chemistry

Hesco bastion

Hesco bastion is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hesco bastion rather than just read about it. In short: A Hesco bastion, also known as a Hesco barrier, and formally Concertainer, is a gabion introduced in 1989 and primarily used for flood control and military fortifications. It is made of a collapsible wire mesh container and heavy-duty geotextile fabric liner and is used as a temporary to semi-permanent levee or blast wall against small-arms fire or explosives.

Key takeaways

Hesco bastion belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hesco bastion to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hesco bastion from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A Hesco bastion, also known as a Hesco barrier, and formally Concertainer, is a gabion introduced in 1989 and primarily used for flood control and military fortifications. It is made of a collapsible wire mesh container and heavy-duty geotextile fabric liner and is used as a temporary to semi-permanent levee or blast wall against small-arms fire or explosives. It has been used in military applications in Iraq and Afghanistan.

History British ex-coal miner Jimi Heselden designed a geotextile fabric-lined bastion for erosion and flood control on beaches and in marshes. He founded HESCO Bastion Ltd. in 1989 to produce what he dubbed the “Concertainer”, a portmanteau of "concertina" and "container" for the unique way that units fold flat like a concertina for efficient packaging, handling, and erection. Hesco bastions were used in 2005 to reinforce levees around New Orleans in the weeks between Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. During the June 2008 Midwest floods, 8,200 metres (9,000 yd) of HESCO barrier wall were shipped to Iowa. In late March 2009, 10,700 m (11,700 yd) of HESCO barrier were delivered to Fargo, North Dakota, to protect against floods. In late September 2016, 16 km (10 mi) of HESCO barriers were used in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the fall flood of 2016.

Assembly Assembling the HESCO unit entails unfolding it and filling it with sand, soil or gravel, usually using a front end loader. The HESCO barriers are varied in sizes and models. Most of the barriers can also be stacked, and they are shipped collapsed in compact sets.

Variants Since the original concertainer, HESCO has developed specialized variants, including:

a rapid in-theatre deployment design (in which a container is dragged along the ground to deploy multiple barriers); an "accommodation bunker" (with an aluminum roof and a pre-detonation screen); a "Terrablock" combining concertainer ballast and metal mesh fencing; a lightweight overhead protection system; and, the Sangar, a fortification kit consisting of MIL walls, protective roof, and windows.

See also Bremer wall – steel-reinforced concrete blast walls

References

External links

HESCO Bastion Ltd—HESCO company site

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hesco bastion

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hesco bastion claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hesco bastion before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hesco bastion ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hesco bastion

In research: Hesco bastion appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hesco bastion in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hesco bastion is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics British inventions, Engineering barrages, Flood barriers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hesco bastion outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hesco bastion in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hesco bastion means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hesco bastion out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hesco bastion in simple terms?

Why does Hesco bastion matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hesco bastion?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hesco bastion.