---Huiyan Qi
21/03/2014
Week1 Knowledge map:
Construction overview
Types of Loads: 1)Dynamic Loads
2)Static Loads
Dead loads Live Loads Occupancy Loads Snow/Rain Loads Impact loads
Materials: Strength Stiffness Shape Material behaviors Economy&Sustainability
Force:
3)Tension force 4)Compression force
1)Static load are applied slowly to the structure until it reached its peaked value without fluctuating rapidly in magnitude or position. 2)Dynamic load is a variable weight on a structure suddenly apply to a structure which is movable so also been called dynamic load. 3)Tension force stretch and elongate the material. 4)Compression force refers to the capacity of a material to withstand pushing forces that are axially directed.
This tower has been made by processed wood which is the sawdust been crushed together. The advantage for this kind of material is stable and light in the weight. It’s often been used for table. Here is basic structure for the towerfollowing.
The good point of this structure is to save the material and pretty flexible. Also the bad thing is they are not quite stable and we can see the corners are not completely connected. What we do to fix that is after few levels we use another structure to improve it.
As show in the left, we use they to connect every side and stable the tower.
The basement
Our originally concept for the tower is to built the pyramid.The reason we varied to the triangle basement which is because it’s hard to build the tower to our expected height with limited materials.
After finishing the tower, we tried to remove as many as blocks we can.Like the following pic.
It finally collapsed which the reason I assume is that while we took the blocks out we were breaking the structure of the whole tower. It’s like when we are building no matter the skyscraper or bungalow, it would have the load bearing wall which is the most important wall in the whole structure that is able to stand the most force. However what we did to the tower is destroying the “load bearing wall” of it.
Week2 Key terms
Structural system Solid structure Surface structure Skeletal structure Membrane structure Hybrid structure
Construction system Enclosure system Structural system Service system (Thing we need considerate: Performance requirements Aesthetic qualities Economic efficiencies Environmental impacts )
Structural joints Roller joints Pin joints Fixed joints
This week we also mentioned about the ESD--Ecologically Sustainable Development which is the environmental component of sustainable development.
For this tower, our original concept is the China Bank in Hong Kong. Like the following.
Firstly, we use the cross as our base of the tower.
The advantage is it’s more likely stable and balance for the higher tower and can stand more force.
Then
we
start to built it higher. We can see at the left hand side pic. Between two stickers, we use some short stick to connect them for more stable.
At the beginning, we use the structure like the picture shows for each side. Then what we found is that this kind of structure is too week to stand the high tower. So that we change the concept like the picture at
right.
The final step is put force on it to see what is gonna happen to it.
I assume the main problem is that the material is to skinny. Every material has its own load capacity, for the stick we use maybe the load capacity is not that good.