• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.243-250
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• 2021

Y

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.185-185
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• 2018

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.103-107
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• 2024

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.63-69
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• 2009

Article 36 of the Building Code Enforcement Ordinance requires that an exterior evacuation stairs be installed for the buildings of three stories and over with cultural facilities or gathering places which have over $1,000\;m^2$ floor area of public performance halls or recreational facilities. The concentration of population together with the increase of high-rise buildings in cities call for various precautionary measures to be taken against human disasters. For the past ten years high-rise buildings showed 85% of increase, marking a steep rise. This increase of high-rise buildings may lead to human disasters in urban areas and, in case of fire breakout, may cause great loss of human lives and property damages. The most difficult fire-fighting activities in high-rise building fires are those of evacuation. Because smoke spreads through the upper floors, the securement of evacuation route in high-rise buildings may be the only way to minimize loss of lives. In high-rise buildings exterior escape stairs are necessary because it is difficult to secure evacuation route with only direct stairs or interior stairs. The Building Code now in force provides insignificant coverage on the exterior evacuation route installment and therefore becomes an inadequate means for evacuation route securement in high-rise building fires. To compensate for this inadequacy the Building Code should be revised to include a mandatory clause that an exterior evacuation stairs be established for the buildings of ten stories and over which can be categorized into high-rise building group.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.319-326
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• 2016

The ingenuity of structural engineers in the field of tall and super-tall buildings has led to some of the most remarkable inventions. During this evolution of structural engineering concepts in the last 100 years, the technical challenges that engineers encountered were extraordinary and the advances were unprecedented. However, as the accomplishments of structural engineers are progressing, the desire for taller and safer structures is also increasing. The diagrid structural system is part of this evolving process as it develops a new paradigm for tall building design combining engineering efficiency and new architectural expression. The first appearances of this type of tall buildings have already been constructed and the interest of both engineering and architectural communities is growing mainly due to the many advantages compared to other structural systems. This paper presents a simple approach on optimizing member sizes for the diagonals of steel diagrid tall buildings. The optimizing method is based on minimizing the volume of the diagonal elements of a diagrid structure. The constraints are coming from the stiffness-based design, limiting the tip deflection of the building to widely accepted regulative limits. In addition, the current paper attempts to open the discussion on the important topic of optimization and robustness for tall buildings and also studies the future of the diagrid structural system.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.261-270
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• 2015

Hong Kong is a renowned small city with densely placed skyscrapers. It is no surprise that heavy duty or even mega foundations are built over the years to support these structures. To cope with the fast construction pace, several heavy deep foundation types have been widely adopted with some prescribed design rules. This Paper has selected two commonly adopted but distinctive foundation types, namely large diameter bored piles and percussive steel H-piles to illustrate the special design and construction considerations related to these pile types in related to local context. The supervision requirement in related to foundation works for which again may be unique in Hong Kong will also be highlighted. A case history is also discussed in the later part of the Paper to illustrate the application of one of these foundations and to highlight the importance of considering foundation design and basement excavation method in a holistic manner.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.137-144
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• 2022

As one of the most important vertical transportation equipment in super high-rise buildings, the construction elevator directly affects the project period, cost, and effectiveness. The paper proposes a new construction elevator with single-guide rail and multi-cages. It can solve the problems of single construction elevator capacity shortage and efficacy decrease with height reduction, the occupancy of plan and elevation position of multiple construction elevators, and extension of total construction period by cycling operation of multi-cages on a single-guide rail. The paper focuses on the design and research of the main components of the equipment, such as the rotating guide rail mechanism, vertical bearing mast tie system, segmented electrical power supply system, group control scheduling system, and safety anti-collision system.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.21-27
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• 2009

Potential yield of micro wind turbine on the roof of urban high rise buildings is estimated. Urban wind profile is modeled as logarithmic profile above the mean building height with roughness length 0.8, displacement 7.5 m. Mean wind velocity from the meteorological agency data at the hight of 50m is used. Wind velocity changes are simulated on the rectangular roof of 26, 45, 53 degree pitch and the circular roof by computational fluid dynamics and RNG k-$\varepsilon$ turbulence models. Wind velocity increased approximately by a factor of the order of 270 % on the 26 degree pitched roof. In the 100 m and 200 m high buildings, wind enhancement is greater at the front side than at the center of the building. In the building arrangement model wind velocity changes abruptly and it becomes wind gusts. When commercial wind turbines are installed on the building roof, average power and annual power generation enhanced by 3~4 times than normal wind velocity at 50m and 6 kw wind turbine can generate 1053 kwh per month on the 26 degree pitched roof at 50m height and sufficiently supply electrical power with 15 household for common electrical use and food waste disposer. However, power output will vary significantly by the wind conditions in the order of $\pm$ 20 %.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.435-451
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• 2013

High-rise buildings are a common feature of urban cities around the world. These flexible structures frequently exhibit large vibration due to strong winds and earthquakes. Structural control has been employed as an effective means to mitigate excessive responses; however, structural control mechanisms that can be used in tall buildings are limited primarily to mass and liquid dampers. An attractive alternative can be found in outrigger damping systems, where the bending deformation of the building is transformed into shear deformation across dampers placed between the outrigger and the perimeter columns. The outrigger system provides additional damping that can reduce structural responses, such as the floor displacements and accelerations. This paper investigates the potential of using smart dampers, specifically magnetorheological (MR) fluid dampers, in the outrigger system. First, a high-rise building is modeled to portray the St. Francis Shangri-La Place in Philippines. The optimal performance of the outrigger damping system for mitigation of seismic responses in terms of damper size and location also is subsequently evaluated. The efficacy of the semi-active damped outrigger system is finally verified through numerical simulation.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.99-105
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• 2012

The higher the building height and the larger the temperature difference between the outdoor and indoor space, the more remarkable is the draft driven by the stack effect in high-rise buildings. Moreover, the stack effect can bring about the deterioration of habitability and the degradation of the performance of the indoor control system in high-rise buildings. In this study, as a measure to attenuate the stack effect, the E/V shaft cooling method was proposed and its performance was compared with the conventional stack effect control method for strengthening the air-tightness of the building using a numerical simulation method. The total decreasing ratios on the stack effect in a building were compared, and the probabilities of the secondary problems were analyzed. The results show that the E/V shaft cooling is very effective to decrease the stack effect in a high-rise building in terms of the reduction performance and application. Moreover, this method does not cause secondary problems, such as stack pressure transition to other walls, unlike the conventional stack effect mitigation method.