The Effects of Temporary Tower Cranes on the Construction Process and Seismic Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Buildings

When space is limited on project site to install a tower crane for the construction of high and mid-rise buildings, project managers have to deal with the challenge of assembling such crane somewhere in the middle of the building, leaving an opening in the floor slabs. Nevertheless, there is limited evidence about the effects of this type of temporary structure on the seismic behavior of buildings. The study analyzes the effect of having temporary openings in slabs of reinforced concrete buildings, when tower cranes need to be mounted inside a building. A structural intervention on the buildings’ slabs was simulated to resemble the temporary openings required to install a tower crane. Results indicated that seismic deformations were almost the same with and without the slab opening, which enables the installation of tower cranes through the slabs of reinforced concrete buildings, without affecting serviceability levels and seismic behavior of buildings.