness of the columns
Steelwork construction is 110mm and the volume of weld sometimes
The first column element was placed on reaches as much as 15% of the total con-
13 February 2006. In total, 41 882 steel ele- nection weight. At the extreme case, a few
ments with a combined weight of 125 000 connection plates near the base of the Tower
tonnes, including connections, were erected required a 15m long site splice of 100mm thick
over the next 26 months, at a peak rate of 8000 plate, each taking a week to complete. The
tonnes per month. plate thickness of some elements exceeded
the maximum assumed in design, which had
been determined by likely steel availability.
During the design it was thought that some Onerous material specifications were laid
high-grade steel elements would need to be out for thick sections to ensure satisfactory
imported, but in the end all the steel came performance.
from China, reflecting the rapid advances of
the countrys steelwork industry. Steel sections
were fabricated at the yards of Grand Tower The geometrical complexity made construc-
in Shanghai and Huning in Jiangsu, and then tion slower than for other steel-framed build-
delivered to site by road (see Figure 10), with ings. Although the rate of erection increased
a size limit of either the tower crane capacity as the contractor became more familiar with
(80 tonnes) or the maximum physical dimen- the process, CCTV has no typical floors.
sions that could be transported (18m length). Nevertheless, up to six storeys per month
Figure 9. Column embedded in raft
was achieved for the relatively uniform
levels at Tower mid-height. Concreting the The presetting process was further com- The contractor commissioned CABR to
composite columns and floor slabs took plicated by the fact that when completed, carry out the movement monitoring, while
place several storeys behind steel erection, off almost all the columns have different stresses, Tsinghua University performed the building
the critical path. depending on the ratio of gravity to seismic movement prediction and presetting analysis
loads, unlike in a conventional building as required by the Arup specification. This
where all perimeter elements will be similarly required a more detailed time history analysis
Movements and presets stressed. As a result, different presets were of the final construction sequence, dividing
Arups calculations included a construction required on different sides of the Towers, the process into 53 assumed stages based
time history analysis to take account of the the exact values also depending on the final on estimated progress for the perimeter
effects of the predicted construction method construction sequence. In practical terms, tube, core, slab concreting, faade, services,
and sequence on the completed buildings this meant fabricating the columns longer on and interior fit-out. This was compared with
deflections and built-in forces. This indicated one side of each Tower, so that they would the results of the movement monitoring,
that the corner of the Overhang would move eventually shorten to the correct geometry and checks and adjustments were made as
downwards by approximately 300mm under under load. necessary.
the buildings dead weight. For there to be no
overall downward deflection under this load
case, the whole structure needed to be pre- Presetting was in two stages: at the fabrica- The studies found that the movements
set upwards and backwards to compensate tion yard, based on the results of the ana- during Overhang construction would be
(see Figure 11). The contractor continuously lytical modelling, and then at installation, if far more significant than those at the earlier
monitored construction to ensure that the required, to suit the actual building deforma- stages caused by the Towers lean only. Due
actual movements corresponded to analysis tion as monitored during the course of con- to the large number of variables needed for
assumptions and predictions. struction. Progress of floor plate concreting the presetting calculation (variable axial stiff-
(a) Tower deflects under its own weight was also controlled to suit the assumptions ness, final construction sequence, foundation
made in the presetting estimation. settlement, thermal movements, etc), the
(b) Preset upward and backward main focus of the analysis was on the critical
(c) Resultant: no deflection under self-weight Overhang construction stage. By the time
It does not take a NIST report or a rocket scientist to figure out that requiring additional exit stairs
will improve overall occupant evacuation times The bigger question that needs to be answered is at
what economic cost to society?
David Frable, a General Services Administration fire safety engineer, asks the International Code Council to repeal stronger safety requirements for new
skyscrapers that were added to the countrys most widely used building code last year, arguing that they would be too expensive to meet. From
Agency Fights Building Code Born of 9/11, The New York Times, September 7th, 2008.
Overhang erection commenced, there was al- Fabrication accuracy was therefore crucial so that final adjustments could be made to the
ready much movement data from the Tower for this part of the structure, with erection length of the linking elements while they were
construction that could be used to calibrate being carried out piece-by-piece 160m above still on the ground prior to installation.
the analysis. ground level. Trial assembly of these trusses
at the fabrication yard prior to delivery was
essential to ensure that minimal adjustment The contractor chose to connect seven link
Overhang construction would be needed at height. elements at the inside corner of the Over-
Construction of the Overhang began after the hang during this initial connection phase (see
steelwork for the two Towers was completed Figure 13). These were lifted into place to
to roof level. Tower 2 Overhang began first, in Prior to connection, the two Towers would less than 10mm tolerance and temporarily
August 2007, and the structure was cantile- move independently of each other due to en- fixed with pins in the space of a few minutes
vered out piece-by-piece from each Tower vironmental conditions, in particular wind and at 9.00am on 8 December 2007, before the
over the course of the next five months (see thermal expansion and contraction. As soon Towers started to move relative to each other
Figure 12). This was the most critical construc- as they were joined, therefore, the elements (see Figure 14). The pins allowed them to carry
tion stage, not only in terms of temporary at the link would have to be able to resist the the thermal loads while the joints were fully
stability but also because its presence and the stresses caused by these movements. As a welded over the following 48 hours.
way it was built would change the behaviour result, the connection strategy required a delay
of those parts of the Tower already construct- joint that could allow a sufficient number of
ed. The forces from the two halves of the partly elements to be loosely connected between The specification originally called for the
constructed Overhang would be concentrated the Towers, then locked off quickly to allow connection to take place while ambient
in the Towers until such time as the two halves them all to carry these forces safely before any temperatures were between 12-28C (i.e. close
were sufficiently linked and the building relative movement took place. to the standard room temperature assumed
became a single continuous form, when the in analysis). Since the connection took place
Arup specified that this should take place early during winter, the temperature at the time was
loads would start being shared between all of in the morning on a windless day, when the
the permanent structure. around 0C, so further analysis of the structure
two Towers would be at a uniform tempera- was carried out by the design team to check
ture and the movements at a minimum. the impact of the increased design thermal
The bottom two levels of the Overhang range.
contain 15 transfer trusses that support the in- In the lead-up to connection, Arups specifi-
ternal columns and transfer their loads into the cation required one week of monitoring of
external tube. In the corner of the Overhang, Once the initial connection was made, the
global and relative movements so that the remainder of the Overhang steelwork was
these trusses are two-way, resulting in some correct dimensions of the linking elements
complex 3-D nodes with up to 13 connecting progressively installed. With the building now
could be predicted. The relative movements acting as one entity, the Overhang was prop-
elements, weighing approximately 33 tonnes of the Towers during the day were found to be
each. ping and stabilising the two Towers, and con-
around 10mm. The contractor made the final tinued to attract locked-in stresses as further
measurements of the gap exactly 24 hours be- weight was applied. In addition to the primary
forehand (i.e. at identical ambient conditions) steelwork elements, a continuous steel
plate deck up to 20mm thick was laid down Key elements at the intersection of the The performance-based design approach
on the lowest floors of the Overhang to resist Towers and podium were also post-fixed pioneered on CCTV has since been used suc-
the high in-plane forces that were part of this for similar reasons. In addition, this process cessfully for many other projects in China. The
propping action. The concrete floor slabs were enabled the architectural size of the elements structure of the CCTV building was complet-
only added once the entire primary structure to be controlled, while giving the contractor ed in May 2008, with the faade finished by
had been completed, so as to reduce the additional flexibility to deal with construction the start of the Beijing Olympic Games.
loads during the partially-constructed stage. movements.
Again, the construction stage analysis needed
to take account of this sequencing. That the contractor could construct such a
Delay joints were introduced between the vast and complex building with few delays
Towers and the Base to allow for differential was a credit to the design team and to
A topping-out ceremony on 27 March 2008, settlement between the two structures CSCEC, in particular the attention paid to de-
on a specially-constructed platform at the foundations. It should be noted that over half vising a feasible construction sequence from
corner of the Overhang, marked the comple- the predicted settlements were expected to an early stage, and the careful thought about
tion of the steelwork installation. take place after the Towers were constructed the buildability of the primary structural ele-
to their full height, due to the disproportion- ments and connections.
ate effect of the Overhang on the forces in
Post-installation of key elements certain columns. These were fully closed after
Arups early analysis showed that the corner completion of the main structure. Further References
columns on the inside faces of the Towers late-cast strips were also provided at several (1) CARROLL, C, et al. CCTV Headquarters, Beijing, China:
Structural engineering design and approvals. The Arup
would attract a huge amount of dead load locations around the basement to control Journal, 40(2), pp3-9, 2/2005
from the Overhang, and thus have little spare shrinkage. (2) CARROLL, C, et al. CCTV Headquarters, Beijing, China:
capacity for resisting seismic loads. Increas- Building the structure. The Arup Journal, 43(2), pp40-51,
ing the column sizes was rejected since they 2/2008
would become stiffer and hence attract even CONCLUSIONS
higher loads. Instead, the corner column and The project demonstrated that a building Credits
brace elements directly below the Overhang with many complex technical challenges Client: China Central Television
were left out until the end of construction, could be delivered successfully within a Architect: OMA Stedebouw BV, Ole Scheeren and Rem
forcing the dead loads to travel via the diago- tight programme. An international team Koolhaas
nals down adjacent columns and enabling was mobilized to make best use of the firms Engineer: Arup
the full capacity of the corner elements to be experience and knowledge, which required Local Design Institute: East China Architectural Design and
available for wind and seismic loads in the seamless co-ordination between a number of Research Institute Co Ltd (ECADI)