IDEERS Competition Rules - Vertical Loading

When you make a scale model of a building, its SIZE is reduced.

However, the MASS of the building doesn't scale down correctly.

The model is lighter than it should be.

Your model must carry extra weights to correct for this problem.

We are only using one size of steel block to minimise the total number of steel blocks we need to buy.

If we used lots of different sized blocks we would need quite a lot of them to make sure we could load each model accurately.

That would be very expensive.

The Rules

Your model should be strong enough to carry a vertical load. ( Why?)

Every floor of your model must be able to carry 10 grams for each square centimetre of its area.
Your model must be able to carry the required load on all floors at the same time.
You must test your model to make sure it can carry the total load, before you enter the preliminary round of the competition.

For the competition on the shaking-table the models will be loaded in the following way:

If the ground floor of your model is directly on the MDF base board, we will not put any mass on the ground floor, because it does not affect the model when it is being shaken.
Each steel block will be 6.0 x 4.5 x 3.0 cm with a mass of 635 grams ( Why ? )
The number of blocks placed on each floor will be the lowest number needed to cover the minimum required mass for that floor.
( Work it Out )

You must provide fixings on your model to show where the blocks will go. Do not add the fixings until after you have done the Vertical Load Test.
( see Making fixings for the steel blocks )

from Bristol University