COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE

Activity No
1 – Engineering Structures
and Title:
Name of
Theory of Structures 1 Baguidudol, Joy P.
Student:
Date
Jan 12, 2023
Submitted:

ACTIVITY 1: Download one picture of existing structures of the following type. Include a brief
engineering description of the structure and cite your source of information.

1. Building: Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art
Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York
City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb &
Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is
derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the
state of New York. The building has a roof height of
1,250 feet (380 m) and stands a total of 1,454 feet
(443.2 m) tall, including its antenna. The Empire State
Building was the world's tallest building until the
World Trade Center was topped out in 1970; following
the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Empire State
Building was New York City's tallest building until it
was surpassed in 2012. As of 2022, the building is the
seventh-tallest building in New York City, the ninth-
tallest completed skyscraper in the United States, the
54th-tallest in the world, and the sixth-tallest
freestanding structure in the Americas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building
The Empire State Building is composed of 60,000
tons of steel, 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone and
granite, 10 million bricks, and 730 tons of aluminum and
stainless steel. Steel columns and beams form a stable 3-D grid throughout the entire
structure. But since such closely spaced column grids obstruct open spaces in buildings,
there are virtually no open spans, or column-free spaces, on each floor of the Empire State
Building.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/wonder/structure/empire_state.html

2. Dam: Three Gorges Dam – Hubei, China

Three-Gorges-Dam is a huge
hydroelectric dam that’s
reservoir extends through the
Yangtze River across the town
of Sandouping, Yiling County,
Hubei Province, central China,
downstream of the Three
Gorges River. Three-Gorges-
Dam has been the world's
largest power station in terms
of installed capacity (22,500
MW) since 2012. In 2018, the
dam produced 101.6 terawatt-
hours (TWh), breaking its
previous record, but still
slightly lower than Itaipú Dam,
which made world record in 2016 after producing -103.1 TWh.
The dam is composed of a straight-crested concrete gravity structure. The Three-Gorges-
Dam is 2553.587 yards (7,660 feet) long with a height of 202.318 yards (607 feet). It
incorporates 28.00 million cubic metres (37.00 million cubic yards) of concrete and 463,000.00
metric tons of steel/metal into its design. Submerging large areas of the Qutang, Wu, and
Xiling gorges for some 600.00 km (375.00 miles) upstream, the dam has created an immense
deep-water reservoir allowing ocean-going sailors to navigate 2,250.00 km (1,400.00 miles)
inland from Shanghai on the East-China-Sea to the inland city of Chongqing. Limited
hydroelectric power production began in 2003 AD, and gradually increased as additional
turbine generators came online over the years until 2012 AD, when all of the dam’s 32 turbine
generator units were operating at a time. The units, along with 2 additional generators,
increased the capacity of the dam to generate 22,500 megawatts of electricity, thus, making it
the most productive hydroelectric dam in the world. Another purpose of the construction of
the dam was also to prevent millions of people from flood, which they had faced each year,
before its construction.
https://civilengineeringbible.com/article.php?i=288

3. Bridge (Railway or Highway):

The Sydney Harbour
Bridge, also affectionately
known as the 'Coathanger',
was opened on March 19th
1932 by Premier Jack Lang,
after six years of construction.
Made of steel the bridge
contains 6 million hand driven
rivets. The surface area that
requires painting is equal to
about the surface area of 60
sports fields. The Bridge has
huge hinges to absorb the
expansion caused by the hot
Sydney sun. You will see them
on either side of the bridge at
the footings of the Pylons.
The iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge spans the Harbour at its narrowest point between
Dawes and Milsons Points. It is a double-hinged, riveted steel arch bridge with a reinforced
concrete deck and reinforced concrete pylons and at the time of its completion in 1932 it was
considered the epitome of modern bridge design and engineering ingenuity.
https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/building_the_sydney_harbour_bridge

4. Tunnel: Gotthard Base Tunnel

The Gotthard Base Tunnel
(GBT; German: Gotthard-
Basistunnel, Italian: Galleria di
base del San Gottardo,
Romansh: Tunnel da basa dal
Sogn Gottard) is a railway tunnel
through the Alps in Switzerland.
It opened in June 2016 and full
service began the following
December. With a route length of
57.09 km (35.5 mi), it is the
world's longest railway and
deepest traffic tunnel and the
first flat, low-level route through
the Alps. It lies at the heart of the Gotthard axis and constitutes the third tunnel connecting
the cantons of Uri and Ticino, after the Gotthard Tunnel and the Gotthard Road Tunnel.
The structure consists of two single-track tunnels, which run over 57 kilometres from
Erstfeld to Bodio. The construction was divided into five sections, in two of them so-called
multifunction stations with emergency stops were built.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthard_Base_Tunnel
 5. Arch: Gateway Arch
The Gateway Arch is a
630-foot-tall (192 m) monument
in St. Louis, Missouri, United
States. Clad in stainless steel
and built in the form of a
weighted catenary arch, it is the
world's tallest arch and
Missouri's tallest accessible
building. Some sources
consider it the tallest human-
made monument in the Western
Hemisphere. Built as a
monument to the westward
expansion of the United States
and officially dedicated to "the
American people", the Arch,
commonly referred to as "The
Gateway to the West", is a
National Historic Landmark in Gateway Arch National Park and has become an internationally
recognized symbol of St. Louis, as well as a popular tourist destination.
The Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1947;
construction began on February 12, 1963, and was completed on October 28, 1965, at an
overall cost of $13 million (equivalent to $86.5 million in 2018). The monument opened to the
public on June 10, 1967. It is located at the site of the founding of St. Louis on the west bank
of the Mississippi River.
Construction of the arch itself began on February 12, 1963, as the first steel triangle on
the south leg was eased into place. These steel triangles, which narrowed as they spiraled to
the top, were raised into place by a group of cranes and derricks. The arch was assembled of
142 12-foot-long (3.7 m) prefabricated stainless steel sections. Once in place, each section
had its double-walled skin filled with concrete, prestressed with 252 tension bars. In order to
keep the partially completed legs steady, a scissors truss was placed between them at 530
feet (160 m), later removed as the derricks were taken down. The whole endeavor was
expected to be completed by fall of l 1964, in observance of St. Louis's bicentennial.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Arch

6. Cable: Millau Viaduct

Millau Viaduct France (In
French le Viaduc de Millau) is
one of the most awesome civil
engineering project. It is a large
cable-stayed road-bridge that
spans the valley of the River
Tarn near Millau in France. It was
designed by structural engineer
Michel Virlogeux and architect
Norman Foster.One of the
summit of this bridge is at a
height of 343 meters)1125 ft)
which makes it is the tallest
vehicular bridge in the world.
The Millau Viaduct consists of
an eight-span steel roadway
supported by seven concrete
pylons. The roadway weighs 36,000 tons and is 2,460 m (8,100 ft) long, measuring 32 m (100 ft)
wide by 4.2 m (14 ft) deep, making it the world’s longest cable-stayed deck. The six central
spans each measure 342 m (1,120 ft) with the two outer spans measuring 204 m (670 ft). The
roadway has a slope of 3% descending from south to north, and curves in a plane section with
a 20 km (12 mi) radius to give drivers better visibility. It carries two lanes of traffic and one
safety lane in each direction.
The pylons range in height from 77 m (250 ft) to 246 m (810 ft), and taper in their
longitudinal section from 24.5 m (80 ft) at the base to 11 m (36 ft) at the deck. Each pylon is
composed of 16 framework sections, each weighing 2,230 tons. These sections were
assembled on site from pieces of 60 tons, 4 m (13 ft) wide and 17 m (56 ft) long, made in
factories in Lauterbourg and Fos-sur-Mer by Eiffage. The pylons each support 97 m (320 ft) tall
masts.
https://www.engineeringcivil.com/millau-viaduct-france-extreme-engineering.html

7. Dome: The Eden Project

Located in Cornwall, the
Eden Project is the world’s
largest greenhouse. The project
took 2½ years to construct and
opened its doors to the public in
2001. The Eden Project is
dominated by two huge
enclosures consisting of
adjoining domes that house
plant species from around the
world. The first enclosure
emulates a tropical
environment, and the second a
Mediterranean environment. The
domes consist of hundreds of
hexagonal and pentagonal,
inflated, plastic cells supported by steel frames.
They’re made of transparent hexagonal panels on a steel structure. The panels trap air
between two layers of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), a kind of plastic. ETFE is designed
for strength over a wide range of temperatures. The ETFE panels are very light, but can take
the weight of a car.
The buildings were designed to need as few construction materials as possible – the
honeycomb shape of the biome maximizes strength while minimizing materials. Staff
buildings have ‘green roofs’ which keep them warm in winter and cool in summer. They’re
insulated using recycled newspaper.
https://www.ice.org.uk/what-is-civil-engineering/what-do-civil-engineers-do/eden-project

8. Tower: The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is a wrought-iron lattice tower on
the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the
engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and
built the tower.
Locally nicknamed "La dame de fer" (French for "Iron
Lady"), it was constructed from 1887 to 1889 as the
centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair. Although initially
criticized by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals
for its design, it has since become a global cultural icon of
France and one of the most recognizable structures in the
world. The Eiffel Tower is the most visited monument with an
entrance fee in the world: 6.91 million people ascended it in
2015. It was designated a monument historique in 1964, and
was named part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site ("Paris,
Banks of the Seine") in 1991.
Work on the foundations started on 28 January 1887.
Those for the east and south legs were straightforward, with
each leg resting on four 2 m (6.6 ft) concrete slabs, one for
each of the principal girders of each leg. The west and north
legs, being closer to the river Seine, were more complicated:
each slab needed two piles installed by using compressed-air
caissons 15 m (49 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) in diameter driven to a depth of 22 m (72 ft) to
support the concrete slabs, which
were 6 m (20 ft) thick. Each of these
slabs supported a block of limestone
with an inclined top to bear a
supporting shoe for the ironwork.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Eiffel_Tower

9. Shell: Lotus Temple

The Baha'i House of
Worship, popularly known as
the Lotus Temple is not only a
 symbol of excellence in modern Indian architecture but also one of the most visited
religious buildings in the world. The Temple located on a 9.7-hectare site near Nehru
Place in South Delhi, is a place of worship open to all races, religions and castes.
The form of this House of Worship takes the shape the lotus, a flower considered
sacred by most Indians. It is designed to reflect the simplicity, clarity and freshness of the
Baha'i Faith and to act as a symbol of the unity of mankind and religions.
The structure is composed of three ranks of nine petals each, springing from a podium
which elevates the building above the surrounding plain. The first two ranks curve inward,
embracing the inner dome, while the third layer curves outward to form canopies over the nine
entrances.
The entire superstructure is designed to function as a series of skylights with glazing at
the apex of the inner petals, underneath the outer petals and on the external side of the
entrance petals. Light thus filters into the central hall in the same way as it passes through the
lotus flower.
The double-layered interior dome, modelled on the innermost portion of the lotus,
comprises 54 ribs with concrete shells in between. The central hall has a diameter of 34
metres and a height of 33.6 metres above the podium.
It is ringed by nine arches which provide the main support for the superstructure. With
a seating capacity of 2,200 the hall has no idols, no photographs and no priests. Besides the
main hall, the complex consists of an ancillary block with a reception centre, a library and an
administrative office.
Nine reflecting pools surround the building, their form suggesting the leaves of the
lotus. External illumination is so arranged as to make the lotus structure appeal floating on
water. The building embodies effective ventilation and cooling techniques. Fresh air, cooled
as it passes over the fountains and pools, is drawn in through openings in the basement up
into the central hall and expelled through a vent at the top of the structure.
The reinforced-concrete petals are clad by white marble panels, done to fit the surface
profiles and to patterns related to the structure's geometry.
White marble also covers all the interior floors, while the insides of the petals are bush-
hammered concrete. The walkways and stairs in the podium are finished in the local red
sandstone.
https://worldarchitecture.org/articles/cvcmg/
lotus_temple_a_symbol_of_excellence_in_modern_indian_architecture.html

10. Truss: Ikitsuki Bridge

The longest continuous-truss bridge in the
world is the Ikitsuki Bridge (1991) in
Japan, with a main span of 400 metres
(1,300 feet). The Astoria Bridge (1966),
spanning the mouth of the Columbia River
between the states of Oregon and
Washington in the United States, consists
of three spans reaching a total length of
6,545 metres (21,474 feet) and including a
main span of 376 metres (1,232 fee); it is
the second longest continuous-truss
bridge.
A crack which seriously damages the
safety of the bridge was found in a
diagonal member near an intermediate pier during an inspection for determining points to be
annually inspected. In order to identify its cause, some tests on the material used for the
cracked member were conducted, and a long-term monitoring of wind and vibration of some
diagonal members with similar structural characteristics to the cracked member had been
carried out since December 2011. In this article, the outline of the crack is presented and the
main causes of the crack are discussed based on the results of the tests and monitoring. The
conclusions can be summarized as follows: The crack initiated and propagated to become
approximately 200 mm long as a fatigue crack. The quality of material and weld satisfies the
requirement for them. The vibration of the diagonal members is induced by the wind with the
velocity of 6–8 m/s and higher than 15 m/s in the direction approximately normal to the bridge
longitudinal axis. The maximum stress range induced by the vibration due to 6–8 m/s wind is
approximately 30–40 MPa, while that due to the wind blowing at the velocity of over 15 m/s can
be 195 MPa. These wind-induced vibrations are thought to be the main cause of the fatigue
crack.
https://trid.trb.org/view/1459787#:~:text=Ikitsuki%20Bridge%20is%20a%20three,points%20to
%20be%20annually%20inspected.