Alex T.

Suspension Bridge

9/10/2015

The suspension bridge is a long deck hung by cables on vertical suspenders. In some cases they have a set amount of towers that the main cables are attached too. Also some have vertical suspender cables to further carry the weight of the deck below ensuing more support. In suspension bridges the main cables are anchored on the ends of the bridges on deck level supports, then it anchors to the ground.

Suspension bridges are mostly affected by two main forces; tension and compression. The tension is applied mostly to the cables and the weight is passed onto the main towers to which there is compression. They are anchored to the ground as well and transfer the force to the ground. That’s why suspension bridges are very secure.

Suspensions have many advantages and disadvantages. They are very good in the fact that they can have longer spans than all other types of bridges. Also less material is usually used in construction than others leading to a less expensive build. While there are advantages, suspensions do have disadvantages like they can be very rigid and shaky during high winds and may take more work stabilize it. Also this type of bridge can have trouble carrying lots of heavy rail traffic. Overall the suspension bridge is a cheap, reliable bridge great for spanning large gaps.

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August 18th, 2015

8/18/2015

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To Err is Human

In this video it explained the process of engineering from start to finish. There are many troubles in creating a design from the beginning as shown in the video. Engineers have so much to think about whether it be measurements to structural possibilities of failure. They must choose good materials that can withstand the force needed to stay up. Also they must test everything a multitude of times as to make sure the bride or other structure is safe. The age of technology is advancing and all the ways of past engineering are vanishing like number sense. The ways of the past are shown in the video and were very reliable saying they hadn’t been done on a computer, but now computers generate everything precisely but weren’t meant to think about failure. In the past people didn’t test as many of the failure possibilities but the structure were very stable and didn’t usually fail but in some cases did. Some cases of failure are Tacoma’s Narrow Bridge or the Kansas City Hotel sky bridge. Tacoma’s Narrow Bridge had many problems with torsion contributed to the wind and because of ha it collapsed. The Kansas City Hotel sky bridge had an error with the way the rods were built so double the pressure was put onto one of the brides causing the collapse and death of many. Structural failures happened when errors aren’t found before the structure is built, but they happened and just help to move forward.

Stresses and materials determine the weight capacity of the structure and can have a huge impact on the success of it. If a wrong choice is made it can be mean the collapse of it. Although failure can sometimes end in death, failures are important to the success of future engineers and they can learn how to correct past mistakes and consider them in their own projects. In today’s age life can be saved by computers. If people use computer to accurately create plans many structural failures can be corrected, but not all will be fixed so it’s important for people to still test the work and correct as needed. Computers will save lives in the design process but computers aren’t human and that’s why it’s important for human engineers to continue their work and make structures as safe as possible.

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Suspension Bridge

August 18th, 2015

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