Tuesday 10 December 2013

Building Structure Project 1 Fettuccine Truss Bridge

Learning Outcomes
1. Able to evaluate, explore and improve attributes of construction materials
2. Explore and apply understanding of load distribution in a truss3. Able to evaluate and identify tension and compression members in a truss structure4. Explore different arrangement of members in a truss structure




The report is done in a group of 6, compiling a precedent study, model testing process, failure analysis and calculation of the bridge. Individual calculations of trusses given by the lecturers are included in the appendix to show the understanding of truss analysis. 

The final truss design is confirmed after several times of experiment to test the strength and weakness of the fettuccine. The fettuccines were sticked together using 3 seconds glue precisely to increase the strength of material and resist the strength of compression by the loads. 


Team work and skills of model making is important to build a nice and stable model to carry the load of  5kg for 1 minute as requirement. The video below shows the process of final model testing which successfully carried the load of 7kg with the minimum mass of fettuccine model.




1 comment:

  1. Great job of bridge building and testing.
    Whatever the outcome one would have experienced the "stresses" and "tensions" during the test and live to succeed in the long run.
    What counts is the process from building the model to the testing till it fails... and to be able to see how to put together the structure and the load that such a fragile construction can bear.

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