ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a number of characteristics of tall buildings. The structural form of a building is closely related to its architectural form and is dictated by it. For interior structures, there are three broad types of load-resisting systems: moment resisting frames, shear trusses/shear walls, and core-supported outrigger systems. The structural materials used for tall buildings are primarily steel and reinforced concrete, with composite steel and concrete structures being very common in exploiting the favourable qualities of each material type. Inter-storey drift is the relative horizontal displacement of two adjacent floors in a building, and can also be expressed as a percentage of the storey height separating the two adjacent floors, such as, 'drift index' or 'drift ratio'. Kayvani has indicated that tall buildings may be affected by the differential shortening of the vertical structural elements under gravity loads, especially when these elements are of reinforced concrete construction. The chapter illustrates some of the passive and active damping systems.
