 Mega frame structural system (also known as superframe structure) is an ideal

structural system suitable for supertall buildings such as skyscrapers, as it offers

efficiency of providing high rigidity against the lateral loads with minimum amount
of structural materials.

 A mega-frame is composed of a series of main frames and several substructures.

Each main frame consists of mega columns and mega girders.

 The Mega girders are rigid as connected together at approximately every 10–25
stories to build large moment-resisting frames, which are primary lateral resisting
structural systems for this type of structure.

 Mega columns are typically either the staircase cores or the elevator cores. Each
one-story mega girder has a series of openings and is placed at three- or four- story
intervals throughout the building. The main frame resists most of the horizontal and
vertical Loads that are transferred from substructures.

 This large frame also supports the secondary structures (or substructures).A
substructure, which consists of three or four stories supported by a mega girder,
mainly takes its own vertical loads.Therefore, this kind of structure consists of large
number of members.

 This structural system has sufficient lateral stiffness to resist wind or earthquake
loads, with the combined action of mega columns and mega girders, which consist
of many columns, girders, trusses and/or slabs.

 Besides mega girders and mega columns, the joint region of a mega-frame can be
divided into nine parts, which could be classified into four types according to their
position and performance under loads. They are identified as small joint zone,
connecting beam, mega column pier along with flange wall, and kernel, respectively.

 There are four small joint zones, which connect the components of mega girders
and mega columns. They look like conventional beam-column joints, however, their
performance under loads is quite advanced from that of ordinary frame joints.

 Connecting beams convert two single piers into coupled shear walls (a mega
column), and contribute primarily to the stiffness of mega columns.

 Parts of mega column piers, which are located outside the joint region, are called
flange walls. They strengthen the joint region and reduce the span of mega girders.

 The kernel, which may be perforated or solid, is the central part of the joint region.
Due to the flanges of mega columns and mega girders, there must be a flange frame
around the joint region.
 A well-known building constructed by the mega frame system is the HSBC
(Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Corporation) headquarters building.

 The other famous example is the Shanghai Tower. Even though there are not very
many mega frame structures, the mega frame system is frequently used for future
super tall building projects. Holonic Tower, which is planned by the Takenaka
Corporation (2003), adopted the mega frame system for super tall buildings that
are more than twice as high as present high-rise buildings. Moreover, Tuntex Sky
Tower, an 85-floor skyscraper located in Lingya District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan,
adopted the mega frame system as well.

 A super frame structural system along with passive energy dissipation devices has
been developed and applied to a high-rise residential tower. The proposed system
is composed of core walls, hat beams incorporated into the top level, outer columns
and viscous dampers vertically installed between the tips of the hat beams and the
outer columns. During an earthquake, the hat beams and outer columns act as
outriggers and reduce the overturning moment in the core, and the installed
dampers also reduce the moment and the lateral deflection of the structure. This
innovative system can eliminate inner beams and inner columns on each floor, and
thereby provide buildings with column-free floor space even in highly seismic
regions.

 Since the super tall mega frame building has a large number of elements and nodes,
dynamic analyses of this system require significant computational resources.
Therefore, a matrix condensation technique is employed to efficiently predict the
structural behavior of a mega frame structure.

 However, the computational resources required for the matrix condensation

process of a super tall mega frame structure by a conventional condensation
technique are significant, because hundreds of thousands of degrees of freedoms
(DOFs) should be condensed.

 To overcome this difficulty, Mega elements, sub-mega elements and multi-level

condensation techniques are developed for saving the computing resources
required for matrix condensation.

 In general, parts of a structure with the same configuration and/or structural

properties, referred to as mega columns and mega girders, are repeatedly used in
many locations of a mega frame structure. Thus, the application of the
substructuring technique may be very effective in the preparation of an analytical
model for mega frame structures.
Case study of China Zun Tower (A Mega Frame Structure)

Introduction

 China Zun is a supertall skyscraper under construction in the Central Business

District of Beijing, Capital of China. It has 108 stories with a height of 528 m, a gross
floor area of 350,000m2 . The structural engineer is a design consortium consists of
my previous employer Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (Group) Co., Ltd.

 The shape of the building resembles the ancient Chinese wine vessel. It is currently
the tallest building in the location, where the seismic fortification intensity is 8
magnitudes.

 The geometry of the mega frame system was built in Rhinoceros software,
Parametric modeling design was performed using Grasshopper.

The Structural System

 The structural system of a tall building with such a height must find a proper
balance between stiffness and ductility. Beijing is in a location where magnitude 8
seismic fortification intensity therefore, for this particular tall building, the design
consortium introduced a highly efficient dual system for lateral force resistance.

 It is composed of a fully braced mega frame and a concrete core. Composite

steel-concrete floor system is used for the floor system.The mega columns are
concrete-filled steel boxes. There are two mega columns at each corner, which
merged into four huge concrete columns. It can also be seen that the mega columns
are connected through horizontal transfer truss as well as huge braces, which
extends to 10 stories

 As the shape of the building resembles a Zun cup, the enlarged top zone
encompasses extra mass at the top of the tower. This will have adverse effects when
the building is subject to earthquake loading, which may generate extra shear to the
neck zone, so special measure need to be made.

 To tackle this problem, steel plates with a thickness of 30–60 mm are embedded in
the core at the low or top floors for further strengthening of the core, which greatly
enhances the shear resistance of the core. The wall thickness is also reduced,
because of the addition of steel plates.

Case Study of Shanghai Tower—Mega Frame Structure

 The 632-m tall Shanghai Tower is the tallest building in China and the world’s third
tallest structure. The building has 128 stories with five underground floors. The
total floor area is 380,000 m2 . The tower is design by American architectural firm
 Gensler. The structural engineer for this tower is Thornton Tomasetti. The Shanghai
Tower also use tuned mass damper to limit swaying at the top of the structure, it
was the world’s largest at the time of its installation.

The Structural System of the Shanghai Tower

 The major structural system of this building is the internal concrete core wall and
outer mega frame system. Outside the main structural system, there is another
secondary cladding system to support the curtain wall, which is directly connected
to the mega frame.

 Shanghai Tower has the tallest mega frame structure in the world and the largest
and highest flexible curtain wall in the world.

 the building is divided into nine separate zones along its height, which are
separated by eight zones strengthening the floors. Each zone is about 80-m high.
The core of the structure is approximately30 m2 . The mega frame is made up of
supercolumns and diagonal columns along with double belt truss at each zone.

 there are eight supercolumns along with four corner columns with two-story
high-belt truss to connect these columns. The supercolumns are composite
structures made up of steel sections encased in concrete.

 the internal core and outer mega fame are also connected by outriggers at six levels
(at zones 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8).

 the floors are designed as composite metal deck slabs. They are supported on the
steel beams supported in between the internal core and ring beams, which are
supported on the mega columns. The inner layer of the glass curtain wall is attached
along the periphery of the floor slabs; the outer layer of the glass curtain wall is
attached to the radial trusses.

advantages
 a large open space for social intercourse can be planned in the story where mega
girders are located because substructures are not necessarily continuous in the
vertical direction.

 the structural system and the materials for substructures can be different than
those used in the main frame. This may result in savings in construction costs.

 the megaframe has a significant degree of lateral stiffness and can efficiently resist
lateral loads.

 This frame system can be incorporated not only steel and concrete but also many
composite structures.
 This system reduces the overturning moment on the kernel and transfer the
reduced moment to columns outside mega column by the action of
tension-compression coupled, which take advantage of the increase moment arm
between the flanges.

 the plan and space requirements for individual residential apartments depend on
the construction of substructures, which may utilize standardized and prefabricated
housing units.

 Though the internal force distribution of the mega-frame is similar to that of the
ordinary frame. but, the joint region of mega-frame is complex and advanced.

 It is found that flange walls reduce the stresses in the joint region.

 Shear failure in mega girders and their connectors are successfully avoided.

 The behavior of joint regions is contrary from that of ordinary frame joints as they
effectively perform against both lateral and gravity loads.

 We could create different geometric and aerodynamic shapes by various

architectural designs, design, and produce the architect’s desired configuration.

 Load transfer in this structure is ideal because of concentric and zero eccentric
connections in axials.

 Offers better corrosion resistance in the system, and the structure is seismic
protected.

 Structural integrity and global ductility is superior in this system.

 Rigid frame connections can be avoided on the exterior frame of the structures,
bringing out economies.

 Considerable reduction or complete elimination in the net tension forces in the

substructures such as small joints, flanges and column piers.

Disadvantages:

 Connection at the interface between kernel and foundation is expensive and

involves intensive work.

 Labour intensive and expensive rock anchors are required alternative to simple
spread footing.

 Expensive foundations solely required to resist overturning moments.

 The central core takes up a large part of the floor space and there is less room for
the actual purpose of the building, such as offices and apartments. The consequence
of this is also less rental profit. At a certain height of the building, the central core
will not alone manage to keep the building stable.