Bridge Designer
Trial Runs
1st Design
In our first design, we were able to get the cost to $302,340. Here we only implemented one hollow tube and tried to reduce cost by making all the solid bars as small as possible while still meeting the compression and tension requirements.
2nd Design
In our second design, we found out that implementing more hollow tubes lowers the cost more than using smaller solid bar sizes. Here we have three hollow tubes with the rest solid and the cost came down to $300,907.
3rd Design (Final)
In our final design, we found out that the requirement for 15% hollow tubes meant that around 14-16% should be made of hollow tubes. We initially thought that 15% was the maxium and that is why we stuck with only using three in the previous design. We then implemented 5 hollow tubes and brought the price down to $291,627.33 while still meeting all the requirements. Below you will find the calculations for this run and the video of the bridge being tested.
Calculations for Final Design
Final Design Video
finalbridgerun