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60-Story Diagrid Skyscraper & Core
Perimeter tubular diagonal grid stiffness optimization under boundary-layer wind profiles and torsional modal dynamics.
A 240-meter 60-story high-rise tower utilizes a perimeter rhombic steel diagrid (without vertical columns) coupled with a central reinforced concrete shear core. The diagonal grid resolves lateral shear and overturning moments through pure axial tension and compression, eliminating the shear lag inherent in moment frames. WebCAE analyzes 3D wind drift, floor inter-story drift ratios, and high-frequency torsional vibration modes across 74k degrees of freedom.
1. Geometry & FEA Mesh
- •Tower geometry: height 240.0 m (60 stories × 4.0 m), footprint 40.5 × 40.5 m, central RC core 13.5 × 13.5 m (t = 0.6 m, E = 40 GPa).
- •Perimeter diagrid: 864 diagonal box tubes (b = 302–503 mm, t = b/12) inclined at ≈69° in 12-meter high triangular diamond modules, tied by perimeter ring beams.
- •Floor system: 60 trapezoidal concrete slab levels (t = 0.25 m, effective floor load 800 kg/m²) tying the central core directly to perimeter node intersections.
- •Mesh: 14,256 quads, 1,728 beam members, 11,608 nodes, and 74,304 active DOFs (with 2 FE segments per diagonal for buckling evaluation).
2. Loads & Boundary Conditions
- •Clamped foundation: full 6-DOF restraint along the base perimeter and core shear wall footprints.
- •Wind profile: power-law boundary layer wind pressure q(z) = 600 Pa · (z/10)^0.28 applied in 24 m step bands (base shear 18.21 MN, overturning moment 2,941.6 MN·m).
- •Gravity load: self-weight of RC core (35 kt), floor slabs (84 kt), and structural steel framing (6,000 t).
3. Simulation Results & Findings
- ✓Top lateral wind drift u_top = 463.7 mm (H/621 ratio, comfortably satisfying the standard H/500 civil code threshold).
- ✓Natural vibration frequencies: fundamental sway modes f₁ = 0.1162 Hz (X) and f₂ = 0.1193 Hz (Y); torsional mode f_T = 0.5671 Hz (26% stiffer than moment frames).
- ✓Achieves 85.1% of ideal thin-walled cantilevering efficiency with identical 6,000 t steel budget compared to outrigger and frame systems.
Structural engineering consultants use WebCAE to benchmark diagrid geometries against framed and outrigger typologies under identical steel tonnage in minutes. Sharing pre-solved .caeweb models gives architectural teams and municipal review bodies immediate insight into drift controls, vibration comfort, and structural efficiency.
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