Week 6 Assignment: Knex Process

During this week in our lab sections we spent our time constructing individual bridges from the knex. Melissa and I decided to each construct our own bridge and then test them both to see which held the most weight. With my original design not being long enough, I had to add another component to my bridge, causing it to be unsymmetrical. This caused my bridge to fail after only 5 pounds of weight. We decided after testing to go along with Melissa’s bridge design (even is minor tweaks had to be made). This week we brought our bridge home with us along with some pieces we can use to make modifications if needed. We plan to test and modify the bridge as much as needed to make it as strong as it can be.

            My statements about last week stand the same. I still agree that you can use your hands to feel and test the strength and compression of the bridge, and I still agree that we can easily find where the mistakes are made. We learned that while testing it, it would easily break at the weak spots and they could be easily determined. I also still do agree that making repairs is much harder with Knex. After breaking the bridge with testing and determining where the repairs needed to be made, if one piece had to be changed out for length the whole bridge needed to be changed. Obviously, if this were a real bridge we would need to be 100% positive that the bridge was sturdy because it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to construct and if it broke a new design would have to be made. With Knex, there are no repercussions for breaking it and making it all over.

Kelsey McSorley

A2 - Chelsea Moss

Week 5: WPDB vs. K'NEX

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A2-Mercado

1)

The design of my bridge is fairly simple. I wanted to keep the design simple to lower the cost which is what I learned from experimentation with West Point Bridge Designer. My truss consists mostly of alternating triangles according to the side. All the triangles point inward and the center square is an X. The top are all X’s inside squares.  I also tried to utilize smaller beams because they were cheaper. My design is very abstract and based on how I perceive loads to be experienced thus the X  centers are at areas where there is more load.  My main concern is the question as to whether my abstract idea will work at all.

2)

 Elevation View

3)

 Plan View

4)

 Bill of Materials

5)

As of right now my bridge did not change much because I have not tested it yet. If and when I get to test my design I will change the design accordingly.  I took

6)

                I learned that designing a low cost bridge is not easy at all. Many of the gusset plates are very expensive especially the connection plates.  This makes the price of the bridge skyrocket.  In order to make a good bridge that is low in cost a lot of testing must be done.