Technical University Gh.

Asachi, Iasi
Faculty of Civil Engineering

Skyscraper

Construction Engineering.Ways of thinking.

ADVISOR:
asist.univ dr. ing.
Vasile-Mircea VENGHEAC

STUDENTS:
A. Antonoae Vlad-Andrei
B. Ailiesei Vlad-Vasile
C. Matei Silviu-Cristian
D. Mihai Andrei-Alexandru

Architecture
Our project consists of creating a skyscraper, original or inspired, by highlighting the
structural system, the arhitectural style and the materias used. In order to describe the project
we built a model of the building.Weve decided to use as inspiration the Empire State
Building.
The Empire State Building is a 103story skyscraper located in Midtown Manhattan, New
York City, at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West
34th Street. It has a roof height of 380 m, and with
its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 443 m high.
The Empire State Building remained the tallest
skyscraper in the world for a record 41 years, and stood
as the world's tallest man-made structure for 23 years. It
was surpassed by the North Tower of the World Trade
Center in 1972, and the Sears Tower shortly afterwards.
With the destruction of the World Trade Center in the
September 11, 2001 attacks, the Empire State Building
again became the tallest building in New York City, and
the second-tallest building in the United States.
Its original sixty-four elevators are located in a central core. Today, the Empire State
Building has 73 elevators in all, including service elevators. It takes less than one minute by
elevator to get to the 86th floor, where an observation deck is located.
On the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building there is a door with stairs ascending
up, which leads into the 103rd floor.This was originally built as a disembarkation floor for
airships tethered to the building's spire, and features a circular balcony outside the room as
well. Above the 103rd floor, there is a set of stairs and a ladder to reach the spire for
maintenance work only.
Unlike most of today's high-rise buildings, the Empire State Building features a classic
faade. The modernistic stainless steel canopies of the entrances on 33rd and 34th Streets lead
to two story-high corridors around the elevator core, crossed by stainless steel and glassenclosed bridges at the second floor level.
The lobby is three stories high and features an aluminum relief of the skyscraper
without the antenna, which was not added to the spire until 1952. The north corridor
contained eight illuminated panels, created by Roy Sparkia and Rene Nemorov in 1963 in
time for the 1964 World's Fair, which depicts the building as the Eighth Wonder of the World,
alongside the traditional seven. These panels were eventually moved near a ticketing line for
the observation deck. The 86th-floor observation deck offers impressive 360-degree views of

the city. There is a second observation deck on the 102nd floor that is open to the public. It
was closed in 1999, but reopened in November 2005. It is completely enclosed and much
smaller than the first one; it may be closed on high-traffic days.
Like many buildings of that era it was given an "art deco" look that emphasized bold
lines, symmetry, and motifs like sunbursts and chevrons.
The building was designed from top to bottom. The building's design is in the
distinguishing Art Deco style. Art Deco style is a popular design during the 1920s and 30s. Is
characterized by long, thin forms and straight lines. The practitioners of the style attempted to
describe the sleekness they thought expressive of modern technology. The style has
undergone a resurgence of popularity in the 1970s.
The construction has to support different kind of loads:
-own weight
-dead and live loads
-wind
-earthquakes

Structural system
The structural system of a high-rise building is designed to cope with the vertical
gravity loads and lateral loads caused by wind or seismic activity. The structural system
consists only of the members designed to carry the loads, all other members are referred to as
non-structural.
-

Tensile structures: Members of tensile structures are subjects to pure tension under the
action of external loads.
Compressive structures: Compression structures develop mainly compressive stresses
under the action of axial loads..
Trusses: Trusses are composed of straight members connected at their ends by hinged
connections to form a stable configuration.
Shear structures: These are structures such as reinforced concrete shear walls, which
are used in multistory buildings to reduce lateral movements due to wind loads and
earthquake excitations.
Bending structures: Bending structures develop mainly bending stresses under the
action of external loads.

The structural members used for building the skyscraper are beams (members subjected
to bending), columns (members subjected to compression), trusses(members subjected to both
compression and tension) which form the frame steel.The framed steel allows fewer interior
columns, and so creates more usable floor space.
Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of
vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the
floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame.
The rolled steel "profile" or cross section of steel columns takes the shape of the letter
"I". The two wide flanges of a column are thicker and wider than the flanges on a beam, to
better withstand compressive stress in the structure. The central "web" of the steel I-beams is
often wider than a column web to resist the higher bending moments that occur in beams.

The frame needs to be protected from fire because steel softens at high temperature and
this can cause the building to partially collapse.In order to do this, we encase the columns and
the beams in concrete.

Loads on skyscraper:
-

Dead loads (permanent): structures own weight, finishing weight(parquet, carpets,

lights etc) and earth pressure
Temporary loads which vary in magnitude and location: live load(people, furniture),
hydrostatic pressure and climatic loads(wind)
Exceptional loads: earthquakes.

Load path:
Roof surface->roof slab->beams->columns->foundation.

Wind load resistance:

In addition to the vertical force of gravity, skyscrapers also have to deal with
the horizontal force of wind.

The most basic method for controlling horizontal sway is to simply tighten up the
structure. At the point where the horizontal girders attach to the vertical column, the
construction crew bolts and welds them on the top and bottom, as well as the side. This makes
the entire steel structure move more as one unit.Another way of making the structure more
stiff is to use truss-columns at the corners of the building.

Faade:
The faade of the building is a curtain wall, a non-structural element made of a
lightweight material. The wall transfers horizontal wind loads that are incident upon it to the
main building structure through connections at floors or columns of the building. A
curtain wall is designed to resist air and water infiltration, sway induced by wind
and seismic forces acting on the building, and its own dead load weight forces.

Central core:
The exterior frame of the building is linked to the central core, which creates a stiffer
structure and a big resistance against the wind. The stiff core forms a rigid backbone up the
center of the skyscraper. The inner core is used as an elevator shaft, and the design allows lots
of open space on each floor.

MATERIALS
The tallest structures today (commonly called "skyscrapers" or high-rise) are
constructed using structural steel due to its constructability, as well as its high strength-toweight ratio. In comparison, concrete, while being less dense than steel, has a much lower
strength-to-weight ratio. This is due to the much larger volume required for a structural
concrete member to support the same load; steel, though denser, does not require as much
material to carry a load.
The materials used for the facade are limestone, granite and bricks.

Structural steel

Characteristics Structural steel differs

from concrete in its
attributed compressive
strength as well as
tensile strength.

Strength - Having
Schematic stress / strain diagram for steel
high strength, stiffness,
toughness, and ductile properties, structural steel is one of the most commonly used
materials in commercial and industrial building construction.

Constructability - Structural steel can be developed into nearly any shape, which are
either bolted or welded together in construction. Structural steel can be erected as soon as
the materials are delivered on site, whereas concrete must be cured at least 12 weeks
after pouring before construction can continue, making steel a schedule-friendly
construction material.

Fire resistance - Steel is inherently a noncombustible material. However,when heated

to temperatures seen in a fire scenario, the strength and stiffness of the material is
significantly reduced. The International Building Code requires steel be enveloped in
sufficient fire-resistant materials

Corrosion - Steel, when in contact with water, can corrode, creating a potentially
dangerous structure. Measures must be taken in structural steel construction to prevent
any lifetime corrosion. The steel can be painted, providing water resistance. Also, the fire
resistance material used to envelope steel is commonly water resistant.

Why did we choose structural steel?

The selection of structural steel for a buildings framing system brings numerous
benefits to a project. All other materials are measured against the standard of structural steel
and structural steel is still the material of choice. These benefits include:
Speed of Construction: Other materials may be able to start field work sooner, but
the rapid design, fabrication and erection cycle with structural steel will allow the framing
system to finish sooner and be available earlier to other trades. Structural steel enhances
construction productivity because of its shop fabrication while maintaining tight construction
tolerances. Field placed material will always lag behind the productivity curve. Productivity
enhancements for construction will occur not in labor based field activities, but in shop based
technology enhancements. Rapid erection in all seasons with close tolerances being
maintained for integration with other building systems and minimal construction site waste is
achievable only with structural steel. Other materials may be able to start field work sooner,
but the rapid design, fabrication and erection cycle with structural steel will allow the framing
system to finish sooner and be available earlier to other trades.
Lower Project Costs: Today, when competing framing systems are evaluated for
projects using comparable, current cost data, structural steel remains the cost leader for the
majority of construction projects. Comparative studies indicate that a structural steel framing
system including decking and fire protection will typically cost 5% to 7% less than a concrete
framing system on a national basis.
High Strength: All other materials talk about high strength, but their strength is still
less than that of structural steel even when enhanced by steel reinforcing. In fact,
the increase in the standard strength of steel used in buildings today compared to 10 years
ago is greater than the total strength of competing high strength materials. Structural steel is
typically 50 ksi material indicating that the steel has a yield stress of 50,000 pounds per
square inch in both compression and tension. By comparison, a normal concrete mix has a
yield stress of 3 to 5 ksi in compression only and high strength concrete may have a
compressive yield stress of 12 to 15 ksi. Not only is structural steel a stronger material, it also
has a much higher strength to weight ratio than other materials. This results in the building
being lighter and lighter buildings require less extensive and costly foundations.

Efficient: Structural steel buildings optimize building space efficiency through the use
of slender columns maximizing useable floor space, longer spans for open, column-free
spaces and the integration of HVAC systems into structural spaces allowing reduction of
floor-to-floor heights.The typical steel column occupies 75% less floor space than an
equivalent concrete column. At the same time structural steel allows longer spans that
eliminate intermediate columns creating open floor areas ideal for todays office layouts.
We also used reinforced concrete for building the central core of the skyscraper.
Reinforced concrete (RC) is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile
strength and ductility are counteracted by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile
strength and/or ductility. Concrete has relatively high compressive strength, but significantly
lower tensile strength, and as such is usually reinforced with materials that are strong in
tension (often steel). The elasticity of concrete is relatively constant at low stress levels but
starts decreasing at higher stress levels as matrix cracking develops. Concrete has a very
low coefficient of thermal expansion, and as it matures concrete shrinks. All concrete
structures will crack to some extent, due to shrinkage and tension. Concrete which is
subjected to long-duration forces is prone to creep.

Model

The model is made at the scale 1:500.In this case, the height of it is 86,2 cm.
We used the following materials:
-

Wood ( 1x1 cm and 1x0.5 cm)

Nails

Adhesive

We chose the wood because it imitates very well the framework of the building and its
very stiff.
How was it built:

Firstly, we built a foundation which can hold the structure in one place.The foundation
is represented by a plate, which has the exterior and interior columns on top.Next, we raised
the primary tower by constructing the columns first, and then the beams (picture 1 and picture
2).In this part, for the joints, we used small nails.In the next step we added the lateral covers
which does not contain any columns.They are simply attached to the primary tower with small
nails and adhesive (picture 3,4,5).In the end, we raised the top of the building by sticking 9
small pieces of wood in the shape of X (upper view, picture 6).