The Michelucci Tower in Livorno, Italy

In the contemporary era, civil engineering design is predominantly carried out using software tools that offer significantly reduced operational time due to automatic calculations. However, these tools often require a substantial amount of data input and extensive post-processing of results. In the context of high-rise buildings, the General Algorithm and its software implementation represent a promising solution to this challenge, ensuring a significant improvement in efficiency during both data input and result analysis. The Tall Building Structural System (TaBu) computational code, which implements analytical models within the Matlab environment, despite inherent modelling limitations, has demonstrated its ability to estimate results comparable to those obtained through finite-element (FE) analysis, with deviations often less than 10%. However, in cases involving complex geometries like the Michelucci Tower in Livorno, Italy, the differences can reach 20-30%, due to the simplifications inherent in the analytical approach. Nevertheless, TaBu can be considered a valuable tool for preliminary building analyses, facilitating the subsequent transition to more detailed modelling. The purpose of this study was to compare the horizontal displacements of the high-rise Michelucci Tower estimated using TaBu software (derived from an analytical model) and Dolmen FE software.