Mini Spaghetti-bridge project

Orange County Spaghetti Bridge Competition Competition Organizers: x College of Engineering and Computer Science, California State University, Fullerton x American Society of Civil Engineers, Orange County Branch Time and Date: x 13:00-­‐16:00, May 1st, 2015 (First Friday of May every year) Venue: x California State University, Fullerton Eligibility to participate in the competition x Any student group from Junior High School, High School, Community College, and four year institution in USA x Number of students in a team shall not exceed 10 Competition Format x Each team will build a spaghetti bridge following the specifications provided in the attached documents. x A group of judges will check the compliance prior to loading the bridge. x All bridges will be loaded until they break. x A score sheet is prepared based on the total load held by a bridge minus the equivalent deduction load for different types of penalty as specified in the rule. x The team scoring the highest net load held by its bridge will win the championship trophy. Winning team members will receive certificates. x The trophy will be revolving every year to the winning institution. The defending champion will ensure its return to the competition venue. Competition Organization Committee x Binod Tiwari, Ph.D., P.E., Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, CSU Fullerton x Garrett Struckhoff, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, CSU Fullerton x Victor Delgado, Assistant Dean, College of ECS, CSU Fullerton Please email your entry with the name of your university, team members and advisor to: btiwari@fullerton.edu by April 18, 2015. Guideline Orange County Spaghetti-­‐bridge Competition Each team shall build a bridge made from spaghetti and glue/epoxy. It important that the bridge should follow the specifications mentioned below. Violation of each specification leads to a penalty which will be calculated in terms of reduced load that bridge could hold. Bridges will be loaded until they fail. RULES 1. The bridge shall be built from spaghetti available in the market and glue, epoxy or resin. The team can combine any size of spaghetti (regular or thick or thin or angel hair) to build the bridge. No other type of pasta will be acceptable. 2. The bridge shall be free-­‐standing and must span an open gap of 50 cm between two level surfaces. An example of such support is two tables separated 50 cm apart. 3. The support for the bridge shall be from the top of the level surfaces. The edges of the level surfaces cannot be used for support. 4. The bridge should include a decking of spaghetti to provide a suitable road surface at least 5cm wide across the full span of the bridge. The decking shall meet the following conditions: a) gaps in the bridge deck are not to exceed 2 mm, b) a block of wood (5 cm x 5cm x 10 cm) representing a car must be able to move along the length of the decking unobstructed from one end to the other end, c) the deck of the bridge shall not be more than 5 cm above or below the ends of the bridge at any point along its length. 5. The “loading platform", which consists of an eye-­‐bolt secured to a piece of plywood (0.7 cm x 5 cm x 10 cm) should be incorporated. This platform should be attached at the center of the bridge such that the bottom of the eye-­‐bolt is no more than 5 cm from the top of the bridge decking. All loads will be suspended from this eye-­‐bolt, and there must be a clear space directly below it to allow loads to be attached. Loads will be attached using an S-­‐ hook. 6. The maximum vertical depth of the bridge, from the highest point in its structure to the lowest should be less than or equal to 25 cm. 7. The maximum mass of the bridge including the loading platform shall be less than 250 grams to avoid severe penalty. 8. The teams are allowed to use any software to calculate the compression and tension loads to be resisted by the bridge members. 9. The teams can get materials properties either through literature or through their own laboratory experiments. 10. The team can bundle the spaghetti or make the members hollow by combining/gluing any numbers of spaghetti strands. Bridge Schematic PENALTIES 1. Overweight Penalty Re duced Load
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250
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Actual Load Held u ¨¨
© bridge mass in gram ¹
Note: bridge weight includes loading platform, but not eyebolt.
2. Height Penalty
Re duced Load
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25
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Actual Load Held u ¨¨
© bridge height in cm ¹
3. Narrow Decking Penalty Reduced Load = Actual Load Held – 2 kg 4. Decking Spacing Penalty Reduced Load = Actual Load Held – 1 kg 4
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