Day 1 understanding the task and concept design
Basically the outcome of the day was to understand better the task. We have got brief introduction and divided into group. After the college student arrived we got lecture on different bridges and how they carry loads. At 11:30 am we went out to visit the site and I took some picture to support us in the concept design process, but I was not sure where and how that bridge should built and link to Mithras house, I didn’t know the whole idea on how to design it. After getting back from the site we had lunch break and then after the lunch we discussed different bridge design, we did some sketches, come some ideas and thought about the requirements for our bridge. After discussing we established we have got some roughly idea and to design our bridge. And on 3 pm we had lecture about the structural building and the how forces act on the building. In the evening I did some roughly sketches and researched on how the bridges are constructed and requirements on building bridges.
The second of our project I presented the sketches I have done to my group and some of group members come ideas and sketches we discussed of the different ideas, we were unsure which one to choose and we were so confused but at the end we have got inspiration from Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan.
The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in Japan is a free span of 1,991 meters it is the world’s longest suspension bridge. It is 367 meters longer than the Great Belt Bridge and is the world’s second longest with 1624 meters. Total length of the bridge is 3911 meters. The bridge has three spans.The central span is 1,991 m (6,532 ft; 1.237 mi) and the two other sections are each 960 m (3,150 ft; 0.60 mi). The bridge was designed with a two hinged stiffening girder system, allowing the structure to withstand winds of 286 kilometers per hour (178 mph), earthquakes measuring up to magnitude 8.5, and harsh sea currents. The bridge also contains tuned mass dampers that are designed to operate at the resonance frequency of the bridge to dampen forces. The two main supporting towers rise 282.8 m (928 ft) above sea level and the bridge can expand because of heat by up to 2 m (6.6 ft) over the course of a day. And at the evening we calculated the dimensions of our design and scaled by 150 and printed so that we were ready to commence our work on constructing the model of our bridge.
Day 3
On Wednesday morning we had plans and we were aware of what to do out of the day. we went on engineering block this time we are going to build the model of our bridge, the materials we used was timber, foam board, and glue. It was quite difficult to do by hand than what we were thought. Each of us assigned job to do so that no one is doing anything, my job was making trusses of the bridge and sticking on them to the bridge deck with glue to hold them together. We spend the whole doing that as the college student was not with us we had to do as much work as we could since we have only one day left for presentation. Here the pictures of what we have done on the day.
Day 4 Thursday
On Thursday since it was the last day we continue where we stopped, after that I did some research on the material we used and forces bridge. All structures have forces – pushes, pulls, twists acting upon them. The two main forces that effecting upon the bridge were compression and tension.
The red represents tension force and blue represents compression the sketch shows how the load s distributed throughout the truss bridge. The truss bridge is designed to distributed load through different beams within triangular shapes. The tension is distributed to the middle of the of the bridge and compression to the end of the bridge. Those forces help the bridge to remain stable and strong. The type beam of bridge is reinforced by a framework of girders that form triangular shapes.
Bridge material
Steel is widely used around the world for the construction of bridges from the very large to the very small. It is a versatile and effective material that provides efficient and sustainable solutions.Steel has long been recognized as the economic option for a range of bridges. It dominates the markets for long span bridges, railway bridges footbridges and medium span highway bridges and it is able to carry loads in tension and compression. Due to its elasticity it has ability to change the shape while force is acting on it and then move back to its original shape and it allows different parts of bridge to experience stress without breaking, and in turn hold up the bridge as a result of normal force.
Day 5 Friday
Friday was the last day our on Project when we arrived of university we went to engineering block to finalize our Model and we took them up to the studio room for presenting. We made mistakes of construction, we built two decks instead of only one deck and built unnecessary truss.
Here is some pictures of result design.