Date of Presentation
4-26-2019 2:00 PM
College
Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering
Faculty Sponsor(s)
Amir Iranmanesh
Poster Abstract
Every year AISC runs a regional and national steel bridge competition. The competition offers a chance for civil engineering students to gain valuable experience designing a bridge. In addition to this, mechanical engineering students are provided the opportunity to practice machining steel parts. For the competition, teams from participating schools are given a scenario with certain constraints to design a bridge for. At the competition, the bridges are ranked based on weight, structural efficiency, construction economy, assembly speed, deflection, aesthetics, and overall performance.
The program Risa 3D was used in order to design and perform analysis on the bridge. Using the LRFD method and following the given constraints by the judges; a 23 foot long, 32 member bridge design was selected for the competition bridge. The major constraint of having offset footings caused a lot of problems in the design. In the end, it was decided to use all similar truss members with an exception of the two members at the end with the offset footing. Aside from the actual design of the bridge, students interacted with professionals. Students reached out to steel manufacturers to obtain cost estimates for the project, select the best price and order materials. Pennsylvania Steel Company offered the cheapest price for the materials needed. All of the material was purchased and delivered for a total of $656.77. To secure sponsorship to fund the project, students reached out to local engineering and architectural firms. As of now students are working on the machining of the designed parts. Mechanical engineers in the group used a lathe in order to manufacture the female and male connections between the different truss members. A water jet was also used in order to cut out the triangular connections between the top and bottom truss members on each side. The nipple connections were manufactured using a mill and then the holes were drilled by hand of one of the team members. On April 27th, the Rowan steel bridge team will participate in the metropolitan regional competition.
Student Keywords
Steel, Bridge, Competition
Disciplines
Civil and Environmental Engineering | Manufacturing | Mechanical Engineering | Structural Engineering
Document Type
Poster
Included in
2019 Student Steel Bridge Team
Every year AISC runs a regional and national steel bridge competition. The competition offers a chance for civil engineering students to gain valuable experience designing a bridge. In addition to this, mechanical engineering students are provided the opportunity to practice machining steel parts. For the competition, teams from participating schools are given a scenario with certain constraints to design a bridge for. At the competition, the bridges are ranked based on weight, structural efficiency, construction economy, assembly speed, deflection, aesthetics, and overall performance.
The program Risa 3D was used in order to design and perform analysis on the bridge. Using the LRFD method and following the given constraints by the judges; a 23 foot long, 32 member bridge design was selected for the competition bridge. The major constraint of having offset footings caused a lot of problems in the design. In the end, it was decided to use all similar truss members with an exception of the two members at the end with the offset footing. Aside from the actual design of the bridge, students interacted with professionals. Students reached out to steel manufacturers to obtain cost estimates for the project, select the best price and order materials. Pennsylvania Steel Company offered the cheapest price for the materials needed. All of the material was purchased and delivered for a total of $656.77. To secure sponsorship to fund the project, students reached out to local engineering and architectural firms. As of now students are working on the machining of the designed parts. Mechanical engineers in the group used a lathe in order to manufacture the female and male connections between the different truss members. A water jet was also used in order to cut out the triangular connections between the top and bottom truss members on each side. The nipple connections were manufactured using a mill and then the holes were drilled by hand of one of the team members. On April 27th, the Rowan steel bridge team will participate in the metropolitan regional competition.