Week 3

This week we were able to gain valuable information that will go towards the construction of our model, as we were able to find blueprints of the structure online.  This will give us the dimensions so that we can scale our model appropriately when we make our CAD design.  We also found out that before the tower was put up it was put through three tests conducted by The Seismic Administration Office.  The first test was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the joints in the structure, the second tested the steel columns, and the third test tested the overall structure under the conditions of a Level 3 Earthquake.  The building past the tests but their was concern in the beginning that the high concentration of steel would reduce the buildings ductility (1).  We may use this concern as a place for improvement in the structure but will still search for more weaknesses.  This week we plan to start the basic outline of our CAD design and research with the purpose of finding a true weakness in the structure and how we can improve it.

Here are some general dimensions of the tower:

Figure 3:  Dimensions of structure

($5 billion budget) (2)

Sources:

1. http://www.ctbuh.org/TallBuildings/FeaturedTallBuildings/ArchiveJournal/CCTVHeadquartersBeijing/tabid/3322/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

2. http://www.slideshare.net/peterbach/cctv-building-a-structural-design-overview