Lance Parson- Week 2

We started this week discussing columns, and there place as architectural and structural members, such as Duo Gong Brackets. Columns in Civil Engineering are used to hold the load above them. The members are chosen for their compressive strength. This is because the compressive load controls versus the loads in tension.

Figure 1 represents the position and the split graph of the Dou-gong research object on a sectional view done be Li et al (1). When learning about these brackets my first thought was “how did they stand up to lateral forces, considering they grow wider as they move away from the column.” I read further to understand how these loads are applied and found a graphic illustrating the results found by Li et al. Figure 2 displays the displacement versus the amount of load applied to the specimens.

As seen in Figure 2 the column displaces less as mean value applied to the specimen. This could be because the vertical loads applied to the column to keep it stable. Either way, It is interesting to see how the column reacts in a lateral loading situation. This is interesting because providing a lateral resisting brace frame to a building of this type may be difficult. The difficulty arises simply form construct-ability. The further out the members have to be placed from the column due to its robust cap may prove difficult and make it harder to obtain the appropriate support from the brace frame.

Our next day in class we experimented with the grasshopper and rhino software seen in Figure 3.

I first thought grasshopper was complicated and inefficient when compared to structural software such as SAP 2000. This is because in SAP is what I’m used to. After discussing grasshopper with other instructors I found that the complication comes from the robust nature of the program. If you can setup the program properly there is an extremely more flexible interface when experimenting with materials, shapes, loads, etc.

Lastly had our lab on Thursday. This was interesting. We learned how to make ( or rather how not to make) different joints using the tools at our disposal.

I found out the hard way that using a ban saw to cut the center slot out of a block for the joint was more difficult than it looks. I ended up having to use a hammer and chisel to knock out the excess wood that wasn’t cut from the ban saw. It was interesting to see how the wood reacted to the less calculated and precise nature of the chisel, rather than the saw.

1. Zherui Li, Zeli Que, Xiaolan Zhang, Kohei Komatsu, Akihisa Kitamori, Hiroshi Isoda, Hongyi.
   Lv. “Lateral Rigidity of Dou-Gong Bracket Complex Made of Glulam: A Case Study of Tian Wang Hall, Luzhi, Ming Dynasty.” World Conference of Timber Engineering. August 2018. Accessed April 15, 2019.