Bridge Designer

The aim of this design was to make a bridge with the following constraints:

Deck 12 meters above water
Standard abutments
No Pier
No cable anchorages
Medium strength concrete
Standard two lanes
Pratt Through Truss
Carbon steel components
Compression force/strength ratio cannot exceed .40 (+/-.01)
Tension force/strength ratio cannot exceed .45 (+/-.01)
15% of bridge of members hollow tubes (+/- 1%)
Lowest possible cost

Here is a picture of a diagram of the bridge. It is pratt truss bridge, meaning that the suspension is on top of the base.

builddesigntest.mov

Here is a video of our bridge being tested by a truck going across it. As you can see, the truck successfully crosses our bridge!

Math: This is the math for the total of all forces acting upon each joint of the bridge. Every number corresponds to a joint in the bridge, starting from the left to the right, and is the total of all the tension and compression acting upon every beam connected to the joint.

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