OFFICE BUILDING FOR INSURANCE COMPANY IN LONDON, ENGLAND

 

The building is a 30-storey suspended structure containing 26100 m2 of office space. The entrance hall extends through a height of two storeys.

In each storey, the floor beams are supported at their inner ends in pockets formed in the concrete core, while their outer ends are attached to steel hangers in the facades. At about mid-height and at the top of the building the hangers transmit their loads, from the twelve storeys below these levels to a cantilever frame built out from the core. Wind forces are also transmitted to the core, through the floor slabs.

The 13 cm thick lightweight concrete floor slabs are in composite construction with the floor beams, welded studs being used as shear connectors. The hangers are flat bars, 228 mm wide, increasing in thickness with height from 19 to 51 mm.

The hangers in the facades are suspended from edge girders, those parallel to the two longer sides of the core being plate girders, while those in the other direction being two-storey high lattice girders. From these edge girders the vertical forces exerted by the hangers are transmitted through diagonal ties and horizontal struts to the core of the building. The horizontal forces transmitted by the cantilever frames to each side of the core balance one another, the diagonal ties being interconnected by prestressed high-tensile steel ties linking their upper points of attachment, while the struts transmit their thrust through the floor slabs within the core. The vertical forces from the ties are transmitted to the core through the special brackets provided. The bottom chords of the two-storey high lattice girders are of welded I-section, 1220 mm deep, with plate thicknesses up to 62 mm.

 

Notes:

cantilever frame каркас с консолями