Week 8- Kyle Hayes

Last week we practiced how to calculate the force on each member of the truss using method of joints by calculating it for a low load simple 7 member bridge. After doing the calculations and following the video tutorial we verified it using Bridge Designer online, and then we used Bridge Designer on our K’NEX design to help analyze the tension and compression of each member which will be used to improve our design as we near the final weeks.

I feel that this method is good for calculation basic tension, but must less reliable when there are many loads that are always moving and changing value rather than fixed to just one joint. Also like many of the other method we used this only calculates for perfect conditions, no live load, no wind or other force, and the members and gussets are perfect fit and perfect condition. So yes, it is a useful tool but not sufficient enough and reliable enough to count for a real bridge.

The one other thing I would like to analyze is the tension of the gussets. What is the max strength of the member-gusset connection, and the strength limit of the two grooved gussets stuck together as they seem much weaker and tend to fail more often than the member-gusset connection in my experience.

This week in class we will be using the data collected from Bridge Designer for our K’NEX bridge and fix our design based on adjusting high and low tension points of our design.