Brief Summary:

The aim of this project was to research, design and create a tower out of Spaghettis and blue tack. After learning about earthquakes/seismic waves we were instructed to design a tower with features that would withstand a simulated earthquake. The requirements were to build a tower with a minimum height of 60cm. A maximum base size of 30cm x 30cm. And a flat surface at the top to hold a 5cm by 5cm piece of card. This design had to withstand a 10-second earthquake. We had a budget of $60, the cost of 1 piece of pasta was $1, the cost of 1 gram of blue tack was $1.

Engineering process:

Define: We defined it as a challenge to research earthquake-proof features in already existing buildings and apply them to our spaghetti tower design. Many countries experience earthquakes, so it’s important to understand what makes a building more stable for people to be in during an earthquake. Using the materials supplied we had to solve a worldwide problem on a simple small scale.

Research: Researching was the most important step when designing our tower. We found out that engineers use strategies such as dampeners which take the energy created from the earthquake away from the structure, meaning they may break to enable the structure to stay standing. Another method was cross bracing systems, which is 2 diagonal rods added to a wall for support. It also transfers movement away from the foundation of the building. Triangles are a very strong shape and should be used to reduce damage in a building. We researched what an earthquake was and how it affected buildings. We collected images of some spaghetti towers for some inspiration.

Design: After choosing some design features that we thought would be effective in our tower we started to design. We decided to use cross bracing and dampeners in a 12cm wide tower. By drawing our design we were able to calculate the number of spaghetti and blue tack pieces we would need. This ended up being 40 spaghettis and 20 grams of blue tack.

Create: We started by measuring the lengths of the pasta and making the base pieces 12cm. We used the blue tack at all of the joints. When building we came across a few issues. First the whole pasta pieces were all different lengths. Starting from 23cm-25cm. This causes us to not meet the height requirement. We also had a lot of the joints overlapping meaning lots of snapping occurred when building. Overall, the building process was a lot of trial and error.

Test: Finally, we tested our first design prototype. As shown in the video a small-scale seismic wave simulator was used to shake our building for 10 seconds. Although it survived it had a lot of damage and would have not survived much longer. The base layer especially was very weak.

Improve: After our first test we redesigned our tower to accommodate for some of the problems we encountered. Firstly, when planning we thought to add a diagonal cross bracing system that went through the dept of the tower. We also chose to change the top layer to a triangle design as they are stronger and uses less spaghetti allowing for more blue tack to strengthen joints. After starting to build we changed our diagonal cross bracing to external supports. By doing this our tower was a lot more stable and overall was a good addition to our design. The triangle top layer worked very well and was very stable. These improvements meant we met the height requirement and our building was very stable.

Test (2): the final stage of the design process was to test our building. Our design was very successful and was able to withstand a 10-second earthquake with ease. We also were able to add three 50g weights to the top cardboard platform.

Collaboration:

At the beginning of the project, we assigned jobs to each member of our group. I was assigned as a project manager because I have good leadership skills and can keep a group of people on track with our tasks. Jessica was assigned equipment manager because she is confident in maths and is organized. Kaitlyn was the speaker and reporter as she can communicate with teachers and peers to get feedback and ask questions as well as she is organized allowing us to stay on task. By assigning these roles we were able to work efficiently as a group and achieve our goal. Whilst building our tower we all worked together to hold pieces up and suggest improvements to make our design more earthquake-proof. Overall, our collaboration was great.