Take for example the Taipei 101 Tower:
– 508.2 meters high
– Weighs 700,000 tons
– Ground floor is 57×63.5 meters, which is 3619.5 m²
– That means an area of 3619.5m² has to hold up 700.000 tons, which is ~193 tons per m² which is 193.000 kilograms per m²
I don’t know but 193.000 kilograms feels like an unbearable crushing all-pulverizing weight to me.
Obviously it works since the Taipei 101 tower and other huge buildings exist, but intuitively I don’t understand how the bases of large and tall buildings don’t instantly pulverize under the weight of everything above it.
In: 1790
Your question mostly regarding “compression strength”. Concrete used in large buildings is likely “high strength” concrete, which has a compression strength of 6,000 psi or higher. Sometimes as high as 12,000 psi.
So, a 1 meter x 1 meter column of concrete (39″x39″) would have a compression strength of 18,252,000 pounds (9,126 tons = 9,126,000 kg).
Compression strength of steel, depending on alloy, shape, etc, can also be in the tens of thousands of psi.
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