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Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

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Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#241

Post by Bluestrike2 »

nonethewiser wrote: post #64

I see this a lot in the rural US with wooden fences but had no idea why it was done, but I guess its for the same reason (stability). Apparently they've done it since the 1600s. https://www.louispage.com/blog/bid/11160/worm-fence-what-is-... Still, this seemed totally unecessary until I realized this mean they dont have to put any posts into the ground. No digging holes, which would be really nice when you're trying…

Not digging post holes would help, but the real time savings would be in not having to saw the logs to produce boards.

It only takes a couple minutes to split the log, and would be less tiring than trying to saw the number of boards you’d need for a fence. You can also use smaller logs you’d otherwise ignore or use for firewood due to low yield when sawing.

For that matter, you don’t have to worry about milling, joinery, or bringing enough nails to fasten boards. You can also use green wood without any worries. All you have to do is stack.

In a world without power tools, the split-rail fence really was an ingenious design. It effectively removed the skill requirement altogether, and let you spend your time on more urgent tasks.

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#242

Post by samus »

gweinberg wrote: post #174
geeky4qwerty wrote: post #26

This feels a bit like diet clickbait... "use fewer bricks than a straight wall"* *A straight wall of the approximal strength and length of a wavy wall, not just length. My counter would be that from a practical perspective the amount of space wasted by the wavy design seems to negate the usefulness of the design. Probably makes the lawn crew dizzy when mowing it too!

Yes, it's clickbait and nonsense. Obviously a straight wall would use fewer bricks. Your brick wall is going to be one brick thick either way, nobody is going to try to somehow make the straight wall as strong as the wavy wall. Most likely the straight wall is already way stronger than it needs to be.

If either design is too strong, then over could just use thinner bricks.

However, as the article indicates, the straight wall would not be as stable as the wavy wall. It needs buttresses to prevent toppling. That's the key advantage of the wavy design.

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#243

Post by DropInIn »

LightBug1 wrote: post #231
ChainOfFools wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crinkle crinkle wall has to be the most British sounding britishism ever. Like something that would have been a subject of serious research at the Ministry of Silly Walls.

True dat, bruv. And that's jenga.

And that's Number Wang!

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#244

Post by eager_noob »

hammock wrote: post #47

Corrugated cardboard just is a wavy wall, sandwiched in between two straight walls. You can also observe corrugated steel and its use in construction, shipping containers, etc. Because these are steel and stronger than paper, the sandwich layers are not needed

Car floor tunnels serve the same purpose. Increase rigidity at low material cost.

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#245

Post by Dah00n »

Terr_ wrote: post #127

Another reason for some a wavy walls involves capturing more heat from sunlight over the course of a day, in this example for nearby plants: > The Dutch, meanwhile, began to develop curved varieties that could capture more heat, increasing thermal gain (particularly useful for a cooler and more northern region). The curves also helped with structural integrity, requiring less thickness for support. [0] https://99perc…

Very interesting. Thank you for the link!

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#246

Post by Dylan16807 »

londons_explore wrote: post #114
Retric wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It cost even less labor to use minimal bracing for strait walls, these are curved for athletics. I suspect they are imitations of curved fruit walls popular in the 1600’s before greenhouses took off.

I don't think this is the case. A wavy wall with a wave amplitude of X has the same toppling resistance as a straight wall with buttresses on both sides of length x/2. Assuming this stackoverflow answer is correct[1], the sine wave has (slightly) less bricks. [1]: https://math.stackexchange.com/a/1500468

> A wavy wall with a wave amplitude of X has the same toppling resistance as a straight wall with buttresses on both sides of length x/2.

Where did you get that number from, and how does it change as you vary the distance between buttresses?

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#247

Post by helb »

sn9 wrote: post #219
shirleyquirk wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they should be able to. same physics applies, right? poles dont have to be as thick or as deep to resist the same torque, and if you could somehow make the pales curvy/corrugated, they could be thinner, too.

Wooden fences tend to be only a plank thick, so there's no savings like there are with brick walls where the savings come from getting to build a single layer thick.

Yeah exactly… I guess there might be some waviness/height/length ratio where the extra length and the absence of posts evens out.

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#248

Post by AlotOfReading »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #239
hammock wrote: post #47

Corrugated cardboard just is a wavy wall, sandwiched in between two straight walls. You can also observe corrugated steel and its use in construction, shipping containers, etc. Because these are steel and stronger than paper, the sandwich layers are not needed

If it wasn’t for fashion it would probably be the most popular building material for roofs. Make your roof out of that and at an angle and you probably never worry about leaks for decades.

It's all over the place in impoverished areas, often with a bunch of rocks or tires on top to weight it down. If you actually stay in such a structure though, it quickly becomes apparent how little it offers in the way of thermal or acoustic insulation. The sound in a heavy rainstorm can be deafening.

You can mitigate the issues with proper design, but at that point may as well use a real metal roof or a prebuilt.

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#249

Post by kazinator »

Corrugated cardboard uses less paper than what it would take with flat paper, and the box weighs less.

A wavy fiberglass roof uses less cloth and resin, and less reinforcement, than flat composite sheets would require.

A wavy roadside guard rail made of sheet metal uses less metal than a flat guardrail.

A snowshovel stamped/moulded with kinks in it can be thinner than a solid one.

...

Re: Wavy walls use fewer bricks than a straight wall (2020)

#250

Post by Maxion »

sn9 wrote: post #219
shirleyquirk wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they should be able to. same physics applies, right? poles dont have to be as thick or as deep to resist the same torque, and if you could somehow make the pales curvy/corrugated, they could be thinner, too.

Wooden fences tend to be only a plank thick, so there's no savings like there are with brick walls where the savings come from getting to build a single layer thick.

Raw lumber is much cheaper than sawn lumber, though. It's OK to use more, as long as the volume increase and price decrease works out favorably.
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