Tower testing
Found a some what sane way of doing it : )
As some of you know I have been working on a tower based on the old Wind works plans
for a 30 foot octahedron module tower.
I have been knocking around some ideas on how to load test it.
Instead of wrecking a section of tower I set up a test rig for sample joints using a long lever.
With a known weight on the end I can work out the force applied to the sample.
The sample below is 3/4 inch emt conduit with the ends flatted and drilled for a 5/16 bolt.
Like the vertical struts used in the tower
I applied a load of 1100 pounds and it shows no sine of tearing out or bending of the bolt.
The bolts are grade unknown from the hard ware store I think grade 2.
I would have tried for more but I was running out of bit and bobs to hang on the lever.
And it was to darn cold out wind chill 9 F.
I want to find out how much it will take be for it fails. But with what I found out to day
things are turning out a lot better than I thought they would.
I still have some torque loading to work out but after churching some numbers.
It looks like my tower can be used as a free standing after all . If I build the bottom 10 foot section with a 6 foot on a side base and tapered to mate to the base of the middle section.
I know this all seems a little over board but I have put up a number of towers over the years.
And I just wanted to know more of what is going on. For me testing and learning is haft the fun.
Old F
Test rig
top and middle section
