3 ms·
To be fair, there have been a lot of advancements in timber and glue -- They just didn't take into account their weaknesses when designing (e.g. Stress that wou
by x3n0ph3n3 3y ago
To be fair, there have been a lot of advancements in timber and glue -- They just didn't take into account their weaknesses when designing (e.g. Stress that would pull laminated beams apart).
- Gare 3y agoThere are always unknown unknowns in trying new designs and/or materials. Even with all the simulations and calculations, nothing beats experience. Sure, novel things should be tried, but in a conservative manner. Overdesign first, then optimize iteratively. Because failure costs lives.
- mcphage 3y agoGlulam isn’t a new material, it’s over 100 years old.
- Gare 3y agoHow many 70 m span glulam road bridges have been built in those 100 years?
- ikekkdcjkfke 3y agoYeah, exposing load bearing wood and glue to the elements requires some extra caution and engineering intuition
- ikekkdcjkfke 3y agoI believe the failure happened in the joint between the wood and steel. The joint was a sandwich with very thin slices and with many nails. Anyone with materials intuition knows that puncturing a material to such a degree weakens it. Mix in constant moisture and single points of failure.. Should have been a couple of big old bolts and some bracings, alternately thicker slices in the sandwich