week 4 and 5 tutorial exercises, fun facts and a reflection on blogging

Week 4: Steel end-wall frame (i know its the wrong direction once more, im still working on fixing that, perhaps a comment on how to fix this????)
above: week 5. Depicts a load bearing pre-cast concrete panel warehouse construction.

Above are the two exercises completed during week 4 and 5!! i just realised that i have referred to the viewers as 'you' however does anyone actually read these blogs apart from the marker? So if 'you' are readings this, perhaps a comment on a post, hint hint ( i know very subtle but i have to try because so far no comments). Therefore, i have decided to add some interesting facts, i said fun in the post name to entice 'you' to read this (tricky hehe) and therefore leave evidence of 'your' existance by ... a comment. 

INTERESTING FACTS 

• A discussion arose from the last tutorial about possible connections between Kliplock and concrete tilt-panels. A few options are as follows:

i. A saw cut

ii. a widget ( a post about widgets shall follow soon)

iii. silicon seal

• Connection information for concrete tilt-up panels: between panels the most common used connection is sealant however grout has more structural strength.  Also tilt-up panels do not have a unified point between them when being joined. Therefore a gasquet (i hope thats spelt that correctly) is placed between the panels. This is then surrounded by sealant. 
• the definition of MASTIC: i heard this term during this weeks lecture and i was a bit confused. So i asked and the response was that mastic describes the expansion joint between a panel and the reinforced concrete floor. 
• For a fire rated staircase concrete is used because of its fire-resistance qualities. However spray on concrete has a life expectancy, and after a certain amount of time the concrete starts to disintegrates. Therefore when a fire occurs the steel can liquify when not protected properly. 
• a blind footing is useful and more simple when  footing is needed and the soil is unstable. a blind footing transfers load into the bedrock rather than being placed into unstable soil.

hope this was interesting for you.