A1 - Jiang

My goals of designing the bridge are from two sides. One is spreading the tension into top and bottom. Two is using diverse materials and changing the size of them to reduce the building cost. I think that if I use this way to build a bridge, it will be safe and low cost.

Bridge in 2D mode

The Truck in animation mode

The load test results

The original price of the bridge was double as current price due to the cross section I chose, which was Solid bar.   After I using Hollow Tube instead of the bars, the cost was suddenly cut a half, however, the truck didn't pass the test. The compression strength of the tubes was much lower than that of the bars. So I decided to change the size of the truss on the top and the material of all trusses. I compared the cost when I increased the size and changed a stronger material of one same member. The consultation came after testing. Changing a better material is more inexpensive than increasing the size of trusses. For instance, I used quenched & tempered steels instead of carbon steels from the truss on the top. The price increased by $20141. When I kept using carbon steels and I changing the size of the truss, the price was risen by $32204 to pass the test.


Current cost: $292,788.76
I think that I can drop the price by $50000~$60000 with further time.

I learned that where the main compression and tension distribute on a bridge when a truck passes through. I also learned how to analyze the data from the load test results to adjust my bridge accordingly. I found out that the bridge could be failed down without any weight, just itself.