WEEK 2 JOURNAL In this week’s studio we are require to build a tower as tall as we can. Considering what we learned before, a draft of the tower structure was agreed by all members.
Use the least timbers to reach the highest
The idea of the main body of the tower is from the famous Eiffel tower and Chin’s (2008) description about the weight of structure decreasing though the increasing of the height therefore the swing of the structure can be controlled and the foundation can carry more loads. At the same time the structure of trusses is considered to strengthen the bottom part of the tower. The relating information will be exposed in further discussion.
Because of the limitation of connecting material (only glue) the constructing process was moving slowly. One of the group member reminded us the pin connection from Chin’s book and recognized the tinny pins we discover in the class room can help connecting the timbers:
At the first step we built the part that circle in red in Figure 1:
Though the pin connection can be set up much quicker, it allows moving at the connecting point. To solve this problem, we strengthened them with glues and built special structure at the bearing point:
WEEK 2 JOURNAL During the consturction, one of the timber was broken by acidents, we used following struction to repair:
This structure is built for avoiding bucking of columns (Chin, 2008): Because of the slenderness ratio, longer and slimmer the column is, easier it will bend hence buck. The other structure is:
The green timbers can avoiding shifting between columns and braces, also transmit loads between columns.
We also used to different triangle structures to avoiding collapse: Bracing here Column formed the triangle to avoiding deflection cause by bending Brace od the column.
The last page shows the final tower, because of wasting to much timber on the triangle structures, we were run out of timber and it was not the tallest one. However all the group members do believe it is the strongest one, if we had time to text it.
WEEK 2 JOURNAL Reference list: Francis D.K. Chin (2008), Building constructing illustrated, Fourth Edition Unknown(2007), La Tour Eiffel, Travelling, viewed 15 August 2013 http://www.gootrip.com/gootrip/_20module/mdd /html/2007-07-02/mdd_1490.shtml