Technical Issues Associated with High-Rise Construction - Report Example

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: Introduction Tall structures or buildings whose height range from 75feet to 491feet are termed to as high-rise. The invention of elevators has made the construction of high rise building to be possible as noted by Eisele (2004). These structures require reinforced steel and concrete for their construction. High-rise buildings pose a great challenge to both the geotechnical and structural engineers especially if the building is located near or at a area which is prone to earthquakes or tremors. They are also a challenge to firefighters or brigades and especially a fire outbreak (Fairweather 2004). These buildings can also be defined as those buildings above 35m in heights and are divided into occupiable units or levels and as a result of their height, a mechanical method of transporting people up the building is required. Good examples of this building are the I.M Peis Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong and the Trump World Tower in New York City. In this case I will use Trump World Tower as my high-rise example. External Cladding system This is a metal coating which is placed on another metal with high temperature and pressure hence forming an insulative layer to be fixed outside the building (Fairweather 2004). The main functions of this system is to prevent water from entering into the building, prevent leakage of air or passage of air between indoors and outdoors which may be harmful to the building, control light passage like sunlight, control heat radiation, water vapor, sound and heat conduction. Cladding systems are divided into three types which are metal based. They include cassette panels, composite panels and profiled sheeting (Eisele 2004). Profiled sheeting has been in use for many years and it is in fact the most common and it uses either steel or aluminum and can be used in both the roof and the walls. A cladding system can also be defined to as a complex back-ventilated fascia which is installed outside the buildings to ensure that the building remains dry (Fairweather 2004). It protects the building against a mutual action of wind and rain by ensuring that there is a balance between water effects and the action of maintaining the building dry. It acts as a building insulator, the main purposes being protective and aesthetic. According to Eisele (2004) the cladding system for the construction of a high-rise building should have the following requirements which should act as protective features: it should be non- flammable, resistant to chemicals, air pollution, thermal shocks and sunlight, should have a high mechanical strength, light in weight, ductile and should have low water absorption. Natural stone, ceramic granite, aluminum coversheets and composite panel are some materials which can be used for external cladding. Figure1. External cladding materials/ system The above Figure 1 is mainly made up of aluminum profiles, insulating materials, external façade cladding and air gap which are attached to the surface wall of the building Air gap This allows or gives room for air passage from the bottom of the building to the top. This is due to the differences in temperature between the air outside and the air inside. The differences in temperature make the air inside the ventilation gap to rise. It also serves the purpose of moisture removal in the building, prevents heat from penetrating through the wall hence ensuring that less heat is transmitted into the building in hot seasons and helps to keep the insulating material in a proper condition (Fairweather 2004) Insulating material It consists of a glass wool which is self-supporting and water-repellent which manages the buildings’ thermal stability. The insulating material and the air gap help to enhance the protection functions of the external cladding systems. Aluminum sub-structure This part provides support to the cladding systems and hence ensuring that the building is highly stable (Fairweather 2004). The part should be designed in a way that it will enable vertical movement of people especially by use of lifts. Specification for the cladding systems The choice of external cladding system or material specification depends mainly on how the designer wants the final appearance of the building to look like. The choice ranges from ceramic granite, natural stone, aluminium composite panel, flat panels or aluminium coversheets depending on the engineers kind of finish. Specification in Trump World Tower cladding systems should also be based on compartmentalization (Eisele 2004). This is the act of protecting the building and its exterior from sunlight or harsh weather. The specifications include:   Air tightness- the materials used should be air leakage resistant which should not be more than 0.02 L(s/m2) that is they should have a difference in pressure of 75 Pa (Addis 1994). The materials for cladding should therefore be joined in a manner to ensure that the system is air tight in the different environmental conditions inside the building.   Structural integrity- they should be installed in a manner that will 100% resist wind from the environment. The air barrier should be in a position to resist high pressure and winds with high strengths from the environment without any sign of rupture, failure or detachment. The strength of the system should be highly resistant to strong wind currents.  Continuity- the cladding systems should be continuous throughout the building. The components of the building should be fixed in a way that no gap is left between them and these calls for the engineers of Trump World Tower to ensure that there building is continuous and that no gaps between there components (Addis 1994). Gaps between components lead to air leakage into the building which may lead to rupturing. Once all this specifications are put into place, the effectiveness of the system is determined (Eisele 2004). The materials should also be highly insulative to be able to manage the buildings thermal stability. They should also durable making the cost of maintenance to be low, easy to install hence low construction costs, resistant to pollution and water to be able to maintain the aesthetic value of the building. Durability- According to Eisele (2004) the system should be durable that is it should perform its function for a long period of time without failure. There should be compatibility between the system and other parts of the building to ensure a long life. The following factors should be considered when choosing a cladding system: The cost of the system and the installation costs involved- the engineers should choose a cladding material which is affordable. The system should be flexible in that it can fit into the external façade of the building. Technical Recommendations I would therefore recommend the engineers to get the cladding systems that are more suitable to their building depending on the kind of look they want the building to look like even though they have to consider the above discussed factors, but profiled sheeting is the most recommended.  Building services Building services deals with the internal environment of a building and its impacts to the building. Engineers dealing with these services are in charge of designing, installing and monitoring on the health of the building to ensure that it is friendly to the environment as noted by Eisele (2004). Building services links buildings with life. Building services should minimize noise both internal and external in the building which usually has a negative impact to building and it is not environmentally friendly. Designing of Trump World Tower should consider the impacts of unwanted noise to the building. To reduce noise in the building the following should be put into place: Curtain walls should be installed which ensures that the façade provides high insulation to noise. These walls should be fixed both horizontally and vertically between adjacent floors to minimize the transmission of noise from one floor to the other (Watts 2001). The engineers can also design party walls which provide high levels of noise insulation in that noise cannot spread from one apartment to the next. In areas where there is traffic or aircraft noise, the building should be fitted with a double glazing acoustic system which includes complete windows and two sliding doors. Figure2. Increasing the distance between the building and highways Lifts can also be a source of noise in a high-rise building especially if the shafts pass through sensitive areas. According to Eisele (2004), to avoid the occurrence of this noise in Trump World Tower, the engineers should upgrade the wall by use of secondary plasterboard inside the apartments as this will compact noise inside the lift or act as noise absorbents and hence no noise is spread in the building. To minimize noise in Trump World Tower, the structural engineers should ensure that the entrance doors have acoustic seals which will help to enhance privacy between the lifts and the apartments and hence reduction in noise as noted by Eisele (2004). Also waste pipes from one apartment to the other should be fixed in manner that the transfer does not make noise or be a source of noise to the building. Water supply pumps into and up the building also can act as a source of noise to Trump World Tower. In this case, they should be well isolated with flexible connections and as a result noise will be reduced. Emergency power supply or power back up can also be a source of noise to Trump World Tower as they produce high vibrations. For example use of generators as backups produces a lot of vibrations which result to noise (Addis 1994). If the backup has to be installed then there is need for the structural engineers to make sure that the building is vibration isolated and acoustically isolated so as to reduce or prevent the noise from entering into the building. Fire Engineering This is the application engineering principles and science so as to protect people or occupants of a building and the surrounding environment from fire and smoke which may be very disastrous (Eisele 2004).  Trump World Tower in New York City should have been structured in a manner that evacuation can take place in the event of a fire breakout. In earlier discussion, we stated that high-rise building pose a great challenge to fire fighters in times of fire breakouts and this is mainly due to their huge height and the vertical distance that is used by both the occupants in their way out and the firefighters in their way into the building and this calls for the involvement of fire engineers in the design phase of the building (Addis 1994). These buildings should therefore have or be fitted with sprinklers, detection systems and control measures for compartmentation and smoke and as such the buildings will be highly protected. According to Eisele (2004) to ensure that the buildings are safe, fire fighters have in the past engaged themselves in the assessment of the building design and hence taking into account the important features of the building into account and especially the ones dealing with fire safety. Fire engineering is a technical requirement in construction of high rise buildings and with any building should be designed in accordance with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Involvement of fire engineers to design a fire safety measures was essential to ensure that Trump World Tower is freed from disasters. The following fire engineering activities should be considered in the construction of the high-rise building: As the construction of the high-rise building rises higher, there is the need to consider more effective fire safety strategies. In this case the involvement of fire engineers in the designing of the building will enable them to detect any possibility of fire growing in the building when fire breaks, the speed of movement or spread of smoke (Eisele 2004). The result of this is the achievement of life safety as well as fire objectives in the construction of Trump World Tower. This is therefore a technical requirement in the construction of high-rise building as it is through this that the appropriate measures to ensure that the building is safe from fire is put into place. In the design of Trump World Tower emphasis should be put on how to manage smoke and the means of escaping in case of fire (Addis 1994). The design dealing with fire safety should deal with methods of managing smoke, escape means, how to suppress fire or compartmentation, how to provide for the fire fighting, methods of notifying the occupants the fire breakout, how to detect any occurrence of fire and management of fire safety in the building as argued by Eisele (2004). The provision of more than two stair cases and separate staircases in the Trump World Tower is one way of providing the occupants with an escape means in case of fire as more and separate staircases helps to ease the congestion of people while escaping from the building. In case of a fire breakout in a building it is not advisable to use the lifts as methods of evacuation and having this staircases will therefore enable the rescuers to be in a position to rescue all occupants (Eisele 2004). Think of a situation where there is only one stair case in a complex and tall building and the occupants only use the lifts to go up the building. In case of a breakout of fire rescuing these occupants will be very difficult as no enough space for that. Also a standard design of lift should be fitted in the business. This lift should be upgraded to a fireman’s lift standards as noted by Eisele (2004). This then calls for an emergency supply of power into the building, emergency operation programming, ensuring that water is not drained into the lifts and fitting lift shafts which are fire rated. Emergency lifts which should be hardened or protected for evacuation incase of extreme fire cases should also be installed in Trump World Tower. Using both the lifts and stair cases reduces evacuation time. Figure 3 Using lifts for evacuation in extreme emergencies Also the engineers of Trump World Tower should engage an evacuation strategy which uses a refined lift and combines a stair evacuation of a group of floors where occupants are evacuated to a protected area in case of a fire breakout from where the occupants are evacuated using the fireman’s standard lift (Watts 2001). This calls for the inclusion of stairs connecting those particular floors to the evacuation room in the building. Trump World Tower engineers should also consider the application of building codes and specifically the fire safety codes in the design phase of the construction. This code helps the fire engineers to understand how the building has been built so as to understand how to respond in case of any fire incident. In any building plan, fire protection measures should be put into place. Emergency fire in Trump World Tower can lead to problems in evacuation and as result the fire engineers should consider alternative evacuation phases. This process highly relies on compartmentalization to evacuate the fire floor and the floor above or below the fire floor and it requires sprinklers, good communication channel and a high level of fire management so as the evacuation to take place (Watts 2001). This will enhance the evacuation of the occupants in the fire vicinity and as a result congestion in the stair cases is eased and hence easy evacuation. Fire alarms and automatic fire extinguisher are some requirements that should be installed in the building; fire extinguishers help to minimize the amount of fire while the alarms alert in each floor the occupants of any emergency. Technical recommendations I would recommend the engineers to ensure that all safety equipments are installed in the building and the best fire safety standards put into place so as to avoid loss of lives in case of a fire break out. Fire break out in a high-rise building can be very detrimental and hazardous and as a result the buildings should be fully equipped with fire security measures. Emergency kits should also be fitted in each of the buildings floor so that the occupants of each floor can see them. Building compliance Building compliance is simply the policies control any construction of a building. They are basically concerned with the protection of all people entering the building and this is done by ensuring that safety systems are put into place. A compliance schedule is a list of all essential safety systems which should be installed in a building together with the inspection and maintenance procedures. A Compliance Schedule Statement (CSS) is a temporary notification which is issued for the first 12 months upon completion of the building and it is later replaced to provide the meeting of the compliance (Watts 2001). In building of Trump World Tower, the following requirements or systems as specified by Building Act 2004 should be complied with: According to Eisele (2004), emergency lighting systems should be installed to ensure that the building is well lit even when there is a power failure. As a technical requirement, Trump World Tower should be fitted with power back-up to ensure a full supply of power and this will ease going up the building when there is no electricity. Emergency warning systems should also be installed. They can either be manual or automatic but fitting both is advisable so as to be able to alert occupants of any danger even when there is no power (Watts 2001). Trump World Tower engineers should also ensure that the building is installed with mechanical ventilation which will enable the occupants to use the natural light. The building should also be well ventilated to ensure free flow of fresh air. Trump World Tower should also be fitted with escape routes which include emergency doors and escape stair cases as argued by Eisele (2004).Trump World Tower should be fitted with an evacuation strategy for each floor which is always tested occasionally to ascertain their operation. Control systems for regulating smoke supply in the building should also be installed as this will enable the savers to evacuate people when fire rises  Technical recommendation Compliance with the building schedule is a technical requirement which building constructors should followed as it is after the inspection of the building that a warrant of fitness is issued. Therefore, the engineers should ensure that all building rules and regulations are strictly followed to ensure safety standards in the building are maintained. Conclusion High-rise is a tall building with more than six floors and care must be taken when constructing this houses or health the building will be a health hazard and that why the structural engineers have to include all the relevant bodies and personnel when in the design phase or when planning for the construction of the building as argued by Eisele (2004). The construction of a high-rise building therefore requires the engineers in action to apply all building rules and regulations. To successfully employ the fire safety rules, the structural engineers should involve fire engineers who are experts in ensuring fire safety in a building. This will then ensure that the security of the occupants is determined together with the people living near the building (Watts 2001). It is therefore advisable for the structural engineers to apply all the technical requirements for the construction of the building as this will not only justify a health living in the building but also enable the owners of the building to be given a warrant of fitness by the inspectorate body. Work Cited Eisele, J and Kloft, E. (2004) High Rise Manual. Birkhauser, Boston Addis, W. (1994) The Art of the Structural Engineer. Artemis, London Allen, E. (1999) Fundamentals of Building Construction, Materials & Methods, 3rd Ed. Wily, New York. Fairweather, V. (2004) Expressing Structure: The technology of large scale buildings. Birkhauser, Boston. Levy, M. and Salvadori, M. (2002) Why Buildings Fall Down. Norton, New York.. Watts, A. (2001) Modern Construction Handbook. Springer, New York. Read More