Modified 08/11/08
You are to work in groups to design a steel bridge to meet the requirements of the AISC/ASCE Student Steel Bridge Building Competition. Click here for a ".PDF" version of the rules and other competition information. You will need Acrobat Reader to view the file. Your objective is to design a bridge that will win the competition.
You will be presenting two reports at the dates shown on the syllabus. The first is to present your design concept and preliminary analysis. The second is to be your final design.
In writing your reports, you have three objectives:
 | To show that your bridge will win the competition. |
| To convince the instructor that you did a technically competent job in designing the bridge. |
| To provide sufficient information so that the bridge can be built. |
First Design Report:
The objective of the first design report is to convince me that you know what you are doing with your structural analysis. If you your modeling and analysis is wrong, then the design will be wrong. I highly recommend that you bring your analysis to me for a pre submittal review BEFORE the submittal deadline. This report should include:
| A description of the preliminary design (should include a sketch or two), including your reasons for choosing the design, what it's strong points and weak points are, etc..... You should specifically mention how the bridge meets up with each of the judging criteria. |
| The structural analysis of your preliminary configuration. If you use SAP, then provide me with a disk that has the input files on it, otherwise, provide the complete structural calculations on excel spreadsheet or on paper. |
Final Design Report:
Your final design report must contain the following:
| A description of the design, including your reasons for choosing the design, what it's strong points and weak points are, etc..... You should specifically mention how the bridge meets up with each of the judging criteria. |
| A set of calculations to include the structural analysis, design of each member, and the design of each connection. (if using SAP include a disc with the input files. If using spreadsheet, provide me the electronic version in excel format.) |
| A set of construction drawings sufficient for the student chapter of ASCE to build the bridge. The drawing should include plan and profile views of the bridge and details of the connections. Make sure to label all the important elements and correlate your connection details to the plan and profile views. Be sure to include a bill of materials for ordering purposes. |
| A description of the erection sequence. Include an estimate for the time of construction. |
You must also prepare to make two presentations of your project. One at the last meeting of the ASCE chapter this semester and one to the class. The oral presentation should be approximately 10 minutes long. Remember that you will be trying to show that your bridge is the best design for this year's steel bridge contest. The ASCE student chapter will be choosing one design to construct for this year's contest. For the class presentation, all of your team members must speak. For the ASCE presentation, only one class member is needed. For the ASCE meeting a one page informational flyer is required for distribution.
Click here to view the project evaluation form that will be used to score your project.
Click here to view the project team assignments.
Click here to get some comments on analysis.