Johns Hopkins University,

EN.560.349 – Civil Engineering Design 1

Fall Semester 2009

Homework – Paul Kassabian Lecture on Engineering Driven Architecture

Note: This is an individual homework. You are not required to hand it in, but the students who do will receive extra credit toward their final grade.

First Part: Read the excerpt from “An Engineer Imagines” by Peter Rice. You will find this in the usual spot on the SGH Sharepoint site. When you
are done, reflect about the value of engineering today and in the future. While you are doing this, remember John Olsen’s point from yesterday’s
lecture that pretty much everything, everything we touch, do, manufacture, live in, use every day, etc. has either been conceived by engineers or
has passed through a structure designed by engineers.

Second Part: Prepare a one-page description of the structural system for each of the following items. Use descriptive labeled sketches to indicate
how the structure carries its main imposed loads. Include in your description the materials and organization of the structure.

Note: these are listed in order of increasing difficulty…

Eiffel Tower
Human skeleton
Camping tent
Egg (whole and fresh)
Soap bubble
Paper clip
Tree
Spider web
Bicycle wheel
Four-legged chair
Eiffel Tower
(1) Purpose: The Eiffel Tower, built by Gustav Eiffel for the World’s Fair in Paris in 1889,
was designed to be a national monument overlooking the entire city. The main draw
was the built the world’s tallest structure.

(2) Microstructure/Building Elements: The Eiffel tower was built out of wrought iron,
which Eiffel had used extensively in the development of railway bridges at river Duoro.
Wrought iron is not as stiff as steel, and has a yield strength of 40 to 45 ksi.

(3)Description of Loadings/Load Cases:

a. Wind Loading: 2.4 kips/ft uniform loading. Professor Ben Schafer from JHU has
compared the wind loading on the Eiffel tower to the weight of an elephant
pressing in on every vertical foot of the building. The wind profile on the Eiffel tower better is described by a loading
given by the logarithmic law rather than a simple uniform loading, but since the area exposed to the wind increases
nearer to the bottom (with the splayed four legs), for an overall analysis of the structure the uniform loading is
appropriate.

b. Dead Loads: The weight of the wrought iron structure is 18,800 kips, the majority of the dead load concentrated below
380 ft (15,500 kips).

c. Live Loads: The Eiffel Tower is one of the world’s most visited attractions, bringing in over
seven million visitors each year. People ascend to four different platforms. The original live
load requirements of 50 pounds per square foot over the four platforms bring the total live
load to about 4000 kips.

(4) Macrostructure and Load Transfer.

a. Breaking Down the Structure: It turns out that the ratio for the Eiffel Tower’s total loads to its gravity loads is right at
4/3, which means it’s difficult for it to be categorized as either a column or a cantilever.

i. The profile significantly departs from the structure of a uniform cantilever from its intense deadload
concentration at the bottom, and it’s splayed out legs. Furthermore, the reactions at the bottom are modeled as
pins, incapable of taking moment. The profile of the splayed legs is not as extreme as a parabolic curve, perhaps
closer to a catenary curve.

ii. To support the tendency for the legs to split out horizontally, the platforms and the trusswork above the second
platform receive tension and keep the structure together.
 iii. Reactions through all of the legs under normal loadings will always be in compression due to the magnitude of
the dead loading, but internal forces through members on the windward side will experience tensile loading.

Sources:
http://www.ce.jhu.edu/perspectives/studies/Eiffel%20Tower%20Files/ET_Introduction.htm
Camping Tent
(1) Purpose: The camping tent provides a small space for occupancy through its pole structure and functions as a building
envelope, resisting water, thermal changes, wind loadings, and condensation for typically harsher environments than urban
structures. Tents must be able to collapse into a small portable volume. There are many different types of tents, but I will
focus on two: The dining fly and the one person dome tent.

(2)Description of Loadings / Load Cases

a. Dead Loading: In comparison to permanent edifices, tents do not have a lot of dead load. However, as the length
of a dining fly increases or the radius of a dome or yurt increases linearly, the dead load from the tent fabric and
internal frame system increases by the square of the increase.

b. Rain Loading:Rain loading for canvas design is measured as hydrostatic head in millimeters. Fabric is designed
accordingly. Rain loading is dependent upon the square of the projected area.

c. Wind Loadings: Wind loading is particularly important for tent function in harsher environments. High unidirectional
wind can create significant positive pressure on windward side and negative pressure on the
leeward side.

(3) Microstructure

a. Rip-stop nylon is a major structural element for transfer of wind and rain loads. The material’s primary benefit is that it
can be produced for a variety of strengths and porosity values, and it has a high strength to weight ratio for fabric.

b. Hollow fiberglass or metal poles allow for lightweight and efficient framing system.

(4) Macrostructure and Load Transfer.

a. The basic dining fly is a suspension system, with the central axis consisting of two metal poles with a suspending cable
in between. The tent fabric is draped over the cable, slightly prestressed in tension, with stakes supporting the fabric at
the ground. The cable is more or less in the shape of a catenary curve (uniform loading with respect to the line of
action of the cable). In order for this system not to rely upon the moment connection of the metal pole at the ground
interface, guy lines are in tension to take axial forces delivered via the cable. If we were to merely examine the central
support system, it would appear that the system has little support for out of plane failure. However, out of plane wind
forces on one side of the tent fabric is balanced by further tension on the other side of the fabric and a downward force
through the metal pole (though in reality, deflection may occur and the force trajectory may result in moment at the
bottom of the metal pole). In any case, this system requires tensile forces of the fabric to be balanced with the friction
force from the stakes/soil interface. In practice, stakes come out of the ground all of the time.
 b. Modern day dome tents solve the problems of the dining fly system by requiring no connections to the ground to create
the living space. Dome tents utilize flexible fiberglass or steel members that, after being put into a small amount of
bending during construction, accomplish two tasks: putting tension into the outside (sometimes inside) fabric system,
and transferring its tendency to straighten itself out to tensioning the floor of the camping tent through specialized
connections. Notice that the connection at the top for the bracing system is not a moment connection. The tensile
fabric as well as this connection resist out of plane movement of each separate arch. Additional connections between
the tent and the ground, or several large masses sleeping on the inside are required to prevent the whole tent from
moving during wind loading.

Sources: http://books.google.com/books?
id=bQEAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA128&dq=aerodynamics+tent&as_pt=MAGAZINES&ei=DEkUS76sF5SuywSpuPD1DA#v=onepage&q=aerodynamics%20tent&f=false

Chicken Egg
1) Purpose of Egg: The main functions of the egg shell are protection from weather elements and small impacts, protection
from bacteria, and fluid exchange with the external environment.

2) Description of Loadings / Load Cases:

i. Self Weight: Shells are 10% of the egg weight. The inner contents weigh downward upon the bottom of the
shell.

ii. Pressure: Gas/water products of reactions occurring inside of the egg must escape through the envelope.

iii. Dead Load: Hens must sit upon the eggs for several weeks to incubate them before hatching.

3) Microstructure

i. The eggshell is approximately 97% calcium carbonate crystals, which are stabilized by a protein matrix. Without
this protein, the crystal structure would be too brittle to keep its form. The outside
The standard bird eggshell is a porous structure, covered on its outer surface with
a cuticle (called the bloom if it is around a chicken egg), which helps the egg retain its
water and keep out bacteria.

4) Macrostructure/ Load Paths

a. Shells are
 Catenary Curve with Tension on both guy lines

i. Metal Poles pulled Inward, along the central axis.

ii. Guy Lines

iii. Wind Loading on flat side concentrated at center, pulls on stakes diagonally inward

iv. http://books.google.com/books?
id=bQEAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA128&dq=aerodynamics+tent&as_pt=MAGAZINES&ei=DEkUS76sF5SuywSpuPD1DA#v
=onepage&q=aerodynamics%20tent&f=false

v. Fiberglass poles create tension (prestress the fabric)

vi. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BGsa7weqkM. Dome tent uses bending of members to induce tension in the
fabric. Special connectors at the bottom hold the bars in place. Additional studs can be used.

vii. Yurt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yurt

Tree
1) Purpose: The purpose of the tree is to maximize the surface area for leaves to conduct photosynthesis. In order to do this, it must
be taller than other plants. It must also have branches that extend radially from the center, sometimes skewered at different
angles to maximize projected area and to provide significant distance for its offspring to fulfill the same mission. It must do all of
this with a small amount of biomaterial
2) Loading Cases:
a. Wind loading: frequently comes from all directions, although in certain environments there is a strong preference for
unidirectional wind loading. The loading increases from the ground upwards.
b. Self weight: In most cases, this is an axial force through the trunk, though in slanted trunks moment is induced in the
foundation. Trees can buckle under self weight according to the critical Euler Loading typically used for beam buckling.
3) Microstructure: Wood/Cellulose
a. Material: A single cellulose fiber, compared to the same volume of steel, has about the same yield strength as steel with six
times less density. However, wood is not pure cellulose (this would be a huge energy requirement).
b. Superstructure: Wood is composed of long, tubular segments of cells arranged in either a hexagonal or rectangular
packing arrangement. The cell walls are composed of cellulose. This, in comparison to a fully solid arrangement, pushes
material away from the neutral axis, increasing structural efficiency against bending and making the material tougher by
introducing discontinuities. This basis for this argument is that the second moment of area increases with the square of
the ratio of the density of the hexagonal packing arrangement vs. the density of the same amount of material in solid form,
whereas the yield strength decreases linearly.
4) Load Transfer and Macrostructure:
a. Balancing of Moments: A tree is a radial symmetric structure. Thus, with wind loadings in the horizontal direction, equal
but opposite torques (around the trunk axis) cancel out. Under this ideal arrangement self weight loadings produce little
residual moment being carried to the base.
b. Flexibility and Substructure: However, wind loadings produce an intense summation of moment from all affected parts on
the tree on the foundation (which is inclined to be uprooted). The secondary branches are flexible, which increases the
overall toughness or modulus considerably of these substructures. Moment transferred to the foundation is resisted better
by leeward roots than windward ones. Sinker roots, growing directly downward, grow some distance away from the central
axis to provide additional stability.
c. Trees adaptively grow to the loads applied to them. Self weight increases by the cube of the tree height, whereas buckling
load increases only with the square of the loading. Therefore if a tree grew proportionally, buckling would occur at a
certain height. However, a tree grows the dimensions of the trunk faster than its height. In general, however, tree trunk
diameter growth is more responsive to forces induced by wind loadings than by self weight. Therefore, tree trunks appear
to be overdesigned for just self weight. Trees adapt the section of large branches to make them more boxlike. On the
lower side of the branch section, concentric rings have more space in between. This scheme makes the branches better
for resisting moment induced by the self weight of the branch.
d. Preloading: a remarkable property of trees structure is the preloading of the outer layers of the trunk, putting the system in
a tension of roughly 27 MPA. Wood is better in tension than in compression, so this feature makes sure that when bending
moment is applied to the trunk, the side in compression has a lower magnitude than the site in tension.