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by Mawgan on November 8th, 2006

Mawgan

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How high could a skyscraper be feasibly built with present building materials and technology?

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Answers. 7 helpful answers below.

  • by Im Alec has abandoned this account on November 29th, 2006

    Im Alec has abandoned this account

    I have read - sorry, I cannot give references - that current construction technology could go quite a lot higher - one kilometer has been mentioned. The limitation on current skyscrapers is not construction technology but elevator technology.

    People have to get into and out of the offices which constitute the skyscraper. Furthermore, most of them want to do so at the start and end of the day. Current technology only allows one elevator per shaft. or, if you have several elevators per shaft, people have to go up to an interchange level, change elevator, and go further up in a different shaft, which they don't want to do.

    If the skyscraper gets taller, there are more people wanting to get to work and, because there is a limit to the acceleration you can put on them, the longer it takes. But an elevator shaft makes a hole in every floor. So the more elevator shafts you have, the less paying floorspace you have.

    Skyscrapers have stopped where they are today because adding an extra floor would require an extra elevator which would lose more floor space on the way up.

    If someone can invent a technology which allows many elevators efficiently to share the same shaft (e.g. making them like little trains), skyscrapers will suddenly shoot higher.

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  • by 2clever on December 3rd, 2006

    2clever

    From my engineering journals - and a little personal experience - a skyscraper to outer space is definitely technically possible.
    That is with present building materials and technology. We could also take advantage of the low gravity effect. Even program jet styled engines or what have you to counter wind effects on the structure.

    The large footprint - or what would be better - multiple footprints for guy wires or a truss system is itself a political and finacial nightmare. The focus and the drain on other possible projects is even worse. China builds a few skycrapers and it effects the steel market here in the states - A project like that would probalby induce global civil war. But worse is just that one other factor.
    For anything we build there is a person who wants to shoot it down.

    The fact that everything I design is a target does weigh heavy on me at times. It would have to on anybody else also who came near any project like that.

    Perhaps when all the people are gone it will be possible. But other then robots to take over the world and destroy or enlave the human race - no other new technology is needed.

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  • by RockyRun2011 on December 5th, 2006

    RockyRun2011

    i bet you could make it as high as you want. technology today will probably allow you.

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  • by crazy_fugu on July 30th, 2008

    crazy_fugu

    google elevator to outer space. centrifugal force could help it stand. carbon nanotubes could make it all possible.

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  • by blueyy on November 9th, 2006

    blueyy

    I think that we are not too far from it now.

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  • by SafetyGuy on November 29th, 2006

    SafetyGuy

    Actually, thou the first answer was felt to not be helpful, it is correct. Current materials used in high-rise construction are constrained by limits on tensile (pulling apart) and compressive (pushing together) stresses. Steel has limits - as buildings get higher and higher, the steel framework to hold it up becomes more and more massive. At some limiting point, there is either too much steel to provide any useful space in the lower parts of the building, or costs simply become too high.

    New materials will certainly come along in the future which will redefine these limits.

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  • by Coheed on November 29th, 2006

    Coheed

    A sky scraper could be infinatly high. Technology permits this but fear of death and falling does not.

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