At 984 feet, the SEG Plaza is one of the tallest skyscrapers in Shenzhen. The tower houses a large electronics market, as well as numerous offices. Several video clips posted to social media showed the building swaying back and forth. One clip purportedly filmed inside the building showed the interior shaking in a dramatic way. The building was evacuated shortly after the shaking started.
All really tall buildings shimmy-shake. Just... some do it more than others.
ReplyDeleteIt's been known since the onset of modern skyscrapers that are basically a steel frame with the floors and stuff hanging off the frame. And there are all sorts of known fixes, from counter-balancing rooms up top to rollers on the bottom and such. (Old school skyscrapers, like the Chrysler Building, rely on mass of concrete and stone to suck up the sway, with a corresponding loss of interior space.)
So... Chy-nah screwed up. So unusual, so funny. Serves them right, the rat bastides.
The John Hancock tower in Boston also swayed enough to make people sick and pop out large plate glass windows from their frames. It required a retrofit of antisway dampers in the upper floors to stop it. The Sear Tower (old name) in Chicago also sways but slowly enough that people don't really notice it. Coffee slops around in cups, which is disconcerting.
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese do a lot of excellent civil engineering; all the great new projects are there. But the designers screwed up the stiffness resistance.
In the first pass of a design, you make sure the frame stands up under load. In the second pass you adjust the stiffness so that people aren't frightened.
The old Lazarus store in the defunct Northland Mall in Columbus had a bad vibration problem.
The masses of the "tuned Mass Damper" anti-sway system were probably held on with their finest counterfeit bolts...operative word being: were!
ReplyDeleteThis was bound to happen...it doesn't surprise ma in the least...
wind shear
ReplyDeleteThe should have stuck to the tried & true Flying Buttress" solution. Heck it's been keeping countless churches and cathedrals from swaying since the 14th century.
ReplyDeleteHad to be climate change
ReplyDeleteIn 1978 when I lived in Japan, our apartment was in a 6 story building- we were on the 3rd floor. One day as I was sitting on the floor, naturally, a quake happened a few miles away. I felt the floor translate about 15 cm one direction and then return to the initial position. It was probably less than a mag 4.0 or so. Nobody got excited. Felt weird though.
ReplyDeleteBuilding sky scrapers out of chinesium sounded like a goo idea at first.
ReplyDeletenoticed at the end they said the shaking stopped after it was evacuated. hmmm. could be the extra weight of people wasn't factored in. rookie mistake.
ReplyDeleteRussian interference.
ReplyDelete