| The complex consists of
four ranging from 25- to 40-storeys high-rise R.C. tower
blocks and a large structural steel podium which supports
three of the tower blocks. Total height of the podium is
already 57m. Site area is in excess of 100 by 200 metres. Wong Pak Lam & Associates is one of the forerunners in the region to fully implement the state-of-the art computing and CAD facilities in its engineering consultancy services. For example, back in mid-80s when the computer-aided design & drafting facilities in the region were still at the infant stage, we were retained by the Client to perform complex analysis services which included the overall analysis to detailed examination of every single member of a composite transfer mesh. The composite transfer mesh system was made up of 500mm thick R.C. slabs and 2.5m deep structural steel plate girders for loading transfer. The transfer mesh comprised over 3000 structural members in the system. Back then, we created a data base which housed all the information of the member marks and member sizes. From this information pool, the cross sectional area, moment of inertia etc. could be computed and fed into the structural analyses automatically. After performing the structural analyses, every member would be checked automatically since all the necessary information such as member sizes and member forces were readily available from the structural analyses output and the member sizes data files. All these calculations were done by the computing system. No manual works were involved. And it took only half an hour to obtain the answer for every single member. We actually could produce a list of members which needed further strengthenings and by how much they needed to be strengthened. The above example may serve to illustrate the point that we have all the abilities to tailor make any computing systems to help the client to obtain a fast, accurate and most economical design even back in 1980's. The structure of this project was completed in 1989. |
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