Week 01-Activity: Compression Using wooden blocks, in a group of four people, we aimed to build the highest tower we possibly could. The wooden blocks represented bricks and as such, we adopted construction methods used in brickwork. The construction method used, was the staggered joints stretched bond (Nash 1988), which involves staggering the bricks, rather than having them placing them on top of each other, making the structure much stronger. Staggering the blocks, also allows for the blocks to be in a state of compression, rather than a state of tension which we don't want, otherwise the tower will collapse (Nash 1988). The base of our tower was square and very sturdy. The blocks were placed closely together and the corners were strong with the bricks touching in an L shape. Gradually changing the placement of bricks, the tower became a circular shape, one third of the way up. Strategically placing the bricks closer towards the hollow part of the tower, the tower gradually became narrower as well. To save time, we placed the bricks further away from each other, causing compression between the bricks to decrease, making the upper half of the tower less stable. The pinnacle of the tower consisted of only two bricks, which indicated how narrow we were able to make our tower. When the tower was completed, this method of construction resulted in a narrow triangular shaped tower. Our tower was also very tall it as can be seen in the photo and was almost touching the roof. When destroying the tower, it was discovered that when we constructed our tower, we used many additional bricks that were not needed because when removing a section of the tower, it remained standing. After removing several other sections of the tower, the top half of the tower collapsed but the base remained standing. This clearly demonstrated that the base of a tower was very stable, being able to withhold a heavy load, even with sections of the base missing. The compressions between the remaining bricks of the base, was maintained, therefore refraining the bricks from moving and causing the tower to completely collapse.
Complete tower
Sections of bricks removed
Square base of tower
Reference: Nash, W 1988, Brickwork , Stanley Thornes, Cheltenham