Hollowness of Buildings

[Antoniofer]

Ok, so I noticed that, for calculationg the weight of buildings, we account for hollowness acknowledging that the structure is partially empty; however people do not seems to agree with an actual percentage relationship, few calcs uses 80% like these two, mienwhile other uses 90% like these others, other values are also used, such 75% or 85%.

Officially, we do not seems to list what should be the appropiated hollowness of buildings, and I find the 80-90% kind of arbitrary, so I decided to experiment a little: in this blog about the Empire State, I did determinate that the hollowness of the Empire State, comparing its ideal volume with the real one, its about 12.95% solid, or what is the same, 83.05% hollowness. Now, I wouldn't consider the Empire State as the average building, so I would recommed using this percentage with skyscraper-like buildings, and it shouldn't be applicable for other kind of buildings (such houses, temples, castles, etc).

So the plan is basically add the value, if accepted, to one of our calculations guidelines, as currently people uses different percentages in different calcs.

 

[Wokistan]

I don't think it's a very good idea to generalize a figure from a rather unique building.

 

[Antoniofer]

That's why I suggested for using it only for skyscrapers, that are some what similar to the Empire State. Unfortunalety, I could use a more common building with tabulated weight.

 

[KLOL506]

mienwhile other uses 90% like these others

The second link shows "Destroying a Tree", that calc doesn't use hollowness at all.

I think you're referring to this one.

 

[Antoniofer]

You're right, wrong link, fixed.

 

[Antoniofer]

Bump

 

[DontTalkDT]

Considering that things like average room size in the building play into that, I imagine we deal with a range of values. 80% to 90% is indeed arbitrary, but not that bad of an approximation.

What the empire state building hollowness is concerned: Sure, we can add it as suggested value for skyscrapers. I'm just not quite sure where the best place is yet. Maybe adding a paragraph to the mass section on the calc page?

 

[Antoniofer]

Yeah, I think adding it to the Mass section of the Calculations page is appropiated.

In a unrelated note, I noticed that the page is not very consistent writting the units, like writting Kg/m^3, M^3 or even Kg/M^3; according to the IUS all unit should be in lower case unless they are named after a real person (such Pascal or Kelvin).

 

[DontTalkDT]

I added something.
If the units are bothering you feel free to change them. Maybe ask in the all-purpose request thread for someone to unlock the page when you're online.

 

[Antoniofer]

All right, since the hollowness value was added to the guidelines, and the issue about the units can be handled in another thread, I believe this thread can be closed.