[Cob] cob in vancouver........testing possibilities & critical mass

[otherfish]

Ian,
Otherfish (john fordice) here.

Good to hear of your potential testing progress in BC !!!

Sounds like the concept of critical mass is real.

The testing program I've been proposing since 1997 has been languishing for
lack of funding.  Just recently I've been working with Adam Perry & Kelly
Allen in getting it moving again.  We are in initial planning stages.  We
had discussions just this week with Fred Webster in how best to design the
actual testing.  Currently it's looking like 3 each of initial compression &
rupture tests of between 4-6 specific mix samples & this to be followed by 3
shear strenght tests of 4' square wall panels of the same 4-6 different
mixes.  We're currently working to develope a budget for this.  We'd
intended to do this at the UC EERC in Richmond ( which is near Berkeley ),
but are not wedded to this location.  I'm wondering if there is a way we
might colloborate our efforts ?

Please contact me so that we might discuss this further.

Best
john fordice   

on 2/26/04 9:12 AM, Ian Marcuse at dtebb at alternatives.com wrote:

> While we have anecdotal info on earthquakes, I wonder if anyone or
> group has had the opportunity to do such testing on curved cob walls.
> How did you design your testing? What variables did you look at? We
> will be working with a siesmic engineer who will help us of course.
> One thing that they are advising for earthen buildings (I don't
> recall exactly the form, perhaps adobe) is to wrap or build into the
> walls a wire mesh. He agreed that straw would likely work in the same
> way. It would be interesting to test for different levels of straw
> content. Anyhow, yes, I hope that we will be able to provide data and
> other info on our website.
> 
> I also remember that otherfish (if I am correct) has put together a
> program for cob testing. What has come of this? Is anyone familiar
> with the New Zealand Standards? What is missing? What needs to be
> done?
> 
> Our city administration here in Vancouver is now ready to develop
> code for cob here in the city as we have engineers and code
> developers working with us. I have been putting together resources
> for them. Does anyone have experience developing cob code? I welcome
> any thoughts and ideas on developing a cob testing program that we
> may be able to undertake at the University.
> 
> Regards,
> Ian Marcuse