WEEK 1 - FRAME

Nhi Vuong - #633889Tutorial 14Semester 2 - 2013

Outlines of the Project

Aims of the structural tower:

- As tall as possible- Maintain a balance structure.-

Materials:

- Balsa woods (40 strips - 1cm wide)- Super glue- Pins

Type of construction:

Frame construction with strips of balsa woods as mimicries of beams and trusses.

Constructing Process

Foundation is often considered one of the most significant sections of a construction as it withstands much of the weight of the building. (Ching, 2008).

In a frame structure, a sturdy base covering large area on the floor would be ideal to maintain the overall balance. We started off with construct-ing sections extruded from a triangular base (Fig-ure 1). Fixed joints were created using super glue as they avoid any movement (translation or rota-tion) (Ching, 2008). However an enormous amount of pressure was required to keep the joints intact while the glue was drying, hence the application of pins. They would be removed as the glue had dried. (Figure 2).

Pinned joints usually allow rotation, yet in this situation the pins are im-provised to apply pressure onto the forming butt joints

The bracings were attached at dif-ferent heights in these vertical strips to distribute the loads onto various sections.

Figure 1: Upper section of the construction

Figure 2: Butt joint

Constructing Process

To form the second layer for the tower, vertical strips would be extended by simply con-necting the existing strips with new ones. Butt joints again was used in this situation with the addition of pins (Figure 3).

Extensive system of bracing was con-structed to maintain the balance of the tower. Unlike other groups where there is a short base and elongat-ed top made up of vertical strips, we were determined to construct a sturdy structure that could withstand much more weight than the others’.

Figure 3: Base of the tower

This systematic procedure was repeated multiple times with several vertical tests to identify weak points as well as to main-tain the overall balance. There was cases when the length of the strips were unequal result-ing in the longer base(s) being cut off.

Upper structure tends to be tapered to reduce both the dead (structure weights)and live loads (wind pres-sure onto the surface).

Figure 4: Middle-upper sections of the tower

References

1. Ching, F 2004, Building Construction Illustrated, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New Jersey.