I or H bricks or tiles with dowels for stronger, lighter assembled structures

[Peter Dow]

INTRODUCTION FOR THEBUILDINGCODEFORUM.COMI am posting in the Building Designers forum because I am presenting my idea for building with my design of reusable bricks and tiles, without mortar, to make structures which can be dismantled as easily as they are erected.These new reusable bricks and tiles will be require to be made from tougher materials than the usual fired-clay or ceramic used to make traditional building bricks and tiles. Instead, the bricks and tiles would be made from materials such as

• metal,
  
• reinforced concrete with rebar inside the brick,
  
• ceramic-metal composites ("cermets") and
  
• fibre-reinforced plastics.
  

Although my idea is available now for building materials manufacturers to develop and put into production, it will require investment of time and money by innovators in the industry before these new kinds of bricks and dowels can be available from builders' merchants for building designers to use. So this is for the future but I hope you will find my idea an interesting read anyway.OK, well if you are ready, I'll begin.

From the engineering consideration that regular tiles and bricks are far from optimal in terms of adding strength to structures, I've been considering that better would be this very particular 2D pattern of tiles and bricks illustrated in this image which I call "Tessellated I in Steel".

View larger version of Tessellated I in Steel 1800 x 800Representing a surface of "I"-shaped (rotated by 90 degrees, "H"-shaped) steel tiles. The shape is of square proportions, the column of the I being one third of the width of the square and the top and the base one quarter of the height of the square.Here is an I-tessellation in paving stones -

But my pattern of I or H tiles or bricks is very specifically designed so that it can be developed into a more detailed 3-D design which introduces further efficient tile-to-tile / brick-to-brick interlocking or making-rigid features which solve some of the limitations and issues arising with structures made from conventional bricks and tiles.Conventional brickwork structures need a weaker mortar layer to hold a brick wall together - http://nancymorris.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Brick_Wall.jpgConventional tiled structures need to stick tiles onto a mounting surface - http://www.granitetransformations.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/steel-tile.jpgThese limitations of those brick-to-brick or tile-to-tile bonding methods make for weaker and heavier brick and tile structures than is ideal in some engineering applications.In particular for temporary brick or tile structures, a high strength to weight ratio is desirable so that the parts of the structure can be moved easily to where they need to be erected.In addition, temporary structures need the ability to disassemble the structure as easily as it was assembled.We see examples of ease of disassembling a structure with kids building toys such as Lego and Meccano and in many manufactured products which use such typical features as nuts and bolts and bolt-holes but many other variations to secure one part to another strongly but in a reversible and flexible way.

So with those requirements in mind, my 2D I / H tessellation pattern was designed with a view to a 3D design of structures which I will now specify and show you a model to help me explain my 3D design more clearly.3-Dimensional model video

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/3097/dowihbricks2.jpghttp://img831.imageshack.us/img831/7498/dowihbricks3.jpghttp://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5558/dowihbricks4.jpghttp://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6369/dowihbricks5.jpg[video=youtube;BtFN4Ir4T_s]

This video shows my model of the 3-dimensional shape of a simple structure composed of 6 bricks or tiles, each of which, when viewed from one-direction anyway, is a 2-dimensional "I"-shape (equally when rotated by 90 degrees "H"-shaped).This model has been made from aluminium tubing and in order to distinguish one brick from another they have been coloured using marker pens - so there are two bricks coloured blue, two coloured green and two coloured red. This colouring was necessary for clarity because otherwise the permanent joints within bricks (which are only an artifact of the method to make a brick from square tubing) might be confused with the simple touching surface where two neighbouring bricks abut, abutting securely but without being in any way stuck by glue etc.This 3-Dimensional model reveals a further design feature of the I or H brick and tile structures, which secures the bricks and tiles together in 2 further dimensions, some such feature being necessary because the 2-D I or H shape in of itself only secures the bricks together in 1 dimension.This feature is revealed here to be nothing more complicated than dowels or fixing rods which run in the vertical direction of the Is (or the horizontal direction of the Hs) through shafts in the Is' bases and tops and which serve to lock the tops and bases of neighbouring Is together, preventing movement radially from the dowels.View attachment 1750

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[north star]

= = = =

Peter Dow,



Welcome to The Building Codes Forum!

You have an interesting concept!......Has it been applied anywhere else, ...has it been

"successfully" applied anywhere else?



= = = =

 

[lunatick]

Depending upon the depth of the block and its weight.

If simply a thin brick, could be quite a product.

But if full depth, it may be an installers night mare.

This may be a shape begging autoclave concrete.

Why fully enclosing the form? T or + might due.

 

[Peter Dow]

Thanks north star and lunatick for your replies. I hope to respond soon but first I need to complete my original post, which I had to break into 2 parts because of the forum posting limitations imposed, such as a maximum number of images per post, and the fact that as a newbie here, my first post was queued for moderated before appearing and so it was not until just now when I was notified of your replies did I finally notice that my topic had been approved to appear and not until now am I able to reply to this topic and add my 2nd post of my OP.[video=youtube;CRV9iuX8vSs]

Transcript of the video

Hi everybody and welcome to my "H" / "I" Bricks or HI-BRICKS & DOWELS demonstration video.This is Peter Dow from Aberdeen, Scotland.There are two components to a HI-BRICKS & DOWELS construction -

• the BRICKS, which you can either describe as "H"-shaped or "I"-shaped, depending on which way you turn them around
• and the DOWELS

The shape of the "H" or "I" bricks is designed so that they fit together to form a layer or a wall of bricks and importantly, the bricks, just by their very shape, immobilise each other from moving, in one dimension only.Let's have a look at that.Let's consider this green brick here as the fixed point.We can see that it immobilises its neighbouring bricks in one dimension. They can't move with respect to the green brick in this dimension. So that's locked. Even though there is no bricks here or here, the very shape stops it moving in that dimension.Now the shape doesn't stop the bricks moving with respect to each other in that direction, or in that direction but they are fixed in that one dimension.

Now if we want to make a rigid structure of bricks in all three dimensions but without using mortar or glue so that we can assemble and disassemble the structure whenever we like, what we need next are the DOWELS.As you can see, the "I" or "H" bricks have shafts running through the corners so that you can run a dowel through the corners - two shafts, four holes per "I" or "H" brick.And when you assemble the bricks you can slide the dowel in ... and this forms a structure which is rigid in all three dimensions, which is what we need to form structures.

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[Peter Dow]

Brick floors!

Peter Dow,Welcome to The Building Codes Forum!

Thanks north star!

You have an interesting concept!

Thank you!

......Has it been applied anywhere else, ...has it been"successfully" applied anywhere else?

I don't know of any previous applications of H / I shaped bricks with the dowels.

Without the dowels there are examples of simple I / H tessellations like that paving stone photograph I posted.

Maybe, maybe not - but not that I have come across as yet.

Depending upon the depth of the block and its weight.If simply a thin brick, could be quite a product.

But if full depth, it may be an installers night mare.

Well if the designer wants a dream brick-laying solution then the bricks will need to be light enough to be assembled manually. Goes without saying really.

This may be a shape begging autoclave concrete.

Well not unless it's reinforced autoclave concrete. You really need some rebar in concrete HI-bricks to give them good tensile strength properties so you can use HI-bricks & dowels as a lightweight and strong structural component for more demanding jobs. Otherwise it's just another pretty wall and it's probably not going to be worth the bother.

Why fully enclosing the form? T or + might due.

You just don't get it huh? These HI-bricks & dowels need the H / I shape to hang together in tension along the line of the dowels.

The dowels don't carry tensile loads any great distance, just between neighbouring bricks but that's OK because the HI-bricks carry the tensile load in that direction.

With these H / I shape bricks and dowels you can use them to build walls at any angle to the vertical - roofs, even load-bearing floors! That's right, a HI-brick floor!

If you are unwise enough to try building a brick floor with T or + shaped bricks then beware because you will fall through your brick floor my friend. That's if it doesn't fall down before you set foot on it! :inspctr

 

[Architect1281]

THEY USE A SIMILAR SYSTEM IN THE CARRIBEAN the results of unrienforced masony construction are that they infact do very very well as long as you can suspend the physics law that Newton found - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (see this for the results 2010 Haiti earthquake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

 

[Peter Dow]

THEY USE A SIMILAR SYSTEM IN THE CARRIBEAN the results of unrienforced masony construction are that they infact do very very well as long as you can suspend the physics law that Newton found - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction (see this for the results 2010 Haiti earthquake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia )

Not similar at all. My HI-bricks are reinforced or made of a high-tensile strength material 100%. So are the dowels. Therefore the HI-bricks & dowels structures have reinforcement built in automatically.

I actually have quoted the example of the San Francisco 1906 earthquake which level most of the city's brickwork buildings. Listen bud, I know, OK?

 

[brudgers]

Not similar at all. My HI-bricks are reinforced or made of a high-tensile strength material 100%. So are the dowels. Therefore the HI-bricks & dowels structures have reinforcement built in automatically. I actually have quoted the example of the San Francisco 1906 earthquake which level most of the city's brickwork buildings. Listen bud, I know, OK?

Peter, do you have an ICC-ES evaluation for your proposed application?

 

[Peter Dow]

Peter, do you have an ICC-ES evaluation for your proposed application?

I don't know what "an ICC-ES evaluation" is. So no, I don't. Not unless that is something you can ever get without asking for it.

Let me put it this way - when 6000 years ago, someone presented the idea of a wheel, or 20000 years ago someone presented the idea of a cuboid building brick (actually I have no idea when the first one of those was used), were those great inventors of their time asked if they had "an ICC-ES evaluation for your proposed application?"

No, they didn't have one of those. They didn't need one. And neither do I to present my idea to you for your independent consideration using your own powers of scrutiny. We should not need to feel we ever need permission from anyone else to think outside of the box.

 

[ICE]

Go after the fence market.

With no mortar, how is a wall kept plumb as it is built?

 

[brudgers]

I don't know what "an ICC-ES evaluation" is. So no, I don't. Not unless that is something you can ever get without asking for it. Let me put it this way - when 6000 years ago, someone presented the idea of a wheel, or 20000 years ago someone presented the idea of a cuboid building brick (actually I have no idea when the first one of those was used), were those great inventors of their time asked if they had "an ICC-ES evaluation for your proposed application?" No, they didn't have one of those. They didn't need one. And neither do I to present my idea to you for your independent consideration using your own powers of scrutiny. We should not need to feel we ever need permission from anyone else to think outside of the box.

I see some renderings. I see some models. If I am responsible for a rendering or a model, then these look bollocks.

 

[Peter Dow]

Go after the fence market.

Yes a commercial company could make fences from HI-bricks & dowels. For the lightest applications, the "bricks" would be flat and large and look more like tiles or panels. The HI-tiles could be made from a single thickness of corrugated metal sheet with shafts for the dowels welded on the corners of the panel. Aluminium would do well I think.

 

[Peter Dow]

I see some renderings. I see some models. If I am responsible for a rendering or a model, then these look bollocks.

Actually this

was drawn by a graphical editing program Paint.NET not unlike Photoshop. I used a photo-fill function - a kind of array copy-and-paste - to create an array of lines superimposed on a photograph of a sheet of steel.

So there was no computer model and no "rendering" from a model per se.

 

[Peter Dow]

Plumb walls.

With no mortar, how is a wall kept plumb as it is built?

A HI-bricks and dowels structure is a rigid shape which can form true right angles between its walls and its foundations and so if one layer is level - the bottom, so will all the other layers be.

In a way, it is kind of like a trucking / shipping container sitting on the road. The walls of the container are plumb because the container is cuboid and the road the container sits on is level.

"But, but, but - there's no mortar in those container walls!!!!"

 

[RickAstoria]

Not similar at all. My HI-bricks are reinforced or made of a high-tensile strength material 100%. So are the dowels. Therefore the HI-bricks & dowels structures have reinforcement built in automatically.I actually have quoted the example of the San Francisco 1906 earthquake which level most of the city's brickwork buildings. Listen bud, I know, OK?

I'm not going to be too critical of presenting a concept as long as it is clear that it is not sponsored or currently supported in the codes. In this day and age, any idea to be allowed or permitted must be tested (material wise in the application) by a scientific lab studies under every condition to get properties that can then be cross examined through engineering calculations.

My critique from a cursory look at your example and looking at past examples of URM is as below:

In the past, it isn't the masonry unit that is the problem. What happens in earthquakes is that when the mortar fails before the bricks crack (if the mortar is weaker and softer or more crumbles easier than the masonry that it binds) as it should, the bricks simply slide out and fall. Sometimes that in clunks of a group of bricks still held together by mortar except where the cracks occurred... usually in diagonal zig zag fashion but not always. The reason for rebar is for pinning through several rows of masonry. Unless the unreinforced masonry is interlocking like used in Incan civilization, even solid iron or steel bricks will fail and be a life hazard. The material property of the masonry itself, alone will not make it resist seismic forces.

Incan came up with a strategy to keep the bricks or blocks so to speak from dislodging as well as a tight masonry joint with no rebar or even mortar in many cases. It works and then it is because of several strategies used to make the walls statically stable and the blocks interlock in such a way that they don't dislodge and keep the center of gravity of each block at the bottom when placed as gravity still is in play even before we use the term. That basic mystic force of gravity is an always constant.

A strategy of keeping your H-form blocks interlocking and keeping walls stable would be important in order for your system to work effectively. Otherwise, you need rebar to lock the units together. The early form of reinforced brick masonry used dowel rods and a variety of other reinforcing techniques including various clips and such. You need to keep the units together, a weaker masonry joint to break down when the large stresses are applied in order to act as an 'cussion' and think back to a strategy that Ransome used in some of his early reinforced concrete buildings for planned joints that will fail to relieve stress in the material.

Bottom line, the soft clay brick's material isn't the issue in reality.

They can survive the forces of a magnitude 9.5 to maybe a 10.0 earthquake. It is other factors in play. Usually the brick doesn't crack or bust up under the earthquake until it falls to the ground or if an idiot used a cement joint in their repointing of clay bricks and therefore causes the stress to crack along the brick and not the planned joints.

These are just some thoughts.

 

[RickAstoria]

A HI-bricks and dowels structure is a rigid shape which can form true right angles between its walls and its foundations and so if one layer is level - the bottom, so will all the other layers be.In a way, it is kind of like a trucking / shipping container sitting on the road. The walls of the container are plumb because the container is cuboid and the road the container sits on is level.

"But, but, but - there's no mortar in those container walls!!!!"

But they have bolts or other methods that creates resistance to sliding. You don't see it. There maybe even welding done. You don't know that until you see it. Even then, I'm not sure they are seismically safe.

Yes, you don't need rebar to resist seismic forces. A 500+ year old civilization proved that when their structures were put to the test in the 1960s. The trick involves a few strategies. which I mentioned in another thread. It isn't the material that will make a structure seismically sound. It is how it is applied that matters with consideration of material properties. You can have a URM building made of solid steel bricks and if it was laid like a typical brick building is from European tradition as also seen in the U.S., it will fail and the bricks will just be heavier and harder when it falls on your head when you walk below it. A part of the failure of the buildings and how the bricks dislodge is by something called surface friction. You have to think about this in all 3 dimensional planes of surface and movement of two adjoining surfaces. Basic Physics 101.

 

[lunatick]

Brudgers brought up a testing report, and so have others.

There are different types of issues. there.

ICC Reports. Materials like EIFS, are at times, only allowed where an ICC ES report is available for the product for the installation.

Also, there are instances where we need to be concerned with fire resistance rating, and others we don't. So if your product doesn't address this at some appropriate time, it will limit its use. UL assemblies cost a bit to mock up and get approved, but once approved is questions are reduced.

Furthermore, we are concerned with healthy buildings. So take a look at what is happening with other materials. Air Barriers, Drainage Screen, etc.. EIFS, Masonry each have means and methods to achieve this and learn from. Stucco and EIFS both had issues with openings and flashing. Don't make light of that.

Energy, much is made of parking lots affect on the environment. But imo, what has more impact to heat up the environment about our cities area all of the heat sinks we have built. Look at LED bulbs or the cpu heat sinks in a computer than look at downtown NYC or LA, etc. These building do not do a good enough job of containing heat and a real good job of emitting heat.

Structural issues is perhaps the just the tip of things to be thinking about.

You say these blocks are to be masonry. How do you avoid cracking at the weakest joint. That being through the unit between the inside corners?

 

[Peter Dow]

You say these blocks are to be masonry.

Are you talking to me?

I think it is best if we agree that I am the one with the prerogative to state the content of what it is that I say.

I rather think it is more polite of you not simply to assume that you have liberty to paraphrase in your own words what you think it is I mean to say. This is the route to misunderstanding, not clarity.

I suggest that if you wish to reference my statements then quoting me directly is the most accurate way to proceed.

So for example, you might have quoted from my original post in this topic, thus -

These new reusable bricks and tiles will be require to be made from tougher materials than the usual fired-clay or ceramic used to make traditional building bricks and tiles. Instead, the bricks and tiles would be made from materials such as

• metal,
  
• reinforced concrete with rebar inside the brick,
  
• ceramic-metal composites ("cermets") and
  
• fibre-reinforced plastics.
  

and then perhaps your question

How do you avoid cracking at the weakest joint. That being through the unit between the inside corners?

would have at least part of its answer?

The other part of the answer is that the inside corners can be rounded in the full size HI-bricks, to reduce the concentration of tensile stress, though this would mean that one could not use the same HI-brick to form a 90 degree edge as is used for a flat join, but that a special-purpose corner-brick would be required.

 

[ICE]

Forget about fences and go after driveways....oh wait a minute, that's where this idea came from.

 

[brudgers]

Actually this

was drawn by a graphical editing program Paint.NET not unlike Photoshop. I used a photo-fill function - a kind of array copy-and-paste - to create an array of lines superimposed on a photograph of a sheet of steel. So there was no computer model and no "rendering" from a model per se.

There's nothing better for supporting a photograph of a building than a photograph of steel.

 

[brudgers]

I think it's time this thread was moved to the proper forum:

Palaearctic–African Bird Migration

 

[brudgers]

Brudgers brought up a testing report, and so have others. There are different types of issues. there. ICC Reports. Materials like EIFS, are at times, only allowed where an ICC ES report is available for the product for the installation. Also, there are instances where we need to be concerned with fire resistance rating, and others we don't. So if your product doesn't address this at some appropriate time, it will limit its use. UL assemblies cost a bit to mock up and get approved, but once approved is questions are reduced. Furthermore, we are concerned with healthy buildings. So take a look at what is happening with other materials. Air Barriers, Drainage Screen, etc.. EIFS, Masonry each have means and methods to achieve this and learn from. Stucco and EIFS both had issues with openings and flashing. Don't make light of that. Energy, much is made of parking lots affect on the environment. But imo, what has more impact to heat up the environment about our cities area all of the heat sinks we have built. Look at LED bulbs or the cpu heat sinks in a computer than look at downtown NYC or LA, etc. These building do not do a good enough job of containing heat and a real good job of emitting heat. Structural issues is perhaps the just the tip of things to be thinking about. You say these blocks are to be masonry. How do you avoid cracking at the weakest joint. That being through the unit between the inside corners?

I guess they don't have building codes in England where Peter lives.

 

[RickAstoria]

I guess they don't have building codes in England where Peter lives.

Brudgers,

ICC does not produce the codes that is used in England. I believe they are using the Eurocode or something like that. This would imply that they don't have anything really to do with ICC and the equivalent forms (if any) would be through a different entity.

ICC ES report is only a moot thing anyway other than getting ICC to adopt something in their model code. In practice with real building officials, it would be through processes and procedures accepted by the local building official and the state's department/agency in charge of adopting the codes on the state-wide level. This can be a total different procedure if you think about it. Often, this would fall into alternate methods procedures in a local level adoption. For state-wide adoption, then you have the state's accepted methods.

All in all, it needs to demonstrate and meet engineering standards and that in itself needs clear and comprehensive scientific testing for material properties in all levels from structural, fire, etc. to meet all standards of the entire code set including the engineered application of this design also needs to be demonstrated to meet the applicable codes, regulations, laws, etc. of a given building type/occupancy use(s) and so forth. In order to determine the latter, complete understanding the properties of the material in such form must be understood, determined in a manner that can be properly engineered to meet specific conditions. In part, one needs to know the material's properties before knowing how to apply it properly in consideration of its strengths and weaknesses.

Peter, Are you paying attention. We live by a standard and I believe so is the Eurocode (or whatever the uniform codes in Europe or that is used in UK), in which we know the properties of a material to scientific standards and how it would perform under structural load testings configurations, combustability, toxic emissions, etc. as well as how the material in a unit such as a brick will function. To an extent, we can extrapolate from precepts and other important elements which may apply to this design of yours. We need to know everything about your masonry unit to the same degree as we would any CMU, masonry unit of any other material, wood, engineered members, steel sections of any shape or form. We need to understand how it would behave in various assemblages, adhesion, surface friction, etc. I presented to you some of the kinds of considerations that needs to be determined and documented. We need to eliminate every unknown that can have serious impact on HSW. After all, we who design the buildings that use it are legally held responsible not to mention the builders. We don't want to mess with things with lots of unknowns. Adoption begins with knowing not with unknowns. It has serious financial ramifications not to mention potential HSW ramifications. You need to have professional standard documentations that will be peer reviewed for issues, flaws, omissions, errors, etc. This stuff takes decades to develop and adopt.

Right now, this is a code based forum and probably this thread might not be the correct thread but before I decide to move it or close it, I will have to see where it might be appropriately located. This has little to do with building design because no one is building with Peter's H or I bricks and it might be otherwise off-topic.

Moderator Note: I decided to move this thread to Off-Topic Posts as this may seem to be a better location for topics of this type.

 

[Peter Dow]

I guess they don't have building codes in England where Peter lives.

I'm from Scotland, which is not in England.