5. The outer tube is a moment-resisting frame, but with zero shear stiffness for the center50ft (15.2m) of each of the long sides.

6. A space-truss hat structure is provided at the top of the building.

7. A similar space truss is located near the bottom of the building

8. The entire assembly is laterally supported at the base on twin steel-plate tubes, because the shear stiffness of the outer tube goes to zero at the base of the building.

Cellular structures

A classic example of a cellular structure is the Sears Tower, Chicago, a bundled tube structure of nine separate tubes. While the Sears Tower contains nine nearly identical tubes, the basic structural system has special application for buildings of irregular shape, as the several tubes need not be similar in plan shape, It is not uncommon that some of the inpidual tubes one of the strengths and one of the weaknesses of the system.

This special weakness of this system, particularly in framed tubes, has to do with the concept of differential column shortening. The shortening of a column under load is given by the expression

△=ΣfL/E

For buildings of 12 ft (3.66m) floor-to-floor distances and an average compressive stress of 15 ksi (138MPa), the shortening of a column under load is 15 (12)(12)/29,000 or 0.074in (1.9mm) per story. At 50 stories, the column will have shortened to 3.7 in. (94mm) less than its unstressed length. Where one cell of a bundled tube system is, say, 50stories high and an adjacent cell is, say, 100stories high, those columns near the boundary between .the two systems need to have this differential deflection reconciled.

  Major structural work has been found to be needed at such locations. In at least one building, the Rialto Project, Melbourne, the structural engineer found it necessary to vertically pre-stress the lower height columns so as to reconcile the differential deflections of columns in close proximity with the post-tensioning of the shorter column simulating the weight to be added on to adjacent, higher columns.

Tall Building Structure

Tall buildings have fascinated mankind from the beginning of civilization, their construction being initially for defense and subsequently for ecclesiastical purposes. The growth in modern tall building construction, however, which began in the 1880s, has been largely for commercial and residential purposes.

Tall commercial buildings are primarily a response to the demand by business activities to be as close to each other, and to the city center, as possible, thereby putting intense pressure on the available land space. Also, because they form distinctive landmarks, tall commercial buildings are frequently developed in city centers as prestige symbols for corporate organizations. Further, the business and tourist community, with its increasing mobility, has fuelled a need for more, frequently high-rise, city center hotel accommodations.

The rapid growth of the urban population and the consequent pressure on limited space have considerably influenced city residential development. The high cost of land, the desire to avoid a continuous urban sprawl, and the need to preserve important agricultural production have all contributed to drive residential buildings upward.

Ideally, in the early stages of planning a building, the entire design team, including the architect, structural engineer, and services engineer, should collaborate to agree on a form of structure to satisfy their respective requirements of function, safety and serviceability, and servicing. A compromise between conflicting demands will be almost inevitable. In all but the very tallest structures, however, the structural arrangement will be subservient to the architectural requirements of space arrangement and aesthetics.