James McDonagh - 637247 Studio Journal week 02 Activity: Frame The activity required students to construct a frame structure out of thin strips of balsa wood, which had a maximum height and resistance to a downward force when applied. Our structure had beams, which formed a hexagonal shape to provide the base, and 6 long columns spanning vertically the entirety of the structure. We braced the structure diagonally between the beams and columns, to provide strength to the structure. This formed what could be described as a ‘braced tube’ (Ching 2008), as a system of diagonal braces tied the structure together. Image 1: Shows the built structure before the force was applied. It can be seen that the bracing members on the top half of the structure were long, and less frequent than the bracing members that were applied to the bottom of the structure. The structure was originally designed with greater supports at the top, but was then rotated, so that the extra supports given by the diagonal members were used more effectively, as a greater amount of force will be transmitted to the bottom of the structure when force is applied.
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James McDonagh - 637247
Studio Journal week 02
Activity: Frame
The activity required students to construct a frame structure out of thin strips of balsa wood, which had a maximum height and resistance to a downward force when applied. Our structure had beams, which formed a hexagonal shape to provide the base, and 6 long columns spanning vertically the entirety of the structure. We braced the structure diagonally between the beams and columns, to provide strength to the structure. This formed what could be described as a ‘braced tube’ (Ching 2008), as a system of diagonal braces tied the structure together.
Image 1: Shows the built structure before the force was applied. It can be seen that the bracing members on the top half of the structure were long, and less frequent than the bracing members that were applied to the bottom of the structure.
The structure was originally designed with greater supports at the top, but was then rotated, so that the extra supports given by the diagonal members were used more effectively, as a greater amount of force will be transmitted to the bottom of the structure when force is applied.
Image 2: shows the sructure as a force is being applied to it in the centre. This shows the member that acts as a beam and spans across the width of the structure is under stress, and is about to break.
James McDonagh - 637247
When force was applied to the structure, the beams in the centre broke, but no other elements in the structure broke. There was not a suitable area for the force to be applied to the structure that would transfer the force down to the supports. The lower half of the beam was under tensile stress, whilst the upper half of the beam was under compression stress. Figure 1 shows the effects of force on a beam, which would have been apparent on our structure.
Figure 1: shows the effect that a downward force has on a beam. The arrows are indicating a tensile stress on the lower half of the beam and a compression stress acting on the upper half of the beam (Ching 2008).
References
Ching, FDK 2008, ‘The Building’, Building Construction Illustrated, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, N.J., pp. 2.0 - 2.30.