Author2022 TCNJ Steel Bridge Team |
Back to Blog
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.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |