Since the terminal is located in an area of high seismicity, the design employed a performance-based criteria targeting Life Safety performance for Maximum Considered Earthquake (2,475 year) shaking.

The lateral-force-resisting system of Zone 3 consists of strategically located special reinforced concrete shear walls and special reinforced concrete moment frames. The roof consists of long-span tubular steel members framing to large diameter reinforced concrete columns to form a composite special moment frame.

Highlights of our work include:

• Assessing performance through a non-linear time history analysis (horizontal and vertical excitation) with explicit hysteretic modeling of the beams, columns, and shear walls
• Coordinating with Foster + Partners to select member sizes satisfying the performance criteria
• Designing the long span roof structure employing design criteria from AISC 360-10 and American Petroleum Institute’s publication for tubular member connection design for offshore structures
• Preparing construction documents for the long span roof structure
• Responding to peer review comments

In collaboration with Aeropuerto Internacional de Tocumen (owner); Foster + Partners (architect); Construtora Norberto Odebrecht (contractor)