Complex building in Guangzhou (Guangzhou West Tower)

Building use

Complex building

Country/Region

China

Overview

The outer diagrid is made of crossing concrete filled steel tube (CFST) columns which take both gravity and lateral loads through highly efficient axial force.

Basic information (construction date, number of stories, gross floor area, adopted design code, engineer(s), Contractor(s), etc.)

Construction date: 2010
Number of stories: 103
Gross floor area: 450,000m2
Adopted design code: GB50009-2001; GB50011-2001; GBJ50010-2002; GB50017-2003; JGJ3-2002; JGJ3-2002; DBJ 15-31-2003; JGJ138-2001; JGJ94-94; DBJ/T15-46-2005
Engineer(s): Arup
Contractor(s): China State Construction Engineering Corporation & Guangzhou Municipal Construction Group Co., Ltd

Issue and/or innovation

Guangzhou West Tower is of the unconventional structure system with CFT diagrid frame and reinforced concrete core. The diagrid frame consists of diagonal columns and horizontal ring beams, bearing the lateral and vertical loads together with the shear wall core tube. The system has a better performance than that of shear type frame structures and in a better shape. The design focuses on solving the problems of the joint structure and force transmission of diagrid frame, as well as the horizontal force of the floor and ring beam caused by the deformation of the interior and exterior tubes.

Specific solution/technical details

The diagrid structure fully utilizes the strong compressive bearing capacity and axial stiffness of composite columns, greatly improving the lateral stiffness of the outer frame, forming a truss tube that, together with the inner concrete core, resists external loads. The large lateral stiffness ensures that the structure has a small natural vibration period, and the base shear coefficient can fully meet the requirements of the minimum limit value in the code.

Impact or effectiveness

The cross section size of diagrid tube is small and evenly distributed around, which can be adjusted according to the shape of the building, ensuring a large space for use between the inner and outer tubes, and improving the quality of the building. The lateral stiffness of the outer tube is large enough to ensure that the structure has sufficient lateral stiffness and bearing capacity under wind and earthquake actions, reducing the number and thickness of the core walls, and avoiding the installation of extension reinforcement layers, speeding up the construction progress.
The main structure achieves the world record of “each floor built in two days”