Author2022 TCNJ Steel Bridge Team |
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Design Corrections4/26/2022 Upon reviewing the final design of the bridge, the team found areas that were in need of some improvements. In order to improve the speed of the overall bridge construction, the vertical members could have been included within the 3 foot and 2 foot sections of the stringers. This would have decreased the amount of bolts along with members of the bridge. Having less bridge members would allow for less time running to get the next piece during construction. Some areas along the bridge could have only used one bolt instead of two, saving even more time during construction. The stringer connections that connect the top and bottom portions of the stringers are one such example, these connections only needed one bolt, although this may have negatively impacted sway. Lastly, for the lateral bracing members, bolts were not supposed to be welded so this would have been changed. At the connections, thinner plate material could have been used to allow for the stringer template to slide across the top of the bridge easier. The thinner material would have allowed for shorter bolts to be used and a lighter overall weight. Since the 1-¾” bolts were used, the fabrication needed to be exact because the stringer template only allowed for two-inch wide stringers. The head of the bolt was 15/64” inches long so the lateral bracing had to be fabricated down to the 1/32 of an inch to insure that the stringers were 33.5 inches apart in order for the clearance to be met. This process became very time consuming, and ultimately led to less time for construction practice for the competition. This revision would have allowed for the team to be able to try alternative construction sequences or to perfect the preferred sequence even more.
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Regional Competition4/9/2022 We had regional competition this weekend! TCNJ competed against 5 other teams in the Metropolitan Region. The competition was held by Rutgers University. They provided the location, food, judges and everything else needed for the regional competition. It was a full day affair. The team was able to construct the bridge in just 22 minutes and 39 seconds! There were only 6 drops in total which was very good for the total amount of bolts and nuts that had to be installed when building. The load test was completed with the bridge only deflecting 0.489 inches with only 0.025 inches being on the cantilever end. The bridge passed in sway and was a total of 263 pounds. With these results we scored second in stiffness and third in both construction time and lightness. The bridge was presented so well, being painted school colors, having a school name plate created with the waterjet machine, and with a sleek poster design, we earned first place in aesthetics! We are overall very happy with our performance and happy to have been able to participate in such an involved senior project. We all learned so much from working hard the whole academic year and having a great end result because of it. |