Compared to reinforced concrete structures, steel structure buildings offer significant advantages in modern construction:
1. Civilized and Fast Construction with Controlled Quality
Steel structures reduce the need for sand and cement storage and wet processes, offering major benefits in dense urban areas. Components are precision-manufactured off-site and only assembled on-site, ensuring high accuracy, less labor, and a cleaner site. Construction is vastly faster than concrete, with 30- to 50-story buildings completing 8-12 months sooner. Parallel activities like installation and interior finishing can occur simultaneously, allowing earlier occupancy.
2. Lighter Weight and Higher Economic Efficiency
The self-weight of high-rise steel structures is often below 1 ton/sqm, significantly less than the 1.5-2.0 tons/sqm of concrete structures. This lighter weight reduces transport and hoisting costs, decreases the load on foundations, and significantly lowers foundation costs—a particular advantage in areas with poor soil conditions.
3. Superior Seismic Performance and Increased Usable Area
Steel offers high strength and excellent ductility, leading to outstanding seismic performance. For an 8-degree fortification intensity in Beijing, using a steel structure can reduce self-weight by one-third, decrease seismic forces by 30-40%, and reduce foundation load by over 25%. Furthermore, the small structural footprint increases usable area by 4-8%. For a 50,000 sqm building, this equates to about 2,000 additional sqm of valuable space.
4. High Material Strength and Efficient Space Utilization
Steel has high tensile, compressive, and shear strength, allowing for smaller member sections. For instance, the steel columns at Beijing’s Chang Fu Gong Center are only 450x450mm, and the structural footprint of a steel frame is only about 28% of that of an equivalent concrete structure, maximizing space efficiency.