Maximum Brick Stacking Height: Investigating the Compression Strength of Bricks

[nautica]

I am trying to figure out how many bricks can be stacked before the bottom brick is crushed?

Not sure where to start - thinking about using bulk modulus for clay, but that only talks about compression, which I am sure there is a limit, but I am not sure how to find this.

Thanks
Nautica

 

[enigma]

For a first cut, the compression strength is all you need to look at. The force at any position is the sum of the weight of all of the bricks above it. The area is the cross sectional area of the stack.

How detailed an analysis do you need to do?

 

[arcnets]

nautica,
if you search for 'tallest brick building' on the web, one of the results will be the church of St.Martin in Landshut/Germany (130 m), see here:

www.st.martin-landshut.de