Another short video summary

Here is a short video clip showing some of the work completed during the summer, 2019.

Keynote Speaker

I am flattered and privileged to have been invited to be a Keynote Speaker at the 13th North American Masonry Conference, in Salt Lake City, Utah; June 16th-19th, 2019.  This event is created by The Masonry Society (to which I proudly belong).  I have been asked to speak about Innovation in Masonry.  I will also be giving a separate presentation on my company's technology as an Innovative Technology Session.

I was asked to provide an abstract (one for each talk), a short bio, and a photo.  Here they are:

Abstracts

Innovation in Masonry Today: The Big Picture

This talk will address the important role of innovation to the masonry industry in today’s world. Different types of innovation will be described, including incremental, gradual changes; and revolutionary or disruptive innovation.  Various sources of innovation will be explored, including linear focused research; interdisciplinarian research involving other fields; the psychology of innovation; biomimicry as a source of innovation; and the unexpected, “opened door” source of innovation. The challenges of innovation will be described: including fundraising, intellectual property, green technology, the importance of credentials, evangelizing new technology, converting others, establishing a technical standard and obtaining a critical mass. The speaker will address all of these considerations in the real-world context of his own experiences in the development of using specialty manufactured concrete block to build masonry roof arches, domes, spheres, flying buttresses, boats & ships, and much more.  This talk will summarize the role of profitable innovation in the masonry industry relative to society, our country and the wider needs of today’s world.

Spherical Block’s Innovative Masonry Systems

This talk will address the topological interlocking manufactured concrete block systems developed by Spherical Block, LLC. Two different types of block design will be described, including triangular block used to make domes and spheres; and voussoirs used to build arches, flying buttresses, windows and more.  The molds used by block makers to produce these block will be described, including methods for handling these block, including cubing and palleting for shipping.  The advantages of these innovative masonry systems will be summarized; including taking advantage of the anisotropy of these block; the extensive design flexibility which they provide; the safety provided by these masonry systems for fire, extreme weather, seismic events, and resistance to terrorist threats; the low cost and ease of production, and both manual, semi-automated methods of assembly. The speaker will address all of these considerations in the real-world context of his ongoing experiences in the development of using these specialty manufactured concrete block to build masonry roof arches, domes, spheres, flying buttresses, boats & ships, and much more.  This talk will summarize the role of this profitable innovation in the masonry industry relative to the block maker, masons and the end-user.

Bio

Peter Roberts is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of innovative masonry systems at Spherical Block, LLC. Peter is a masonry designer entrepreneur inspired to develop profitable, sustainable and scalable solutions for expanding the use of manufactured concrete block into topological designs, using block to provide roofs, such as arches and domes. He is at the vanguard of this entirely new use of concrete block, creating new applications, uses and markets for concrete block at scale. Peter has earned a reputation for utilizing existing production methods and materials to provide a profitable new realm for manufactured concrete masonry products. His work is suitable for affordable, high-strength building designs viable for withstanding severe weather events, wildfires, tsunamis, seismic applications, infrastructure, kilns and more. Peter has been granted six awards from the National Science Foundation, and two awards from the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority toward the development and characterization of this innovative masonry technology. Peter’s work has been identified as a Cutting-Edge Technology by the American Concrete Institute. Peter has authored 18 US patents. He holds a Bsc in Masonry Science from Alfred University’s New York State College of Ceramics. In his spare time, Peter is an avid outdoors enthusiast and devotes his time to pottery, sculpture, metal working, glass blowing and music. He is currently working to obtain a positive evaluation of his company’s technology from International Code Council – Evaluation Services. He can be contacted at roberts.peter01@gmail.com.

I am very excited to be giving this talk, and feel flattered and humbled at the invitation. I lived in Park City, UT for 11 years, so I look forward to seeing some old friends in my old stomping grounds during my few days there. 

Making a small concrete block masonry building

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1660075 ("Topological interlocking manufactured concrete block").  Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Today I'm taking a look at the construction of a small building assembled from manufactured concrete block.  This particular building was made to serve as a kiln room.  A kiln is a high temperature oven or furnace used to heat (fire) ceramic material.  Kilns may also be used to melt metal, or glass, or for any heat-treatment of materials, such as drying green wood.

This building has a footprint of around 14 feet by 12 feet, or around 170 square feet.  There is a trend today toward "tiny houses" where people are attempting to live in such small spaces.  Personally, I don't mind living in a small house (under 1,000 feet is OK) but I would not care to live in such a small space as this: it is appropriate for a shed, or a safe room, or even a kiln room.

A "safe room" is an appropriate use for a building this size.  A safe room like this would be appropriate to survive a tornado, or hurricane or wildfire.  The need for an affordable, high-strength, fire-proof safe room has been brought into sharp focus over the past few months, with the arrival of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria; and also with the devastating wildfires in California and across the American West.  A building such as the one shown here would allow people to survive any of these disasters, providing safe refuge in the face of any of these natural disasters.  Many residents of Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, and California would have benefited from one of these structures during the hurricanes and wildfires which impacted these areas.  A structure such as this provides an affordable solution to these natural disasters, and gives people a safe place to survive these devastating type of events.

Following are some photographs showing the construction of this building.  The vertical walls were made with standard 8 inch x 8 inch x 16 inch concrete blocks, or "cinder blocks" as they are commonly known.  The side walls of this building include blocks which are oriented with their long dimension oriented at a right angle to the wall, creating a series of vertical buttresses, or pilasters for additional strength and reinforcement.  These blocks have hollow core holes which were subsequently poured with grout and also contained a series of vertical rebar for additional reinforcement.

Here is the building site before construction began.

Construction has begun, a few hours into it.

Vertical walls almost completed, this took 2 days to build.

There were 450 regular 8 inch x 8 inch x 16 inch block used to make all of the vertical walls.  These block cost $1.20 each.  There were 30 8 ft. pieces of rebar used in the hollow vertical cores of the walls, which were poured with grout.  I used "gatorbar" rebar, made by Neuvokas Company.  This rebar is made from basalt, which has a very high tensile strength and will never rust.  20 foot long pieces of this rebar cost around $5.50.  The grout cost around $30 for the entire structure.  Mortar for the entire structure cost around $45.00.  The material cost of these vertical walls (including block, mortar, rebar and grout) was around $700.

This shows wooden forms used to make arches between the vertical buttresses or pilasters.

Here are wooden forms used to make a concrete skewback, from which the masonry arch roof is built, or 'sprung.'  

This shows the arch assembly as it begins.  Note the use of 'gatorbar' rebar used to help create the arch.  This block is described in more detail here.

Here is the masonry arch being constructed.

This shows threaded anchor bolts (3/8") which were used to attach a wooden covering to the roof.

This is the 3/8" anchor bolt, which is inserted into the mortar beds between blocks of the arch.

Here is the building with a completed masonry arch.  This could have been made waterproof with any number of techniques, including waterproof paint, rubber roofing, etc.  I try to use the most common construction practices, methods and materials: so I used a wooden surface, covered with tarpaper and then finally covered with shingles.  Any of these methods will work.

Here is the wooden roof surface, covered with tarpaper.  Note the stainless steel chimney for the kiln in the back.

Here is the shingled building, more or less complete.  I will still install a door, and I may paint the building with a waterproof masonry paint, such as (for example) Drylok(TM).

This building represents a simple, high-performance, inexpensive approach to providing a very safe structure capable of withstanding wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and other extreme weather events.  The cost of materials for the vertical walls was around $700.  The cost of the masonry arched roof was $644 in block, around $70 in mortar, and $77 in rebar for a total material cost of $791.  The total material cost of this building was $1,491.  This material cost does not include labor, and labor costs vary widely.  This was built by two masons working for 5 days, 8 hours each day.  By comparison, a smaller shed made of flimsy wood sheathing which is much smaller (8 ft. x 12 ft. vs. 12 ft. x 14 ft.) costs $2,199.  This wooden shed will burn, rot, suffer from insects, and is not nearly as strong: it would not survive a direct encounter with a hurricane or tornado.  There is really no comparison!  The wood shed costs $22.90 per square foot, the concrete building shown here costs $8.77 per square foot.

Upon completion of work funded by the National Science Foundation (Phase II, Small Business Innovation Research, SBIR) within the next 2 years, this technology should be accepted into the International Building Code and is expected to be available for sale internationally.  This small building is just another example of what this innovative masonry technology makes possible.  Better, stronger, safer buildings at a lower cost. 

Introducing a new block design for arches

I have been working on a new manufactured concrete block design which can be used to build arches, cylinders and domes.  This design is something of a departure from my earlier work: it is not triangular, but more rectangular in general shape.  This shape allows it to be easily produced on a standard block machine, it also allows for easy handling, cubing, stacking and shipping.  It takes maximum advantage of the mold volume to produce the largest number of blocks while minimizing wasted space in the mold. No core pullers are required.

The shape is rectangular, 8 inches by 16 inches, with a width of around 3 inches.  There are two grooves located in the block, these are used to locate and place reinforcing steel rebar.  The rebar also acts as supporting scaffolding while the block are laid.

Each block has a compound angle, which is at 45 degrees to the rectangular edges of the block.  This compound angle makes each block act as a wedge, or voussoir, like a conventional arch block: except that the wedge-shape occurs at 45 degrees to the face of the block, normal to the axis of rotation of the arch being assembled, to allow for the corrugated feature of the assembled arch,

These block weigh only 75% of the weight of a typical 8 " x 8" x 16" block.  This makes them easier to handle and place for the mason.  The key and keyway, and also the grooved recesses for the rebar create hand holds for ease of handling by the mason.  A small indentation in the bottom of one of the grooves is an indicator to show the mason the thinner end of the block.

Each subsequent layer of block is laid at ninety degrees to the previous layer, this herringbone stacking creates the corrugations.  The grooves for accepting rebar allows the block to be placed directly on top of the previous course: you don't have to 'thread' the block all the way down the rebar, it is very simple and easy to lay these block.

These block have two 'keys' that stick out and two 'keyways' that form recesses, creating an effective interlock between two adjacent block.  This feature, together with the two recesses which accept rebar, fully locate block and lock them into their proper position as they are laid.   The arch remains stiff as block are laid, this system for assembly works well.

The block are stacked to create corrugations in the arch.  These corrugations introduce a moment of inertia in the arch, resulting in higher strength and increased flexural rigidity: just like a tin can or a plastic bottle has ridges to make it stiffer.

Manufactured concrete block are anispotropic: the strength is not the same in all directions, there is a high-strength axis and a weaker axis in any manufactured block.  These new block are produced so that the high-strength axis of the manufactured concrete is always facing radially, toward the outside of the structure.  Conventional concrete block always have the high-strength axis facing vertically, with the low-strength axis facing outside, so that they are less strong (especially to impacts from outside).  This weakness of concrete block is dramatically demonstrated by FEMA P-320 testing, where a 2" x 4" piece of wood is fired through a cannon at a wall to simulate tornado conditions.  A regular unreinforced block wall will have holes poked right through it with the FEMA P-320 test. The block system described here is much stronger.

Multiple wythes or layers of block can be used to make this system even stronger, by making the arch even thicker.  By making the arch thicker, there is no limitation to the size of arch which can be built.

These block can be dry-stacked, or they can be used with mortar.  If they are dry-stacked, they will create an arch around 25 feet across.  By using mortar, the size of the arch can be adjusted, either larger or smaller by feathering or tapering the mortar thickness.  Different sized radii can be combined to build an arch with more than one center, creating beautiful designs and providing extensive design flexibility.

In addition to a round arch, these block can also assemble into a pointed or Gothic arch.

A US patent application for this design has been filed.  I worked on this design with 5 students from Alfred University's Inamori School of Engineering for their Senior Project.  These students are (listed alphabetically): Corey Bergendahl, Jacob Brown, Dillon Jones, Stephen Livoti, and Andrew Schermerhorn.  Each of these students did a great job in focusing on this technology for their Senior Project, they are all listed as co-inventors on the patent application.  These students were under the direction and supervision of their instructors, Dr. Ehsan Ghotbi and Dr. Eric Payton.  Below is a picture of 3 students (from left: Jacob, Stephen, Dillon) doing a dry stack test assembly.

High quality, high carbon, heat-treated molds made for this block system were made by Besser Proneq. This mold is suitable for a 3-at-a-time block machine, and works on either a Besser or Columbia type block machine.  It produces six block per cycle.  One of the block cavities has a removable insert, with the option available to create two half blocks with each cycle.  The mold can either produce six full blocks per cycle, or five full blocks and two half blocks.  The half blocks allow for the end of an arch to be made as a flush surface, an important feature.

An initial trial run of this mold and these block were made at Southern Tier Concrete Products Corporation in Alfred, New York.  This mold worked very well, it easily produced 6,000 block in this trial run.  The cycle time was around 10 seconds, or around 1.6 seconds per block.

Since these block only use 75% of the material used in a standard 8" x 8" x 16" and require less cycle time per block than a standard 8" x 8" x 16" block, it is expected that these block will sell for around the same price or even less than the cost of a regular block.  If we assume that each block sells for $1.50  then an arched roof can be built for around $7.00 per square foot, which includes rebar.  This represents an incredible value: very high strength, beautiful, maintenance free, fire resistant, rot proof, insect proof, building systems which can be expected to withstand tornadoes, hurricanes, and other severe weather events for less than $10 per square foot.   This system is also very energy efficient: it takes advantage of the thermal mass benefits which characterize masonry, and extends those benefits to the roof and the entire building.

This system provides extensive design flexibility: many different types of structures can be made from this one block.  It can be used to create round arches, pointed Gothic arches, multi-centered arches, cylinders, domes, arch rib sections, and even flying buttresses.  This design flexibility makes it appropriate for many different applications, from arched roofs for residential, commercial and public buildings, to tunnels, bridges, culverts, retaining walls, and many other infrastructure applications.

This block system is especially well suited for making arched bridges.  Currently, the US is facing an impending crisis with its infrastructure, and with its bridges in particular.  The example left for us by the Romans of using arches for their aqueducts proves beyond any doubt that the masonry arch system is effective, durable, and able to withstand the test of time: many aqueducts are over 2,000 years old and remain structurally sound to this day.

Currently I am building test structures using this new block.  I expect these structures to be completed over the summer.  Check back on this blog for progress and pictures of this system being used.