980-foot skyscraper sways in China, prompting panic and evacuations

[mystery-ak]

 980-foot skyscraper sways in China, prompting panic and evacuations

By Ben Cost

May 18, 2021 | 10:18am | Updated

It was on shaky ground.

A Chinese skyscraper had to be evacuated Tuesday afternoon after it began inexplicably swaying on its foundation, prompting scores of bystanders to flee in terror, as seen in a series of viral videos circulating social media.

The shaky incident occurred around 1 p.m. at Shenzhen’s SEG Electronics Building, which is one of China’s tallest structures in the city at a whopping 980 feet tall.

“The people in the building and downstairs fled for their lives!” read the caption to one of the Twitter clips, which depicts petrified shoppers stampeding across a plaza like scene out of a monster movie.

A follow-up clip posted by local media shows the top of the 73-story structure, on which two white conductor poles can be seen wobbling precariously.

https://twitter.com/ShenzhenPages/status/1394558949685284864

more
https://nypost.com/2021/05/18/980-foot-building-sways-in-china-sending-shoppers-running/

[Lando Lincoln]

Some sort of wind load harmonics maybe?  That would be unnerving, for sure.

[DefiantMassRINO]

The new subway cars the Chi-Coms are building for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority are crap, too.

[thackney]

Different view of the building

[thackney]

Some sort of wind load harmonics maybe?  That would be unnerving, for sure.

Hard to imagine if caused by wind, this was the first time for a 20 year old building.

[Wingnut]

Hard to imagine if caused by wind, this was the first time for a 20 year old building.

Substandard building materials (steel/concrete) that have degraded over the years. 

Just a thought.....

[GtHawk]

More quality Chinese building practices like this?



Don't they know better than to use their own steel in a hi-rise tower?

[godblessRonaldReagan]

Gojira!

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Three words: Made in China.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Something similar almost happened in the US back in the 70's:

Citicorp Center's use of bolted joints and the increased loads from quartering winds would not have caused concern if these issues had been isolated from each other. However, the combination of the two findings prompted LeMessurier to run tests on the structural safety.[103] The original welded-joint design could withstand the load from straight-on and quartering winds, but a 75-mile-per-hour (121 km/h) hurricane force quartering wind would exceed the strength of the bolted-joint chevrons.[99] With the tuned mass damper active, LeMessurier estimated that a wind capable of toppling the building would occur on average once every 55 years.[162][161] If the tuned mass damper could not function due to a power outage, a wind strong enough to cause the building's collapse would occur once every 16 years on average.[162] LeMessurier also discovered that his firm had used New York City's truss safety factor of 1:1 instead of the column safety factor of 1:2.[99]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup_Center#Engineering_crisis_of_1978

[Wingnut]

Before it collapses on its own Maybe a Muzlum could fly a plane into it and put it out of its misery.

[libertybele]

Three words: Made in China.

   ...and to think that they're bidding on a lot of jobs and projects in the U.S.A.  Their materials are certainly being used.  Around here we had terrible issues with homes/condos that were built with Chinese drywall - many lawsuits that took several years to settle.

[Fishrrman]

Sounds like China could have the architectural equivalent of the old Tacoma Narrows bridge (Galloping Gertie).

Sumthin' tells me that someday... that thing is gonna come down... with a bang.

[Sled Dog]

Hard to imagine if caused by wind, this was the first time for a 20 year old building.

Possible standard vortex shedding excitation combined with degraded foundation would be my guess, if the assertion of no seismic activity is valid.

Other excitation inputs could be vibration from a subway...I've no information about the surrounding town.

But they seriously need to check their foundations.   I can't imagine what else could cause this two decades after construction.   It's seen all the wind it's going to see, so it has to be something else.    And sure, maybe some of the steel is crap and is fracturing or rivets are failing in the walls.

Or, maybe GW Bush's team of Secret Squib Secreters is planning another 9-11?   (just kidding)

[Sled Dog]

Sounds like China could have the architectural equivalent of the old Tacoma Narrows bridge (Galloping Gertie).

Sumthin' tells me that someday... that thing is gonna come down... with a bang.

Yes, but the delay is curious.   Not a typical vortex shedding/resonance design issue here.  Something else is going on, internally.

The NY Post story says the wind speed was 27 mph, which doesn't seem anywhere near enough to create a harmonic response in a vertical cantilever with such a high section moment of inertia.    The deck of the Galloping Gurdy bridge was had a significantly lower stiffness value and it still took gale force winds to excite it to destruction.

[thackney]

Sounds like China could have the architectural equivalent of the old Tacoma Narrows bridge (Galloping Gertie).

Sumthin' tells me that someday... that thing is gonna come down... with a bang.

But the Tacoma Narrows bridge hit resonance and collapsed 4 months after it opened and had been actively moving from the beginning.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tacoma-Narrows-Bridge

While wind could be the applied force creating movement, something else changed recently.

[240B]

If it wobbles like this with No earthquake...
When an earthquake actually happens, this building is as good as rubble.

[Lando Lincoln]

Only one plausible explanation...

[sneakypete]

Some sort of wind load harmonics maybe?  That would be unnerving, for sure.

@Lando Lincoln

Chinese Communist "Engineering". China has a history of new multi-story apartment buildings falling over.

[Right_in_Virginia]

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1395469874193780738