[GSBN] Reinforced Monolithic Adobe (Cob) Seismic Testing almost done- tax deductible donations welcomed

[Art Ludwig-Oasis Design]

Hello, friends & colleagues—

Oasis Design in collaboration with Martin Hammer, Quail Springs, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Verdant Engineering in Berkeley are working on user-friendly reinforcement options and seismic testing to get engineering values needed to permit cob in all seismic zones. Martin Hammer is working on a cob appendix for the International Building Code which would benefit tremendously from these tests.

We have tried several different reinforcing regimes and settled on a four to test. 

The full scale test walls are built and dry, Cal Poly is building a mobile test rig to bring to the walls, and we expect to have results in the next few months.

If you would like to support this breakthrough testing, our research partner Quail Springs, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit, is processing your tax-deductible donations <https://www.quailsprings.org/earthquake-testing/>.







Details
Cal Poly Civil Engineering is set to perform "in plane reverse cyclic testing” on the three walls at left  (that is, pushing and pulling from a top corner, in the plane of the wall, with a portable loading frame capable of exerting up to 100,000 lbs of force, until the fully instrumented walls fail. These data will yield a resistance per linear foot of wall for each different type of reinforcement. These values can be used to do the calls necessary to permit a structure of any shape, including organic curves,



The reinforcing is:

Single layer of 6-6-6-6 welded wire mesh (6 in squares, 6 gauge mesh; comes in 7x 20’ panels; great stuff-wall at right). We plan to do out of plane testing on this wall. 
Long straw only (curved wall 2nd from right)
Double layer of mesh (second from left)
Double layer of mesh with steel poles. (Left). This is hopefully strong enough (7500 lbs/ linear foot) to build a Ianto Evans-style cob cottage with lots of windows on the east and south in seismic zone E, the worst one, which is what we are proposing to build in downtown Santa Barbara (see oasisdesign.net/shelter/safetycottage <http://oasisdesign.net/shelter/safetycottage/index.htm>). We just got a green light on this project in our pre-application review by ten different City departments.

Yours,

Art

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