StarDestroyer.Net BBS

http://bridgecontest.usma.edu/

You basically download a program, design a bridge using the least amount of money (that still supports a truck, of course), then submit it. I've gotten one with 159k, but I know a few people with less than 130k. Download it, its well worth it even if you don't plan on getting a scholarship.

*laughs at the idea of me at West Point*

*everyone else laughs at my bridge*

I'll be making smaller scale wooden bridges about a foot or so long that usually support over 500 pounds of pressure in Materials and Processes nxt yer. And since I'm going too west Point anyway everything comes
into place.

Currently have a bridge at $155,929.17. Working the stress tolerances to get it down, I think I can cut another 2-3k, but not more than that on this design. Already pushing some members farther than I like, but when cost is a priority...

I DL'd it out of curiousity, now it asks me to reboot... urrrghh...


At least it'll be useful in my engineering class.


Well, so far even using one of their templates, the bridges fail even before the truck gets on....

Perhaps someone should ask Wong to help them out on this



Or is civil engineering a bit different from his field?

The best bridges are also the curved ones. I believe they holdmore for less weight.

So THIS is what my friends are doing with that thing... alright.
The program seemed pretty cool when they were using it, except it violates conservation of mass horribly... make a crappy bridge and then test it, and you'll see...

Well, I got some which worked... Lowest cost to have a somewhat successful one was $164k

Which works better for you guys: arches, piers, or free-standing? I've been using mainly piers.

I've got arches and trusses on par, each a little under 150k.

Small note that shoudl be scholarship FROM Westpoint. An education at the USMA is free (actually they pay you).

My best results so far are with piers. I can't seem to keep anything else standing. My lowest cost right now is around $160k.

Best bridge right now is $153,341.52. 9 panels long, has a pier in the middle about 4 meters below the asphalt. Won't get much lower, though. All I have left to do is replace some beams with tubes if they're not carrying a compression stress. Tension can be handled by a cheaper tube than bar, but compression needs bars.

Most of my designs are rather, uhm, odd... Hybrid designs mainly.

CmdrWilkens wrote:Small note that shoudl be scholarship FROM Westpoint. An education at the USMA is free (actually they pay you).

There are some charges involved (laundry, uniforms, etc.) but yeah, you do get paid. Rather difficult to get in though and survive (a friend went there and dropped out after the first semester).

What do we get for designing a way to destroy a bridge?

Here's my best design if anybody is interested...
Don't expect to win with it though; I know a few people with 130k or less

You're at $148k? Back to the drawing board for me...

I've knocked it down to 143k now.

141,122.87

$133,767.16

My best design so far cost three times that much, is horrible overengineered, and still sags two meters in the middle when the truck passes over it. I should get a job at Starfleet engineering.

Hmm, looks interesting. Gotta get the program and beat all of you.

RedImperator wrote:My best design so far cost three times that much, is horrible overengineered, and still sags two meters in the middle when the truck passes over it. I should get a job at Starfleet engineering.

3x? Thats VERY expensive... Hell, it sounds like something that our government would do...