[GSBN] Jumbo Question

[RT]

Hammer & Wolf writ:

>> At least in theory, it is the skins only that determine an SB wall's  
>> bearing
>> capacity, because the plaster skins, not the bales, carry the load (as  
>> the
>> stiffest element of the wall assembly).

> Not so in practice mate.  What happens is that the render creeps
> downwards around 7mm over 2.7m high.

Clearly the answer to this pickle is that in Oz, where everything is  
upside-down, the roofs are holding up (or down, depending upon one's point  
of view) the walls.

I've not seen the tests to which el Lupo refers, but 7mm sounds perfectly  
reasonable as an amount for drying shrinkage of a plaster panel that it  
2700 mm high.

That that shrinkage appears as a gap between the top edge of the plaster  
and the roof bearing assembly also seems perfectly reasonable for an Oz  
building too, given that the live loads on and Oz roof would likely be  
non-existent and the dead loads would likely not exceed the compression  
resistance of the straw, especially if the bearing area provided by the  
straw is that of jumbo bales.

OTOH, move those walls to someplace like Canada where buildings are, more  
often than not, multi-storey, with the floor and roof loads being carried  
by the walls and where the live loads are typically several times greater  
than the dead loads, it wouldn't be difficult to exceed the bearing  
capacity of the straw so that the skins take over.


-- 
=== * ===
Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
< A r c h i L o g i c  at  ChaffY a h o o  dot  C a >
(manually winnow the chaff from my edress in your reply)
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