Mortarless structures based on topological interlocking

Abstract

We review the principle of topological interlocking and analyze the properties of the mortarless structures whose design is based on this principle. We concentrate on structures built of osteomorphic blocks – the blocks possessing specially engineered contact surfaces allowing assembling various 2D and 3D structures. These structures are easy to build and can be made demountable. They are flexible, resistant to macroscopic fractures and tolerant to missing blocks. The blocks are kept in place without keys or connectors that are the weakest elements of the conventional interlocking structures. The overall structural integrity of these structures depends on the force imposed by peripheral constraint. The peripheral constraint can be provided in various ways: by an external frame or features of site topography, internal pre-stressed cables/tendons, or self-weight and is a necessary auxiliary element of the structure. The constraining force also determines the degree of delamination developing between the blocks due to bending and thus controls the overall flexibility of the structure thus becoming a new design parameter.

Keywords

topological interlocking / fragmented structures / segmented structures / constraint / delamination / bending stiffness

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported through the ARC Discovery Grant DP120102434. AVD and EP also acknowledge support through the ARC Discovery grant DP0988449. The authors are grateful to Damien Backshall for performing calculations of the deflections and to David Yong who provided the osteomorphic blocks used in Figs. 2 and 3.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg