We were given the challenge of researching and creating an earthquake-proof tower out of spaghetti and bluetack for our year’s final science project. The requirements for this work was that it must meet a $60 budget, have a maximum base of 30 cm by 30 cm, be at least 60 cm tall, and withstand 10 seconds of shaking to imitate an earthquake. The collaboration and communication skills within our team were the main emphasis of this work. Although there were some difficulties along the way, we managed to improve our productivity as well as our research and application skills.
Although the engineering process was difficult and we encountered obstacles, there were evident changes in problem-solving from the beginning to the completion of the project.
After designing a prototype tower we were tasked with identifying and solving issues in our initial designs. During testing my first prototype tower broke, my group later identified that this was due to a weak base. This meant that in order to survive an earthquake we would need a stronger base that isolated the force of an earthquake and we would need to reinforce the rest of the structure with cross bracing to make is stable.
After our initial testing faze we worked on our final design. We had many ideas on what to build, we had researched and found that both a dome structure and a triangle structure would be resistant to an earthquake. Our first idea as a group would be to build a teepee like structure as they had both the benefit of a dome and of a triangle. We also experimented with the idea of an hourglass structure however we scrapped that idea as it would not be possible with the materials provided. We were at a point where we had not settled on a final design but other groups had already began contraction on their towers. Then while looking at real world architecture we saw a building called the Transamerica pyramid. We took inspiration from the pyramid and began to work on a model that incorporated elements from this real life design.
While designing our tower we were very excited and optimistic about the tower. We had gotten to a point where we were confident that we would finish on time and that our building would withstand an earthquake. However after returning to our tower we had found that someone had broken it and that we needed to start our entire build from the beginning. We did not let this stop us however and we persevered, instead using this event to improve upon our design and to work on making the base more solid and more affordable. After working very hard we had finished our new design in just 2 period and were able to test it right before the deadline. Our tower measured in at 62cm and withstood all 3 tests with a 5×5 platform on the top of the tower. It was then promptly destroyed when it fell over as we weren’t looking. Overall i had a lot of fun working on this project and i think that it taught me about the engineering process and how to effectively and realistically solve problems.
Our tower withstanding P waves, S waves and surface waves.