The 508 m high building shaped like a donut to make it ‘earthquake proof’ | Travel News | Travel

The Taipei 101 in Taiwan is massive. It is 508m tall and has 101 floors. It is also home to the world’s largest and heaviest tuned mass damper.

Due to its vast size, the skyscraper is prone to swaying from earthquakes or strong winds. Howerver, engineers included a wind damper in the design. They consists of three main parts: an oscillating mass (for inertia), a spring (for elasticity), and a viscous damper (for energy dissipation).

The huge 660 metric ton Tuned Mass Damper within the Taipei 101 skyscraper really works. It moved effortlessly as a 6.9 magnitude earthquake rocked Taiwan on September 18, 2022.

The Taipei 101 was the world’s tallest building between 2004 and 2009, when it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa. The Tuned Mass Damping system in Taipei 101 consists of an 18-foot diameter, 660-metric ton steel sphere suspended by eight cables between the 88th and 92nd floors of the tower.

A&H Custom Machine constructed and tested the damping system components, a process that took about a year to finish.

According to the reports, people within the skyscraper will experience discomfort when oscillation caused by wind exceeds 5cm/sec2, owing to the structural design of the Taipei 101 building.

Due to its immense height, the higher office levels experience vibrations of 6.2 cm/sec² in regular weather, increasing to 7.4 cm/sec² during typhoons.

Both exceed the recommended limit of 5 cm/sec². Thus, Taipei 101 requires a wind damper to mitigate vibrations caused by strong winds.

Many skyscrapers worldwide – including the CN Tower in Toronto, Crystal Tower in Osaka, Centerpoint Tower in Sydney, and Citicorp Center in New York – are equipped with wind dampers.

The 85 Sky Tower in Kaohsiung and numerous high-tech factories also utilise them. It’s not just height that matters; wind speed and oscillation are also crucial factors to consider.

In July 2013, during Typhoon Soulik’s landfall, wind speeds in Taipei reached Force 14 on the Beaufort scale.

At 4.10am in the morning, the wind damper in Taipei 101 recorded an oscillation of 70 centimetres in both directions, the largest since the building was finished.

On April 18th, 2019, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit Xiulin Township in Hualien. At 1.01 PM, the wind damper in Taipei 101 swung 20 centimetres in both directions, setting a record for oscillation due to an earthquake.

This smart safety feature shielded people inside the skyscraper from harm or discomfort.