Students Assemble Steel Bridge in Virtual Competition
Thousands of pounds of steel that must be shaped into a model bridge within a limited amount of time? Sounds like a task for Wentworth’s Civil Engineering students.
Moving to a virtual format this year, the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) hosted its annual Student Steel Bridge Competition on Sunday with more than two hundred schools taking part nationally. Wentworth Institute of Technology competed within the New England Region.
Teams were asked to remotely mimic the conditions of an in-person event as best as possible when completing four elements within one day: construction, aesthetics, loading and weighing. Wentworth’s team—advised by Assistant Professor Hadi Kasemiroodsari and Professor Jim Lambrechts—worked on campus in a Mechanical Engineering lab.
One of the student participants, Emma Loughlin, Civil Engineering ’21, noted that roll-formed steel (or steel angle) is typically used in the loading stage. Due to the remote nature of the competition, AISC advised teams to make use of alternative materials. Wentworth students used concrete cinder blocks to load their materials.
Safety was of the upmost concern. In addition to COVID-19 protocols, the team exercised caution during the loading stage. Though the bridge is designed to hold 2,500 lbs., the team played it safe when the weight approached 1,700 lbs.
“Once we got to 1,700,” said Loughlin, “we decided that with the three inches of deflection the bridge was experiencing, it would be safest for everyone to stop loading it there.”
AISA encourages innovation in the bridge designs and teams spend months conceptualizing and then finetuning what they will ultimately bring to the competition. The event began in 1987 with three colleges in Michigan. Wentworth has been competing for more than a decade.
“We felt good about being able to get at least six of us together to test it out and plan for the future,” Loughlin said.
The team is planning for a return to competition in the near future.
