Last week in class, each group tested the amount of load
their bridge can hold. Unfortunately, the result of our bridge did not turn out
well. Our bridge only held 17 pounds, whereas the group that held the most was
about 48 pounds. Clearly, some calculation and analysis needs to be done in
order to improve the bridge design. We also learned that 360 degrees gusset plates
are not the best connectors to use in a bridge design. It seems like it is strong,
but the fact is that the two gusset plates slide out easily. This week in class, we will analyze methods
that can improve a bridge design. We will also learn how to calculate numeric
values that are similar to the WPBD.
WPBD was a very helpful software because it provided tension
force and compression force for each beam. This feature allows us to modify a
specific beam that needs to be fixed. With these information available to us,
we can change the design around by replacing different material beams to find
the lowest cost to strength ratio. On the other side, working with Knex can
take because we need to calculate the numerical values manually. I think it
would be nice to know how to calculate the compression force and the tension
force on each of the beams and the gusset plates when using Knex. It would also
be nice to know how much a gusset plate itself can hold and which gusset plate
is the strongest among all the available ones. Unfortunately, I do not have any
good suggestions to how to calculate the forces yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment