Prefabricated Panels for High-Rise Buildings

High-rise buildings generally rarely use traditional prefabricated panels as their main structural components. Instead, steel structures and other new types of prefabricated component systems are typically used for high-rise buildings, rather than traditional prefabricated panels.

Traditional prefabricated panel houses are constructed using prefabricated panels as the main components. These panels are factory-made cement components, available in solid and hollow types. This building form originated in the early 20th century, and most residential buildings constructed in China before 1985 adopted this structure. Traditional prefabricated panel buildings are primarily brick-and-concrete structures, with prefabricated concrete panels used for floors and load-bearing brick walls for walls. This structure has relatively low overall stiffness, with a floor plan layout restricted by the size of the prefabricated panels, resulting in relatively fixed apartment designs, small room spans, poor north-south ventilation, and typically low floor heights. Due to the span limitations of the prefabricated panels, the spatial layout is relatively compact. Moreover, the walls are mostly load-bearing, and the floors are connected to the load-bearing walls through the prefabricated panels, making the overall structure dependent on the load-bearing capacity of the walls and offering limited flexibility for renovation. High-rise buildings need to withstand significant wind loads and seismic forces, requiring extremely high overall stiffness, strength, and stability of the structure. The characteristics of traditional prefabricated panel houses make it difficult for them to meet the structural and usage requirements of high-rise buildings.

In the field of "prefabricated housing," steel-structured prefabricated houses offer advantages such as lightness, suitability for ocean transportation, and high-rise construction. Chinese companies have a comparative advantage in steel-structured prefabricated housing, with industrial standards, digital precision, and automated efficiency transforming housing construction from "on-site building" to "factory manufacturing." However, the prefabricated components suitable for high-rise buildings mentioned here are not traditional prefabricated panels but steel structures and other new types of prefabricated component systems. These can better adapt to the high structural performance requirements of high-rise buildings, providing safer, more flexible, and more comfortable living and usage spaces.