Civil Engineering Association

Design of High-Rise Buildings

The continuing economic prosperity and population increase in the urban areas point toward a future with increased activity in high-rise construction of residential and office buildings. However, construction of high-rise buildings can be economically attractive only if the structural engineers can have comprehensive understanding of the structural behaviors of various systems on one hand and the practical sense of the construction problems on the other.

Steel building construction is only about 100 years old and an enormous amount of progress has been made since the beginning. The use of cast-iron and wrought-iron has long been replaced by high strength steel. Fabrication and erection techniques have been considerably improved and mechanized. Yet while the strengths of steel have gone up, the Modulus of Elasticity remains the same as it was just when iron was first found by man. It is left to the structural engineer to compromise the modern high strengths of steel with its "pre-historic" modulus elasticity on one hand and the not-so-advanced fabrication and erection techniques with the increased labor cost on the other.

The purpose of this paper is to briefly discuss the various aspects of a multi-story structure with particular reference to the latest AISC Code and point out the interpretations of the theory and practice involved in each case that may lead to more efficient multi-story structures.