- Some natural disasters that
can have devastating effects on structures are tornadoes,
earthquakes, hurricanes, and sudden temperature changes. They can
break up the structures foundation making it weak or fall to the
ground. They can have wind speeds strong enough to damage structures
or even knock them over.
- Some of the
most used materials in building are steel which is strong in tension
and compression, cement which is strong in compression and tension,
tiles which are strong in tension, bricks which are strong in
compression and tension, and tar based- waterproof materials which
protects metals from rusting.
Reflections
- Our design was good in height. It was
the shortest you could make which was good, and it held at least
45 lbs. So it was a good design. Some of the benefits were that
it had supports in the middle to help hold the weight. We also
used some of the strongest shapes to support it, and we made it
wide so the weights balanced better on top. The weaknesses were
that it didn't have good support on the outside walls. It was
too wide and spread out to hold a lot of weight, and there
weren't enough supports in the middle to hold a lot of weight.
Some modifications that I would make if I made another structure
would be to make it more compact and sturdy. I would put
corrugation on the outside walls and make it in the shape of a
triangle. I would put a lot of little triangles in the middle,
and make the joints stronger and harder to bend.
 
 
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- To make the building stronger make sure
that the joints are tightly sealed and able to withstand the amount
of pressure that will be put on them. Make the bearing walls,
columns, girders, beams, and connectors out of the strongest
material possible like steel or concrete. Also, use steel cross
beams on the outside walls to help the building be more balanced and
stronger.
Interview
Interviewed- Rod Dehart
electrical engineer at Bennett Electronics
- Manila folders are usually not good things
to build with, but for what you are doing it will work good. To make
skyscrapers balance, it's built with reinforcement in the center of
the building and steel cross beams at the outside walls. Building
your structure like a skyscraper will not help you because it won't
hold a lot of weight on top. To make your structure's joints
stronger, make them more flexible. Main shapes used in buildings are
squares, rectangles, L shapes, and triangles. Basic materials used
are steel, concrete, wood, and sheetrock. Taller skyscrapers are
harder to design because they will have a high center of gravity
which will make them more off balance. It takes quite a lot of
people to design a building because there are people working
specific parts of the building. To make your structure better, build
it out not up. To help you structure stand stronger, have wider
footings. To strengthen the walls of your structure, make them
thicker and less flimsy.
 
http://ezinearticles.com/?Types-of-Building-Materials&id=353971
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/14/AR2005101400767.html
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