TRAC Bridge Competition

Team For Your Health Brandon High School STEM Pathways Academy Kyle Canavan, Denver Kuehl, and Justin Ritenburgh Instructor: Mr. Spiece

Table of Contents
Summary................................................................ pg. 3 Introduction............................................................ pg. 4
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Body....................................................................... pg. 5 Conclusion............................................................. pg. 11 Acknowledgements............................................... pg.12 Tech Journal.......................................................... pg.13 Bibliography........................................................... pg. 15

Summary
First is our introduction, with a brief description of each of our team members and the school we go to. Next is the body of our portfolio where we discuss our bridge design and the reasons we built it the way we did. We discuss the scientific principles
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we took into account when designing and building our drawbridge. These principles include but are not limited to: friction, tension, and compression. We included graphs, data tables, and preliminary designs. We discuss the difficulties and challenges that we encountered while producing our bridge. We discuss the lessons we learned while building . We discussed how we tested our bridge and what that led us to change in our final project. We built a sturdy, trustworthy vertical bridge using a modified Kingspost design created by Kyle. Our prototype held a hefty 44 pounds making our strength to weight a good 449:1. It was expertly constructed by Denver, our builder who also drew the design with his steady hand. Kyle and Justin worked every day perfecting the portfolio. We learned that we should work again once again, because the group dynamic was awesome.

Introduction
We are Team For Your Health. Our members include: Kyle Canavan, Denver Kuehl, and Justin Ritenburgh. Team For Your Health hails from Brandon High School. It is a quaint, Division Two school, that is relatively small. Brandon High School Consists of 1,300 students. The members of Team For Your Health are a part of the Brandon STEM Pathways Academy. STEM Pathways Academy is a program that focuses on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Kyle is 15 years old and likes to play Xbox, read books, and play airsoft. He was born in Pomona, California, and moved to Michigan when he was 4. His favorite class is French, because he enjoys learning about other cultures. His favorite book is Game of Thrones, and its subsequent books. He likes these books mainly because they are very intriguing. His favorite movie is Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. He is aiming for a 4.0 in high school and wants to go to a great college. Justin is 15 years old and likes to play Xbox, listen to music, and watch movies in his free time. His favorite class is History because he likes to see how the world has changed. His favorite book that hes read recently is The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown because it brings up some very interesting notions about modern living. Denver is 15 he has lived in Ortonville his entire life. He is very interested in his grades and would like to go to Michigan University. In his spare time he swims, plays football, watches T.V., and goes on the Internet.
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Body
We designed our bridge the way we did for many reasons. The truss we used was a design created by Kyle, that combined the Kings Post truss with extra beams to provide additional support. We felt the addition of several triangles was a necessary change we needed to make to give our bridge proper support. We say this because we know that the triangle is one of the strongest polygons. We put support beams also, so the bridge wouldnt collapse in on itself, or fall apart. We also took into account the difficulty of building the truss because our original design theoretically would hold more weight, but would be virtually impossible to build because it had too many small pieces. We used simple angles and lengths so we could easily construct our bridge. We wanted the bridge truss to be lightweight so that it could be easily raised, and small so that it was portable also, to help improve our strength to weight ratio. Its small size also made the strength:weight ratio increase. We chose a vertical-lift bridge for a few reasons. The addition of gears to the building kit inspired us to build something using them, so we chose to build a vertical-lift bridge. We also made it small so that the lifting mechanism wouldnt be too large and hard to operate. We also chose the vertical-lift bridge design because it seemed like the easiest to operate and build. We also thought it would distort the truss the least.

Some scientific principles we took into consideration while designing our bridge were friction, tension, and compression. Tension is especially important because our main concern with our bridge is the strength of the glue. Friction between the balsa wood pieces should also be high. Compression will happen as weight is applied. Tension is the magnitude of the pulling force exerted by a string, cable, chain, or similar solid object on another object. Compression is the result of the subjection of a material or structure to compressive stress, which results in reduction of volume as compared to an uncompressed but otherwise identical state. Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements sliding against each other. Tension has to do with the top of the bridge where all of the pieces of balsa wood will be pulled down on, relying on glue to stay together. Compression will be a factor at the bottom of the bridge where all the weight will be applied and the wood needs to be strong enough to hold it. Friction comes into play wherever two pieces of wood are touching. We know that the longer a member is, the weaker it is under compression, so we made sure there were small spaces between the trusses. We encountered several challenges while designing and building our bridge. When we first started designing, we had to reject our first bridge truss design because it was impossible to build; even though it held more weight than what we have now. The reason for this is we had too many small, interconnecting pieces in a small space. In the beginning there were many truss designs to choose from, but we ended up choosing the modified kings post truss we did, because we thought it looked the most promising. However, putting it together correctly was slightly difficult because we had to make sure
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everything was consistent. We also had some difficulty gluing the pieces together at the base. The reason the bridge came apart during our first test testing was because of poor gluing. So in the finished bridge, we made sure to have proper gluing techniques. We tested our bridge by putting it on a Pitsco Tester. This is the best way to test our design, because it is the same way it will be tested in the competition. When we tested our prototype it only held 44 lbs on its own. The reason for this is it wasnt glued very well at the joints. We were sure to apply the glue properly in our final design. Also, the diagonal trusses in the xs of our design were propped up against the vertical posts, but we changed it so they rested on the horizontal posts. Our bridge prototype weighed 0.098 lbs and it held 44 lbs so the strength:weight ratio is about 449:1. One challenge we faced was that not all the balsa wood was the same.Some balsa wood was curved and other pieces were at different densities so creating the exact measurements and cutting every angle correct was extremely difficult. We had to be very gentle with the bridge because the balsa wood was very delicate.Also, the gluing was difficult because the glue took a while to dry and the glue was not very strong.

Preliminary Designs for Our Truss

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Conclusion
Team For Your Health feels its project was fairly successful, being able to hold 44 lbs on our first try is promising. We started out with an impossible design to build but modified it to make it much more manageable with a small sacrifice to the strength. We learned that dividing your work is more efficient than everyone working on the same thing. By all selecting one area to concentrate on for the duration of the project, we were able to work more efficiently. Denvers main focus was the prototype and Power Draft design. Kyle and Justin worked on the portfolio and timeline for the majority of our time in the classroom. We learned about tension, compression, and friction prior to and during this project. These were important things to know about when designing our bridge. We learned how to use various designing software such as Model Smart and Power Draft. We learned that we have such a great group dynamic, we worked together in such an exquisite way that it made the project a fun, interesting challenge. It was such a great learning experience.

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Acknowledgements
Mr. Andrew Spiece Mr.Spiece mentored us throughout The TRAC bridge competition. Also he helped us revise our portfolio and recommended some principals to remember during the TRAC Bridge Competition. Mrs. Leslie Hildebrand Mrs. Hildebrand Taught us the concepts of compression and Tension. She helped us with the setting up the calculations. Mr. Jeff Hughes Mr. Hughes explained proper grammar usage and word choices. This helped Team For Your Health write our portfolio. We hereby certify that the majority of the ideas, design, and work was organized and performed by the students, with limited assistance by adults, as described above.

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Tech Journal
12/13/11- Worked on brainstorming and truss design. 12/14/11- Worked on brainstorming and truss design. 12/15/11- Began watching Bentley PowerDraft Tutorials 12/16/11- Watched a movie 12/17/11-1/3/12- Christmas break 1/4/12- Worked on tutorial for Bentley PowerDraft 1/5/12- Bentley PowerDraft tutorial 1/6/12- Bentley PowerDraft tutorial 1/7/12- Bentley PowerDraft tutorial 1/9/12- Bentley PowerDraft tutorial 1/10/12- Drew truss designs. Practice gluing and cutting techniques. 1/11/12- Began working on prototype, and the portfolio 1/12/12- Continued working on prototype, and the portfolio 1/13/12- Continued working on prototype, and the portfolio 1/17/12- Snow Day 1/18/12- Auto Show 1/19/12- Continued working on prototype, and the portfolio 1 5

1/20/12- Continued working on prototype, and the portfolio 1/23/12- Snow Day 1/24/12- Continued working on prototype, and the portfolio 1/25/12- Finished working on prototype, and continued working on the portfolio 1/26/12- Began working on PowerDraft model, and continued working on the portfolio 1/27/12- Continued working on PowerDraft model, and continued on the portfolio. 1/30/12- Continued working on PowerDraft model, and continued on the portfolio. 1/31/12- Finished working on PowerDraft model, and continued working on the portfolio. 2/1/12- Continued working on the portfolio 2/2/12- Continued working on the portfolio 2/3/12- Continued working on the portfolio. 2/6/12- Continued working on the portfolio. 2/7/12- Continued working on the portfolio. 2/8/12- Continued working on the portfolio 2/9/12- Continued working on the portfolio 2/10/12- Continued working on the portfolio 2/13/12- Continued working on the portfolio 2/14/12- Continued working on the portfolio 2/15/12- Continued working on the portfolio 2/16/12- Snow Day 2/17/12- Continued working on the portfolio 2/21/12- Continued working on the portfolio

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2/22/12- Continued working on the portfolio 2/23/12- Continued working on the portfolio.

Bibliography
Works Cited "Movable Bridge." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 02 Dec. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_bridge>. "Physics Balsa Bridge Building Contest: Balsabridge.com ...next Contest: March 13 2012." Physics Balsa Bridge Building Contest: Balsabridge.com ...next Contest: March 13 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://www.balsabridge.com/>. "Truss Design." Personal Web Sites... Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/tech/machines/bridges.htm>. "Vertical-lift Bridge." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Feb. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical-lift_bridge>.

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