Feasibility study of a wood-concrete hybrid super tall building and optimization of its wind-induced behaviour: A case study on a skyscraper in the city-centre of Rotterdam

The demand for sustainable high-rise buildings is growing. Such sustainable high-rise could be realized by the use of mass timber for the structural design instead of more conventional building materials such as steel and concrete. Timber is a renewable resource which can be CO2 neutral if reforestation takes place to close its carbon cycle. In addition, the light-weight of timber reduces the loads on the foundation, and the timber could be used as an architectural feature as well. The height boundaries for tall timber buildings are currently extending, as illustrated by the ongoing realization of a 70 metres tall timber building in Amsterdam. However, the light-weight of timber make tall timber buildings prone to dynamic wind loading. In addition, the current trend to design slender high-rise further increases the wind-induced dynamic response of the building. In this thesis, the technical feasibility of a super tall hybrid wood-concrete building was evaluated and its wind-induced dynamic behaviour was optimized. To this end a 300m tall building of timber and concrete was designed for construction in the city-centre of Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Due to the absence of seismic activity in the area, wind loading was identified as the governing parameter for lateral stability design. The structural design was therefore optimized to satisfy serviceability criteria for lateral drift and occupant comfort. Based on these requirements, the structure was designed as a reinforced concrete core surrounded by a glued-laminated timber (GLT) frame and floor slabs consisting of a cross-laminated timber (CLT) panel with a thin concrete top layer. Lateral stability was ensured by an outrigger/belt-truss system at three levels, resulting in a significant increase of the global stiffness in the structure, and in a reduction of the maximum lateral inter-storey drift by a factor two. In order to fully design a 300m tall wood-concrete hybrid building, desi