Trends In The Structural Design Of High-Rise Steel Structures in Japan

Toru Kobori Managing Director and Representative, Structural Engineering Department, Nikken Sekkei Ltd., Tokyo, Japan kobori@nikken.co.jp Abstract This paper describes the structural design philosophy and concept for precise and rational structural planning that does not depend on simulations of complex structural configurations, which tend to rely on "black box" computer technology. Keyword: 1. Introduction Many high-rise building projects have been cancelled or suspended due to the global economic downturn since last year's Lehman Shock. Many projects, however, remain underway in various parts of the world, including several buildings with very distinctive and impressive geometries and heights. Particularly in Japan, where buildings are subjected to earthquakes, typhoons, and other harsh natural conditions, high-rise building designs require extensive study. These days, structural plans incorporating systems for absorbing the energy of external forces are common. In an age whencomputer technology makes it seem as if anything is possible, structural design philosophy seems increasinglyimportant. 2. History of High-rise Steel Buildings in Japan Tokyo Tower, with a height of 333 meters, marked its 50th anniversary last year. However, Japan's first actual building with a height exceeding 100 meters was the Kasumigaseki Building. This 36-story, 147-meter-tall building was completed in 1968. These accomplishments in Japan came more than 50 years after a series of challenges including Chicago's Home Insurance Building, completed in 1885; the Eiffel Tower, completed in 1889; and the skyscrapers which began appearing in Chicago and New York in the 1930s. Reasons include social and economic circumstances, as well as technical aspects, such as advances in seismic engineering. The Japanese economy ballooned during a period of rapid growth that began in the latter half of the 1950s,

Photo 1. Perspective of Mode Gakuen Spiral Tower

Photo 2. Kobe Commerce, Industry and Trade Center

The World Conference on Earthquake Engineering was held in 1954 and 1960, and research on a 24-story virtual high-rise building was performed over a three-year period beginning in 1959. The study of dynamic analysis began in the 1960s as the environment became more conducive, including the maturation of construction technologies such as the fabrication of heavy-section thick steel plate. Many high-rise buildings including the Hotel New Otani (72 meters) were constructed after a 31-meter height restriction had been abolished in 1964 under the "special block" system. The Hotel New Otani has a distinctive shape with three wings, but most early high-rise buildings were built on a rectangular plan with two bisecting axes to provide a structurally stable frame, as in the Kasumigaseki Building. Architects stuck to these straightforward configurations to avoid the kinds of problems that could result from asymmetry, such as twisting during

5th floor

15th floor

30th floor

35th floor

Figure 1. Floor plans of Mode Gakuen Spiral Tower Roof vibration control AMD Wing (external frame) Vibration control column

Inner truss tube (Truss tube frame)

Vibration control column Figure 2. Conceptual system of framing and there was an increasing demand for higher buildings.

earthquakes. This was a judicious policy for the structural planning of early skyscrapers. Later, in the 1970s, Keio Plaza Hotel featured towers with slender proportions; Shinjuku Sumitomo Building was built with a three-layered tubular structure inside a hexagonal layout; and the height of 240 meters was attained in Sunshine 60 in 1978. In 1982, the Shinjuku NS Building was completed with a large open atrium at its center, and the NEC Super Tower applied to a skyscraper the concept of a superframe formed by large-assembly construction, placing the columns in a consolidated arrangement to achieve much greater plan flexibility around the base of the building. In recent years, the use of megaframe construction has been a trend in skyscrapers. Since the 1995 Great Hanshin (Kobe) Earthquake, the concept of damping and seismic isolation structures has begun to be applied to skyscrapers in order to minimize the damage that a major earthquake would cause to the basic frame, including the columns and beams that support a building's weight; and to improve safety, maintenance of building functions, and asset preservation in case of an earthquake. Structural planning has more frequently shown a clear orientation toward separation of seismic energy absorption mechanisms, with performance design and damage control as key themes. In other words, the aim is to reduce the amount of energy borne by general columns and beams at the time of an earthquake, through the active utilization of members which absorb seismic energy.

Photo 3. Vibration control column (using a damping system with amplifying mechanism)

Wing

Wing

Photo 4. Construction work in progress (erection completed) suggesting the intertwined rising energy of the students of Mode Gakuen's three schools: its fashion school (MODE), computer and animation school (HAL), and medical school (ISEN). For this concept to get beyond merely playing with shapes, its configuration needs to be coordinated by engineers in a planned manner. In the case of a highly difficult structural design for a building having an organic spiral shape, instead of relying on the capabilities of advanced computers to perform the analyses needed to apply a structural frame to that shape, the structural design must be created on the basis of clear intention in order to create a rational, strong, yet delicate expression. This building has 36 floors above ground, 3 basement levels, and 2 penthouse levels. Its height is 170 meters above ground and 21 meters underground. A central core

Inner truss tube Wing Figure 3. 10th floor beam framing plan Horizontal forces on outer framing are transmitted to inner truss tube through steel truss beams 3. Flexible Configuration and Structural Planning As a design trend in this context, architects have been designing more and more freeform shapes. Mode Gakuen Spiral Towers, under construction near Nagoya Station, is named with the plural "Towers" because its design includes three towers intertwined in a spiral form,

having an oval cross-sectional shape consists of three wings having fan-shaped cross sections, radially arranged next to each other. The planar configuration changes with height. Three classrooms are arranged in the respective wings around the central core, which includes stairwells and elevator shafts. Ascending higher in the building in a spiral pattern, the rooms gradually become smaller in size. Displacement of the centers of rotation of the three wings produces an external appearance of organic curves. The interior frame is coordinated with the vertical elements such as stairwells, elevators, and equipment shafts in the center of the building; 12 straight columns are arranged around this core, and braces are connected to these columns in a mesh network, forming the thick central trunk of the tubular structure (called an "inner truss tube"). This tubular structure is highly strong and rigid with regard to horizontal and twisting forces exerted on the building by earthquakes and high winds, providing the necessary structural performance. With no braces around the outside, a transparent appearance is achieved; and minimal, thin-diameter columns provide lower rigidity for a light frame that does not bear seismic forces. Horizontal forces continually act on the diagonal columns around the outside because of their twisted configuration. To deal with these horizontal forces, flat beams are arranged in a truss pattern to increase rigidity and transmit the horizontal forces generated around the outside to the inner truss tube. At the connection of the columns and beams with the braces at the inner truss tube on the ground floor, an earthquake would produce a high level of stress in addition to the constant twisting forces. Therefore, cast blocks are used at the six brace connections of the inner truss tube to easily transmit the forces of the columns, beams, and braces. The outer frame, which provides a distinctive shape, serves strictly to support the weight of the building, while the tube resists twisting and seismic forces with a central brace structure. In a tower-shaped building, there is a great deal of bending deformation in the building as a whole and a high level of axial expansion and contraction on the outer columns, resulting in greater deformation at the top of the building. To efficiently attenuate earthquake energy, the building employs two new control systems that make use of this configuration. Quantitative analysis has confirmed that deformation during an earthquake can be reduced by up to 20% compared to the case of not adding any damping system. The outer columns, which undergo a high level of axial expansion and contraction, are left out every four to seven stories in order to consolidate axial deformation; and viscous dampers are instead placed in those locations, providing a high attenuation effect. These control columns are arranged in 26 locations of the building overall. Since simulations indicate that the control columns would expand and contract by 40 mm at the ground floor and about 20 mm on other floors during

a major earthquake, the exterior finish used near the control columns is able to follow interlaminar deformation in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Since the viscous dampers normally do not bear weight, braces are installed at the upper floors equipped with control columns, with a cantilever truss structure from the inner truss tube for ordinary weight support. Considering the large extent of deformation at the top of the building, a weight corresponding to 1% of the building's weight is placed on the rooftop and coordinated to the frequency of the building by means of roller bearings and a laminated rubber isolator. In the case of a major earthquake, the relative displacement of the added mass with regard to the building would be a large movement of 500 mm in the reverse direction. In this way, the lead damper efficiently absorbs seismic energy. The laminated rubber isolator does not bear the weight of the added mass, but functions only as a stability spring. Its two-layered structure serves to adjust the horizontal rigidity and double its movable deformation. This system uses a lead damper, which can absorb a great deal of energy; and a roller bearing mechanism which can resist up-and-down forces of 1 G in movement of the added mass (without becoming detached and falling off). The safety margin of each member is set according to its importance. In order to enable the building to tenaciously resist even stronger earthquakes than the anticipated levels, a large safety margin of strength is assigned to the foundation and inner truss tube, which are the most important members. To provide good earthquake performance even in stronger earthquakes than anticipated, the design ensures that practically no elasticity would be lost even in an earthquake measuring 1.4 times the level of earthquake ground motion that can be anticipated to occur only very rarely; and the inner truss tube is designed with a margin of rigidity and strength to withstand 1.8 times that level. 4. Tokyo Sky Tree Construction of Tokyo Sky Tree began in July 2008. This 610 m tall structure is the most advanced digital terrestrial television broadcasting tower in the world, as well as a symbol of the redevelopment of the downtown and its culture. Ties with Asakusa, a popular tourist destination where the Edo culture remains strong, is also enhanced. Due to the constraints of the sites triangular shape, the base of the main tower is a regular triangle with sides about 67 m in length. The observatory lobby is circular in shape and commands a 360-degree view of the Kanto district. These features give the tower a unique shape that morphs from a regular triangle at the base to a circle in the high-rise section. The first and second observatories are approximately 350 m and approximately 450 m above ground level, respectively. The top of the main tower is approximately

500 m above ground level. A tall gain tower, to which the broadcasting antennas are attached, extends from the top of the main tower to a height of approximately 610 m above ground level. The center of the tower is a reinforced concrete (RC) cylinder 8 m in diameter and contains a staircase. The cylinder is surrounded by a steel core that houses the elevators and equipment shafts. Around the steel core is a steel truss structure consisting of steel pipes. The planer shape of the steel truss structure varies from a regular triangle at the base to a circle in the high-rise section, as noted above. Trusses are located at the vertices of the main towers triangular base. Each truss is composed of four principal members connected in a horizontal plane. This steel-truss structure provides the primary resistance to earthquake and wind loads. The main structural frames of the tower are steel pipes with a maximum diameter of 2,300 mm, a maximum thickness of 100 mm, and a yield strength of 400-630 N/mm2. A welded branch pipe joint connects the pipes without the need for gusset plates and bolts. The welds meet the standards for strength set by the American Petroleum Institute (API), and their strength was verifed by FEM analyses. The fatigue resistance of all joints to wind loads also was verified to ensure the safety of the joints.

The main tower incorporates a vibration control system. It is a center column-based vibration control system modeled after the center column of the traditional Japanese five-story wooden pagoda. In the Tokyo Sky Tree, the center column is the RC cylinder, which is separated from the steel truss structure at a height of 125 m and above. The mass of the RC cylinder in this section is used as a weight (tuned mass damper) for the vibration control system. Oil dampers are installed between the RC cylinder and steel frames to control the displacement of the cylinder and enhance the main towers damping performance. This staircase is called Shinchu-seishin (cylinder vibration control system) based on the central pillar of Japans traditional architecture, Gojunoto (five-storied pagoda). The system reduces the earthquake loads acting on the tower by up to about 40%. The gain tower also incorporates a vibration control system. A weight and spring are installed at the top of the tower and the frequency of the system is tuned to that of the gain tower. The foundations of the tower are rigid, cast-in-situ, diaphragm wall piles. Nodes at the tips of the piles resist the large pull-out forces acting on the foundations during typhoons and earthquakes. A full-scale, on-site test verified the resistance of the nodular piles to these pull-out forces.

Photo 5. Tokyo Sky Tree

Figure 4. Structural framing plan

Center column

Figure 5. Tripod tower and the location of the center column

Tower body of steel structure Tower body of steel structure Center column
H375 Center column

Tower-top TMD
Tower-top TMD (Tuned Mass Damper)
Weight frame Weight

Oil damper
Connection between the center column and the tower body with oil dampers
Stopper Spring Oil damper Frame Universal joint
A A

Movable section Deforms independently of the tower

M o ce vem nte en r c t of olu th mn e

When the center column moves obliquely upward

Movement of the center column

EXP.J.

EXP.J.

Fixed section Deforms together with the tower

Rocking type (for the antenna tower)

Sliding type (for the entire tower)

When the center column moves upward Movement of the center column

Figure 7. Tower-top TMD

Figure 6. Center column-based vibration control

5. Conclusion This paper introduced the unique structural design of a high-rise tower that will become the tallest structure in Japan. Structures such as this incorporate vibration control systems that efficiently absorb seismic energy and reduce damage. Simulations of complex structural configurations tend to rely on the "black box" of computer technology;, but by designing the structural systems to be as simple as possible and easy to

understand, then the flow of forces can be clearly seen. In this regard, the structural designer's design philosophy and a clear design concept for each building are important. We think that computer analysis is merely a tool to confirm the validity of these concepts, and clear and rational structural plans are becoming indispensable as more buildings are designed with complex shapes and greater heights.