Week 7: Amanda Ngov What Want to Analyze

The previous week was an educational experience because the bridges were tested. Groups tested their bridges by adding sand into a bucket, that was suspended by an apparatus, until the bridge failed and collapsed. As the sand was being displaced as evenly as possible into the bucket, students observed where the weak points of the bridge were. For example, a specific bridge did not fail as a result of the weight of the sand but instead failed as a result of a weak beam without much support. Towards the collapse of the bridge, students realized the bending of a Knex piece was in a great amount of compression. One of the end points that acted as the reaction points was a weak point because of the high amount of compression force. The upcoming week will result in further improvements of the endpoints. In addition the bridge will span from two feet to three feet. This goal originated from the previous week's lab where students were able to gain knowledge in other designs' failures. Difficulties will occur when the span of the bridge is required to span a minimum of three feet. The challenge with this obstacle will come from the lack of knowledge in the field and the weak Knex pieces. 

The use of Knex pieces has limited the ability to know the compression and tension forces of each beam, the amount of weight a bridge can hold prior to testing and the amount of deflection the bridge experiences during a point load are the three major questions that are constantly asked to try to maximize the efficiency of the truss bridge. The amounts for these numerical values requires calculations that are currently unknown to many students, if not all, because students have not taken courses related to bridge design.