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

[Peter Dow]

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 first posted in a topic in Caithness.org's Photography forum, Tessellated I - my simple technical drawing, coloured artfully (http://forum.caithness.org/showthread.php?194268-ART-Tessellated-I-my-simple-technical-drawing-coloured-artfully)

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/8775/tessellatedisteel800x60.jpg
View larger version of Tessellated I in Steel 1800 x 800 (http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/5531/tessellatedisteel1800.jpg)

Representing 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 -

http://tinyurl.com/pavementI-jpg

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.jpg

Conventional tiled structures need to stick tiles onto a mounting surface - http://www.granitetransformations.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/steel-tile.jpg

These 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. http://www.thedailygreen.com/cm/thedailygreen/images/Dw/lego-bricks-md.jpg

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.

[Peter Dow]

3-Dimensional model video

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/7154/dowihbricks1.jpg

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/3097/dowihbricks2.jpg

http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/7498/dowihbricks3.jpg

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/5558/dowihbricks4.jpg

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6369/dowihbricks5.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=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.

These dowels may henceforth be referred to as "Mazurka Dowels" named after the username of a scientist in an internet science forum who first correctly anticipated this feature of my 3-D design and its function to hold the structure together in all 3-dimensions, in a reply post to my topic (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=46534.0) there describing in detail only the 2-D tessellation, suggesting somewhat vaguely that some such design element was required for a good 3-D design with a view to seeing who would suggest the solution I had thought of first.

As I explained in that topic (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=46534.0) I could hardly call those dowels the "Dow dowels" there being too many dows in that name and anyway, my name can be used to reference this particular shape of I or H tile and brick and structures composed of them, as per "Dow tile" "Dow brick" "Dow I-tile" "Dow H-brick" "Dow I-H-brick" "Dow I-H-brick structure" "Dow I-structure" etc

[Peter Dow]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRV9iuX8vSs

HI-BRICKS & DOWELS demonstration video by Peter Dow (YouTube) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRV9iuX8vSs)

Transcript of the video

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/6379/hibricksndowels.jpg

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

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/5528/shapefixes1d.jpg

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.

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/636/needdowelsfix3d.jpg

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.

[annemarie482]

Wholey bejesus did I really need to know all that about bricks?! :confused:
Spam surely?

[Peter Dow]

Wholey bejesus did I really need to know all that about bricks?! :confused:
Spam surely?
Just because you personally don't need to know something about a topic doesn't make it "spam". Is this your personal forum or a forum for Caithness?

You sound unaware of my 5-page topic in CdO - Thread: Scotland best for pumped-storage hydroelectricity dams to store wind energy economy (http://forum.caithness.org/showthread.php?172387-Scotland-best-for-pumped-storage-hydroelectricity-dams-to-store-wind-energy-economy)
that wasn't spam and neither is this.

[annemarie482]

Apologies, I must have missed the other thread.
Usually items like these are in a more specific section rather than the general one.

[secrets in symmetry]

Do you know the space group of your structure, Peter?

[Peter Dow]

Apologies, I must have missed the other thread.
Usually items like these are in a more specific section rather than the general one.
Well I have looked hard for an science, engineering, building or any forum at all techy but I didn't see an obvious forum so I picked the general forum.

There is a business forum but I suppose I thought that was supposed to be for existing businesses rather than the kind of invention and design ideas and plans I come up with which need a lot of investor backing before they get anywhere near being a business opportunity. I don't earn money for any of my ideas though they could be great ideas for the economy and boost other people's business one way or another.

Well if the mods think this topic is better in another forum then no doubt they can move it there.

[Peter Dow]

Do you know the space group of your structure, Peter?
No I don't but if you want to explain then I am all ears.

[George Brims]

Peter, you are missing one fundamental point about brick structures. In a brick structure the mortar is not just there as a form of adhesive. It is also there to isolate the bricks from each other. If you allow the bricks (and this applies also to stone slabs) to grind against each other, they will crack. Also your way of interlocking the bricks together may result in brick material being under tension load in places, rather than compressive load, when the structure is subjected to wind stresses (always a consideration in Caithness!) Brick and concrete and to a lesser extent stone are poor materials in tension but very good in compression. That's why concrete columns are sometimes pre-stressed. See here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestressed_concrete

[Peter Dow]

Peter, you are missing one fundamental point about brick structures. In a brick structure the mortar is not just there as a form of adhesive. It is also there to isolate the bricks from each other. If you allow the bricks (and this applies also to stone slabs) to grind against each other, they will crack. Also your way of interlocking the bricks together may result in brick material being under tension load in places, rather than compressive load, when the structure is subjected to wind stresses (always a consideration in Caithness!) Brick and concrete and to a lesser extent stone are poor materials in tension but very good in compression. That's why concrete columns are sometimes pre-stressed. See here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestressed_concrete
You are right about brick and stone being weak in tension and prone to cracking. I knew that already thanks.

The point is with an interlocking brick system it makes sense (and is necessary really) to use stronger materials to make the I / H -shaped bricks, such as metal (did you note that my model was made of aluminium tubing, not fired clay?), reinforced concrete (that means a little rebar I / H inside each concrete I / H), metal ceramic composites (cermets) and fibre-reinforced plastics.

So long as you use cuboid bricks held together by weak mortar it makes no sense to consider using a stronger material to make the brick from.

This is one time where "out of the box" thinking is required.

Try not to make the mistake of assuming that "brick" has to mean "made of fired clay". Lego bricks are made of plastic. Ice-cream bricks are made of ice-cream. I / H bricks could be made of anything with good tensile strength.