Constructing Environment Journal 2-14/03/2014 Name: John Chen Student Number: 691852
While we tried to hold up a bar of wood, we could observe that the wood was bend form the middle. It meant that the wood was under the compression force and it was week in the middle.
Activity: Frame In order to understand the transference of the loads in frame structure, and the importance of structural joints, we were also asked to build a stable tower in week 2. Unlike the first week, the material is now a long, thin piece of balsa wood. The challenging became more difficult for us, since the balsa wood was britler than the blocks.
Preparation Before we started the construction of the tower, the pieces of balsa wood was cut up into 20 bars of wood, each bar of wood has 60 cm long.
Progression In proceeding to construct the tower, we debated the best shape to use as the basis of tower is triangle, since it is the most stable shape and we could save the woods. For the base, a bar of wood was cut up into 3 bar of wood with 20cm long, then we could make a right triangle.
In order to make the structure strong, we decided to cut the bars of wood in half(30cm), then connected to basis. Meanwhile, we made a another triangle as the second floor of the tower, which could assist to enhance the strength of structure.
We created the joint by pinning up the bar, as well as using sticky tape to enhance the strength.
To solve this problem, we were thinking to add the horizontal bars of wood in the middle of the vertical one, and hope that would help to balance the forces.
From the second floor, we thought that is possible to construct higher, but once we finished the construction, the tower was under a torsion force and unstable.
However, this was not going to work. It was proved when tutor push on the top of the tower, the structure was bended more severe, then the bars were broken in the middle(where is the weakest point). To push further, the joint points were unable to sustain the structure.Combining with the torsion force on the bottom, the tower finally collapse.