[Strawbale] 3-string bales...

[Jeff Ruppert]

Not sure why it took me so long to get this up in the public realm, but 
since there is a current discussion regarding engineering and 
three-string bales, thought I would finally do it. 

Anyway, I have made available our compression testing report from 1999 
at our website:

http://odiseanet.com/comprprt.pdf

The report summarizes nine compression tests on bale walls, six of which 
were three-string and three of which were two-string.  The two-string 
bales walls were roughly twice as strong as all of the three-string 
walls.  We have speculated why this is, but your opinions are also 
welcome, especially here in the public realm. 

Denise, I am not questioning your engineer by posting this, so don't 
take it personally.  I am sure he did a fine job for you.  I can also 
relate to Habib's desire to use the larger bales.  I think this is good 
info for everyone to know, and again, I can't believe it took me this 
long to make it available to everyone.  So with that, enjoy!

BTW, this report is also available on the CD by the Ecological Building 
Network which includes a bunch of other tests.  Please support their 
efforts by purchasing the CD if you need that type of information.  It 
costs bundles of money to do all of these tests!

And, finally, since I have your attention, I might as well take this 
opportunity to do some selfish promotion of a very new website, 
www.buildearth.org <http://buildearth.org>.  It is a news blog for the 
green building industry.  We would like to fill a niche that is not 
affiliated with any particular organization.  I know there are other 
green building news sites out there, but we hope to offer a wider range 
of stories, ones that you would find interesting but just don't have the 
time to find searching the web all day long.  If you find it valuable, 
let us know how and bookmark it.  If there is something you would like 
to see, let us know as well.  This is /very/ new (this past week) so 
forgive us if we missed something.  Feel free to send us any good news 
stories, announcements, or if you would just like to ask a question to 
the larger masses, we will post it there!  Thanks.

That's all for now - whew!

-- 
Jeff Ruppert, P.E.
Principal

Odisea LLC
Engineering and Consulting

Front Range Office 		West Slope Office		
1731 15th St. #105		209 Clark Ave.
Boulder, CO  80302		Paonia, CO 81428
303.443.4335			970.948.5744
303.443.4355 f			1.866.795.6699 f
jeff at odiseanet.com
www.odiseanet.com