Truss Design Challenge Experiment - Group 8 by SDstate_Civil_Engineering

Last crawled date: 3 years, 1 month ago

Experiment Description
For this experiment, the students in the lab were required to design a truss or bridge to span a specific distance and resist a 100 lb load in a four point flexure test. All the requirements for the bridge are shown below:
• Span length of 400 mm
• Width of 75 mm
• Maximum height of 75 mm
• Maximum weight 100 grams
• Must hold 45 kg (100 lbs)
• No adhesion (glue, etc..) for connections
The challenge for the student in this experiment was their bridge had to be printed in separate parts because the bridges were to large to print all at once. The students had to design connections for these parts without the use of glue or other adhesives. The connection design was critical because that is the weakest points on their trusses.
Information on Group 8’s Bridge:
This is the design from Group 8 in the laboratory. This group had an intermediate design with a total of 5 parts. They created their own design for this project with the "X" shape truss in the middle and a Pratt style truss on the ends. The bridge had a total weight of 87 grams and resisted a load of 65 lbs. The truss failed due to overturning laterally while being loaded. The group recommended using cross bracing instead of straight lateral bracing to improve the design.
Note:
The handout for this experiment will be available soon. I will provide a link to the handout in this description when it is complete, so you can perform this experiment yourself or with your students.