Swimming Pool on top of High-Rise Buildings : A comparison of different structural designs and positions of swimming pools

Abstract: This thesis is about determining the risks of positioning swimming pools on top of high-rise buildings.Pursuing this determination, computational simulations of constructed structural models in a finiteelement model software called RFEM have been analyzed. In further pursuit of wanted results comingfrom the computational software, the models have acquired relevant theory regarding both swimmingpools and high-rise buildings respectively to obtain realistic approximations of equivalent results if themodels were real life structures. Thence analytical observations and measures of each structural modelcontaining different positions of the swimming pools are generated, in several degrees, differentpossibilities of risks of failure are possible. Results have been compared out of design of swimmingpools and high-rise buildings in an initial stage of background and thereafter set as input values for themodeling where following perspectives have been analyzed:• Structural deformations,• Internal forces,• Utilization ratios, and• Mode shapes.Further analysis of social-, economic-, and environmental sustainability have been deliberated. Thus,in conclusion of this thesis, swimming pools positioned on top of the structure core or at center of theplan section tend to harm the stability of the structure likewise if the positioning of the swimming poolare cantilevered completely over the edge of the rooftop. More suitable design would either bepositioning the swimming pool attached to the core of the structure meanwhile cantilevered over theedge or integrated entirely along the edge.The results showed that some of the overhanging swimming pools pass the requirements of theEurocode. This will result in the columns experiencing a utilization which exceed its capacity. Thecolumn utilization was shown to behave differently depending on where the swimming pool was placedon the top floor. Furthermore, it was also a difference between the structures studied as dimensions ofthe members required either more or less depending on the form the structure had. The reaction of theswimming pool could be observed to behave as a stiff part of the structures with the deformation mostlybeing located at the slabs. The internal forces developed in the members due to the swimming poolaffected the columns at the bottom floors the most. The thesis finally shows how much is needed forthe worst case of each structure to pass the requirements. This resulted in different dimensions for themembers where the smaller structure (structure model 1) needed bigger dimensions and the largerstructure (structure model 2) needed smaller dimensions compared to the originally based dimensions.The social, economic, and environmental impact of the structures showed that the larger structureswould release more carbon dioxide than the smaller structures. The social aspect was treated moreregarding the safety and the experience of the user of the facility of swimming pool. The reinforcementvaried the most between the structures with the concrete being mostly the same for the two differentstructures made, in which an impact was made for both the economic and the environmental. Here itwas shown that in order to pass the requirements of the Eurocodes the impact on the climate needed tobe considerable different.