Structural Pattern's Granularity Variation to Optimize a Vertical Structure

The increasing demand of vertical buildings has encouraged the development of vertical structure optimization. Most optimization has focused on size optimization. However, shape/form optimization and pattern/topology optimization are believed to have more impact not only towards structural efficiency, but also to the aesthetic of the building. Modifying structural pattern on the vertical building's perimeter has great potential to improve the structural performance, not only to satisfy the efficiency criteria, but also to fulfil functional and aesthetic consideration. Thus, previous research has been performed to optimize the performance of the vertical structure by applying different patterns of the perimeter structure. Result showed that among three non-routine patterns applied and orthogonal pattern as the benchmark, triangular pattern is the optimum in terms of efficiency, economy, expressiveness, and environmental sustainability. This paper examines the effect of granularity variation of triangular pattern employed on the perimeter of vertical buildings to optimize the structural performance. In here, granularity of the pattern is taken as the key structural feature to be manipulated in increasing further the efficiency of the structure. Medium and high-rise buildings are taken as the case studies to examine the performance of each pattern under two loading conditions - vertical and horizontal loads. For each case, triangular pattern in three different degrees of granularity are modelled using CAD modelling and optimized with structural design and optimization software. Results from different granularities applied are then compared, and analyzed to decide the effect of the structural pattern's granularity variation towards the efficiency of the structure.