What I did with my weekend...

[zorrex]

So I have been nonexistent the past couple weeks and especially the past couple days. My soul has been CONSUMED the past couple weeks with Steel Bridge! Basically, we have a team to design, fabricate, and competitively construct and load a 20ft long steel bridge. There are VERY strict dimensional and construction rules.

We constructed our bridge in about 15 minutes (before penalties), and our bridge weighed 249 lbs (again, before penalties). It also held the entire load of 2500 lbs that all bridges were loaded with, and out of all the teams, performed the BEST. It had an aggregate deflection of 5/8". The aggregate deflection was the measure of all the deflections at 3 points after the first grate was loaded and after the second grate was loaded (see pics). After the first grate was loaded, the center of the bridge actual went UP instead of sagging, meaning we had a NEGATIVE deflection! Our bridge's aggregate deflection beat out second-best MIT's bridge .

Unfortunately, we had a dimensional violation which caused out team to fall into 4th place overall. The scoring is based on your construction time, your bridge weight, and your deflection. If we didn't have a dimensional violation (we found out later we could have avoided said dimensional violation, UGH), our team would have placed 2nd overall to MIT, and we would have gone to Las Vegas for the national competition .

Oh well, we still had the BEST BRIDGE! Pics to follow...

The build team...

Most of the team standing on the bridge after our extremely successful loading!

Me being an idiot before/while loading the bridge

Getting ready to load the bridge...

FULLY LOADED to 2500 lbs! Notice how it's as straight as heck!

Co-captain Bill leaping over the bridge during construction...

Construction...

More construction...

 

[zorrex]

Tufts's bridge...

Merrimack's bridge...

Northeastern's IDIOTICALLY designed bridge... (they put tension chords where compression struts should have been, so they buckled while loading. However, they're bridge still held all the weight, unfortunately)

Roger Williams's bridge...

UMaine's bridge... (it was the only one to fail while loading. One of the welds snapped in the tension chord...)

UConn's bridge... (they're team placed 3rd overall)

Norwich's bridge...

MIT's bridge... (their captain was a dick...)

Wentworth's bridge... (they got DQ'd because their members were too heavy and weren't allowed to construct and load their bridge. It was estimated that the bridge weighed over 1000lbs and had ZERO deflection! Whoa! And notice all the 7/8" bolts! Jeebus!)

Universite Laval's bridge... (I wish all those stuck-up Canadian pricks die in a fire...seriously...)

 

[zorrex]

UNH's bridge... (they're design sucked as well...what a waste...the bottom chord should have been small tension chords rather than MASSIVE pieces of tubing...)

And here's some pics of our team at random points in time doing random things...

Bill gas welding (MIG)

Bill grinding...

This piece had to be heavily modified...

Here it is being modified. The captain was HORRIFIED that we were cutting up that piece so much, hahahah.

And again...

Vlad grinding something for some hopefully purposeful reason...

Chris hates noise. Tipsy (short for Saranthip) liked using the chop saw. LOL

Standing on the bridge to pull out some slack...

I was zoned out and Aimee (our captain) gave me bunny ears.

 

[zorrex]

Bill must like lighting his pants on fire? haha

Bill didn't like being photographed, especially while practicing building...

See what I mean? hahaha

Me being an idiot...

Our bridge was required to pass a "lateral load deflection test." This meant the bridge was to be loaded with a grate plus 75 lbs, and pulled with a 50-lb force to one side. We had the second-smallest lateral deflection. This is us testing it...

 

[ElKy]

woohoo fun stuff!
so where was it that you were dimensionally illegal?

 

[zorrex]

Our legs were supposed to be at least 36" apart. We NEVER checked the measurement ONCE when we were fabricating the bridge. We measured it at the top of the legs and it was 36 1/8", so we assumed the bottom was fine and could be adjusted by just tugging on them a bit. Well, when we were constructing it (remember, it is a TIMED construction), I could not for the life of me get the two legs to fall inside the allowable area for the legs, because they were too close. I tugged on them wicked hard and couldn't get them apart. As it turns out, one of the bolts on the cross-bracing was too tight (which usually is NOT a bad thing, lol), so I couldn't get them apart. So we got a penalty for violating the footings during construction (a 50lb weight penalty), PLUS a penalty of 300 lbs for violating the 36" minimum width. If I hadn't tightened that bolt so much, or if Bill (co-captain, he knew the in's and out's of this bridge more than any of us as it was his design) had thought of loosening it and THEN pulling the legs apart, we would be on our way to Vegas for the national competition

 

[zorrex]

Oooops. I missed the BEST construction pic. We were having issues with a couple bolts. It turned out rather gay :laugh:

 

[cobrawannabe]

ow, dude. Thats's pretty damned cool

Looks like a pretty skilled team of builres you've got there.

BTW, (assuming that's light-carbon steel), tell Bill that his welds may end up cleaner if he adds about 2-4 lbs of Argon pressure and slows his wire feed down a hair.

Congrats on the high ranking, BTW!

 

[rouar]

That competition looks so much fun! I don't see weights for the other bridges but it looks like your team has one of the most efficient designs.

 

[zorrex]

On the contrary, wannabe, almost NO gas welding was done. The few pieces we sent out to AccuFab to get welded were done with stick welding, and the welds that Bill and I laid were flux core. Flux core is actually stronger than gas for a 110 volt welder (standard plug). If he was to get a 220 volt (we lacked any outlet in the structures lab that was 220 volt...) then the gas would have likely turned out stronger. The main problem with flux core is that there is SO MUCH SLAG. It is INCREDIBLY annoying.

Rouar: I think our bridge was *close* to the most efficient. Both MIT and UConn's bridges weighed less than ours. UConn's was only 168 lbs! It seems the best designs this year were ours (a deep girder), and UConn's and MIT's (both queen's post...upside-down). Laval usually has a spectacular bridge, but they went with a shallow girder and had a bad deflection. Their design is an utter failure, which makes me SUPER happy. You see, there is a huge grudge between us and Laval/MIT. Both of them have GIGANTIC budgets for this. On just the bridge itself (not hotel/gas, etc), we spent a whopping $25 on our bridge. Everything else was donated. Laval and MIT on the other hand, have a budget of around $8000....yeah...

 

[zorrex]

I'd also like to add a few more pics...

That's me cutting off a tab that needed to be relocated. Change of plans!

Grinding off said tab nice and smooth so a new tab can be welded

I'm gangsta.

Aaaaand that's me welding. I would estimate the time of day (or night...) to be around midnight. Yeah. Dedicated.

 

[frenchblueC2]

awesome!
Good to see you keeping busy and using yer noggin.

 

[cobrawannabe]

On the contrary, wannabe, almost NO gas welding was done. The few pieces we sent out to AccuFab to get welded were done with stick welding, and the welds that Bill and I laid were flux core. Flux core is actually stronger than gas for a 110 volt welder (standard plug). If he was to get a 220 volt (we lacked any outlet in the structures lab that was 220 volt...) then the gas would have likely turned out stronger. The main problem with flux core is that there is SO MUCH SLAG. It is INCREDIBLY annoying.

Hahahaha, I thought things looked a bit dirty on the joints!

As far as slag goes, I hear ya brother! That's why I avoid flux core like the plague. But, slag hammers are kinda fun.:laugh:

See if you guys can get a power box with at least 2 150 AMP fuses and a good breaker. That way, you can setup a 220V MIG/TIG combination machine. This will allow you to get the strongets, cleanest welds possible.

 

[zorrex]

Hahahaha, I thought things looked a bit dirty on the joints!

As far as slag goes, I hear ya brother! That's why I avoid flux core like the plague. But, slag hammers are kinda fun.:laugh:

See if you guys can get a power box with at least 2 150 AMP fuses and a good breaker. That way, you can setup a 220V MIG/TIG combination machine. This will allow you to get the strongets, cleanest welds possible.

Flux core is cheaper, though. Gas tanks are MAD expensive! Plus the welds were MORE than sufficiently strong anyways. Thanks for the advice

 

[cobrawannabe]

Flux core is cheaper, though. Gas tanks are MAD expensive! Plus the welds were MORE than sufficiently strong anyways. Thanks for the advice

Not a prob.