“PETRONAS TWIN TOWER”

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

“Unity Within Unity, Harmony, Stability, and

Rationality”
 “THE PETRONAS TWIN TOWER”
CRISTELE MAE GARCIA
SHARIFFA MARIAN JAMSURI
CARLA MAE SANTIAGO

Have you ever wondered how tall skyscrapers can stand up so impressively to the force of

gravity? But what about more violent forces, such as those produced by earthquakes? A well-planned

and tested design, when combined with the right materials, can keep a building intact through all sorts

of shakes and quakes.

Once, the tallest buildings in the world, the “Petronas Twin Towers” also known as Menara

Petronas or Menara Berkembar Petronas in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, stand at an amazing

452 meters tall. According to Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, It is the tallest building in

the world from 1998 to 2004 until the 460 meters Shanghai World Financial Centre emerges in China.

Why does this structure become earthquake resistant?

There are reasons behind this towers of being an earthquake resistant structure. Some of the

reasons would be because of its:

Design Concept:

As you can see in the figure below, the simple geometric forms with interlocking squares

forming an eight-pointed star are based on the Islamic principle of Unity within Unity, Harmony,

Stability and Rationality.

 So the architects were challenged to come up with an economically buildable frame that can

withstand large amount of stress and loads. Choosing between steel and concrete as a construction

material is the one that the Structural Consultant of the Petronas Twin Tower faced to decide.

Since steel was not readily available in Malaysia and has prohibitively high tariffs makes the

concrete the construction material of choice.

Furthermore, steel buildings tend to be more flexible than the concrete ones and sometimes

have to be fitted by a mechanical devices known as tuned mass dampers.

Tuned mass dampers also known as seismic dampers is a device that is mounted in structure to

reduce vibrations.

While concrete structures on the other hand, although they tend to be more fitted and have

qualities that damp out quickly any vibrations, often bulkier looking.

And Ceasar Pelli wished to have a slender looking and have columns spaced rather than far

apart.

The tower has twelve columns surrounding the bustle and 16 columns surrounding the tower.

And has a core that serves as lifts, exits stairs, mechanical services. The central core can also resists

lateral forces.
 So to achieve the design of the tower. They come up with an idea to use a high strength

concrete which has a bearing capacity three times than the conventional concrete. Special concrete

mixes were developed to produce a compressive strength as high as 10000 pounds per square inch

which is equivalent to 68 MPA.

Foundation:

Excavation at early ages of construction revealed major problems with the Kenny Hill soil which

is limestone bedrock. The limestone bed rock below the towers turned out to slope steeply to one side.

Therefore, the structure was relocated for about 60m to the southeast. Finally rested on concrete mat

anchored with concrete friction piles.

Like Burj Khalifa of Dubai, Petronas Twin Towers were also rested on pile supported raft

foundation. The whole foundation was rested on 104 piles and to reach the safe bed rock the piles were

extended to depth (200-394) feet. The piles were embedded by thick raft that is 15 feet in depth and

requires an enormous amount of concrete to cast it.

Since they have used a high strength of concrete that makes the structure three times heavier than

the conventional concrete and the self-weight of the building becomes higher, they have concluded to

have a deeper foundation. And it makes Petronas Twin Tower became the structure having the deepest

seated foundation in the world.

The foundation itself occupies a weight of 35,800 tons and the building of it took 12 months to

be completed.
 Skybridge:

Lateral shaking is the force that can cause the most damage to a building during an

earthquake. These forces usually occurs in a direction parallel to the ground. Designing a building to

have lateral resistance is helpful not only preventing quake damage, but also from the lateral forces

such as wind.

By considering the figure below, the primary structural skeleton of a building like the

Petronas Towers can be visualized as a vertical cantilever beam with the base fixed in the ground.

The Petronas Twin Tower must to carry the vertical

loads, lateral wind, and earthquake loads. Since wind load tend to snap the building or topple it, the

tower must therefore have adequate shear and bending resistance and must not lose its vertical load

carrying capability. Based on the picture, when the wind blows, the columns in the windy side stretch
apart or are being in tension control and the columns on the other side squeeze together or it is in its

compression form. In result, the Petronas Twin Towers might rise or lowers, might lean in or away,

and they might actually twist in different directions.

The building of skybridge arises. It uses a combination of rectangles and triangles

structure to add more strength and stability to the bridge. The tower features a double decker skybridge

connecting the two towers on the 41st and 42nd floors, which is now the highest 2-story bridge in the

world. At first, they were to build the bridge without legs but structural problem arises. Since the two

towers can sway in phase or out of phase, or maybe twist, the bridge is not attached to the main

structure but instead designed to slide in and out of the towers to prevent it from breaking and having

sag at the middle of the bridge. To overcome this, the 3 hinged arch which has rotational pins, special

bearing connections and set of slender steel legs was designed to support each tower. “As the tower

move together or apart, the legs change slope, the two hinged arch rotate at spring points and the legs

flex at their top, the bridge structure would not collapse but deflect ad stay in position.”