Week 7 - Analysis Desires

West Point Bridge Design provided very useful feedback such as the tension force and compression force for every beam and gusset point. The numeric information helped students understand their bridges better; areas that are over strained or less strained. With this resource I was able to change the design around and try different methods to find the lowest cost to strength ratio. Unfortunately, Knex does not provide numeric feedback but allows student to visually see how the bridge fails. This allows students to observe the effects of different weights and points of the bridge where it collapses. However, with numeric information for the amounts of forces applied at various points of the bridge could help me understand better how the bridge fails. For example, if the tension on a certain beam is high, I would change the design on that area to prevent it from collapsing. Vise verse, if the tension on a certain beam is very low, I would try to parts out from that area so it can reduce the total estimated cost. Unfortunately, I have no previous idea or research for how to calculate these numeric values.   

Last week in lab we had spent a long period of time testing the bridges created by all the groups. My groups bridge resulted in a epic failure. It was completely unstable, unreliable, and only held a little over 5 pounds. My group had already anticipated a bad result before the test because we recently realized that the 180 groove gusset plates are extremely unreliable to use as connectors. The two combination of two 180 grooved gusset, which was used numerous times in our design, easily separated even without a lot of weight compressed on it. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to change our design and had to face the failure. However, my group has acquired significant knowledge from the failure to be able to build a better bridge. This week in lab we will learn how to analyze bridges and calculate numeric values, which will also help to design a stronger bridge for the week 8 test.