Engineering Projects/Bridges/Howard Community College/fall2011/501 DAS 3

Currently BEING REVISED

Problem Statement
Bridges Phase III: The principle purpose of this third portion of this project is to actually build and load test the spaghetti bridge that was designed in the 1st and 2nd portion of the project (Phase I & II). Based on the design rules, the the bridge was designed to support the maximum amount of weight possible. It is our intent during this phase of the project to document the entire process of building the bridge and load testing. Please see the "Summary" for additional information regarding the specifications of the bridge as it was design and the method that will be used for load testing.

Team Members

 * DivaEngineer
 * Syed Sami Ahmed
 * Erik Smith
 * Kevin Saunders

Summary
The focus of the project is to actually build and load test the pasta bridge that was design in the previous project. In addition to that, we will document the entire process in an attempt to create a tutorial for the process/strategy of gluing the pasta pieces of the bridge together to create a strong bond. This tutorial can potentially be used as a source of information for future teams attempting to design a pasta bridge and eliminate the frustration of trying to figure out the correct method of bonding the pasta pieces in such a manner that will actually contribute to the overall strength of the bridge. We have used previous design max loads as a standard for our design and will follow the plans created for putting the bridge together. Each week our team will meet to work on the completion of the build as it will take quite a bit of precision to get it done. The progress of the project can be viewed via the links below of the Team Weekly Reports.


 * Team Weekly Reports
 * /Week 0 (November 7 - November 13, 2011)/
 * /Week 1 (November 14 - November 20, 2011)/
 * /Week 2 (November 21 - November 27, 2011)/



Poster
This is a simple pony truss, the easiest to make with spaghetti.

Story
Esmith1993 joined for the final 4 weeks of the project and caught up with the idea of a spaghetti bridge. K.saunders joined last second to contribute his findings on failing force of spaghetti and linguine in relation to length of noodle. DivaEngineer and Sahmed1890 already constructed pieces of the spaghetti bridge and were just continuing construction.Sahmed1890 used another piece of wood to cut through and make another load support. He then sketched a line on the wood to determine the dimensions of the wood according to the rules. He used the saw and made the wooden load support. After wiping it of the dust he then placed the hook in it and finished with it. As a result of the experiment, as the length of the noodle decreased the strength of the noodle increased. This can be used to better our understanding of why good bridges work and bad bridges fail. Because the torque is smaller on a shorter noodle it can withstand more force and resist twisting.

Decision List
Decisions made:
 * Zita Spaghetti
 * Individually created truss's and bring them together as a group to critique
 * Strategically place hot glue where extra support is needed.

Material List
Figuring out what to purchase, what to build, what everything costs is a huge part of engineering. Typically there is a list of materials in stock, materials that are ordered, materials that should be ordered next time there is money, materials that have not been fully justified. These issues are part of healthy management of the engineering lab but are associated with a particular college. The detail needs to be published in this "Done" form. However in the project root, just a list of materials is necessary.

Link to Glue gun tips

Link to Zita Spaghetti

Link to another long spaghetti

Software List

 * Google Sketchup
 * 123D

Time
Four week project; approximately 7 hours a week
 * 4x7=28 hours
 * Approximately 28 hours spent on this project

Tutorials
Because spaghetti noodles are so fragile and thin. You must first layout the project with wooden components and once your wooden blueprint works sufficiently you can then transfer over to the noodles and begin the construction of the actual spaghetti bridge. Many spaghetti noodles will be wasted without proper planning.

Next Steps
Next group should use either google sketchup or 123D to construct a blueprint of possible bridge structures, and either proceed to make a spaghetti bridge or use balsa wood as a starting point.

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