This report describes the preliminary testings of the physical structural model of the M.L.C. Centre Tower to provide confirmatory evidence both in terms of its structural feasibility and to compare the results with those produced by a computer model formulated as a two-dimensional coupled frame analysis. The model was manufactured from polymethyl methacrylate to a linear scale of 1:95. The precise sizing of the model was used in the subsequent computer analysis. The model was instrumented with deflection and strain gauges. The agreement between the physical model and computer model was well within + 15% (the accuracy for model testings for both deflections and strains and the resultant moments and hence the distribution of moments) and confirmed the use of a two-dimensional equivalent analysis. The structural feasibility of this form was also confirmed - justifying the use of a high axial stiffness located away from the building's neutral axis. The time taken to design, manufacture, fabricate, instrument and test this 8ft. high model was 9 weeks from receipt of order to the first results
