Science Forums 2

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by quatumrulesoverall

Hi guys, could anyone of you suggest how to build a wood tower (probably balsa) and glue in oder to be as much light and strong as possible?

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Originally Posted by Turtle

Combine these two good classes of bridging ideas and support your bent arch with triangular trussing. No matter what form you use, make your cuts as precise as possible, as glue filled gaps are weak.

This thread seemed to swerve quickly from building a tower to building a bridge – two very different design challenges.

Assuming the tower must support a rigid object at least as wide and deep as it – such as a bricks on a sturdy wood board (pallet) – the challenge is to assure that one or more (wood) columns bear the compression force without flexing and buckling. Since it must prevent the pallet from tipping, a design with at least 3 columns is suggested, with light cross-braces to prevent flexing and shifting. The closer together the columns are, the easier it will be to have effective cross-bracing. The wider, the better it will resist tipping of the pallet.

A lot of variable are involved, so making several prototypes might be a good approach. Keep in mind that its failure mode is likely to be flexing and buckling of the columns, not their failure due to exceeding the wood’s compression strength, so be as precise as possible in assuring the wood columns are straight.

There are, of course, alternatives to the direct approach I describe above. Intentionally bowing the wood, then attempting to manage its obvious flexing, is one, though unless you are allowed to use a material with good tensional strength, such as wire or thread, I think the previous approach would be better.

PS: Moved from math and physics to projects & homework forum, because it is.