ENGINEERING MODELLING

MATH 2009 (012998)

Project 1

Analysis of the shear force and the bending moment of a two-lane

simply-supported bridge under the influence of moving vehicles.

Due Date: May 3 2021, by 9:00 am.

Submit report and m-file online

Instructions for your submission

1. This project is to be in groups of two or three students.

2. Type your report using Times New Roman, Arial font or similar size 12, with line spacing at least 1.5
times that of single spacing.
3. Each group must submit the following items online (one copy per group).

a. A printed report explaining the relevant theory and the calculation procedure, and explaining
your findings. Include all calculation results necessary to support your answers, except those done
in Task 1. Also include all important figures in the report. Make sure your figures have appropriate
axis labels (with units), and titles. Do not use the MATLAB command “subplot”, because it
produces figures that are too small. Your report should describe your work at a fairly high level of
detail. For example, you should describe the structure of your MATLAB code in a paragraph or
two (but don’t describe it line-by-line; the reader should be able to understand the details by
reading your commented code itself). Word limit for report: about 500-800 words, plus diagrams,
derivations and MATLAB code.
b. MATLAB code m-file. Make the MATLAB code self-explanatory. Include informative
comments before each new section of the code and at each important line, so that the reader (the
person who is going to mark your report) can understand it easily. Also, begin your MATLAB M-
file with comment lines identifying the project, the course, the names and ID numbers of all
students in your group, and the date. Use the format shown in the below:
% Project/Course name: Project 1 Engineering Modelling Math 2009
% Student names: all your group member’s names
% Student names: All your group member’s names
% Date: The date of your final version
% Description: Solution for Project 1
4. The report should contain the following: Cover Sheet, Title Page, Acknowledgement of help received
from or given to others, Declaration, Table of Contents, List of Figures and Tables, Introduction, Brief
Statement of the Problem, Solution and Explanation, Conclusion, Reference List, Appendix containing
your MATLAB code and MATLAB output, figures and other Appendices (if any).
5. Your report should explicitly include the answers to all questions under the heading ``Do the
Following’’ below. It is not enough if these answers appear only in the output of your MATLAB code.
6. Your intended audience for the report is an engineering student at the same stage as you but not taking
Engineering Modelling. Write the report so that this person could understand it.

Page 1 of 4
 7. Academic Integrity: See the section ``Important! How not to plagiarise in Engineering Modelling’’ of
the MATH 2009 Course Information Booklet for details. In brief, you and your team must acknowledge
any help received or given, you must write up your own work, and you must not use other people’s
work (report, code, calculations etc.) when writing up.

Do the following: (Total: 60 marks)

1. In Task 1 we find expressions for the positions and velocities of the THREE vehicles, and the times at
which these expressions change. The complete solutions will be provided and you do not need to
derive them again here.
(a) Plot positions of the front axle of each vehicle (all on one graph) for t = [0, 31]. Mark and label on
the graph the specific times you found in Task 1. Use this graph to complement your explanations
for Questions 2—5. (4
marks)

2. Calculate the time when each vehicle leaves the bridge. That is, the time when the rear axle of each
vehicle gets off the bridge. (2
marks)
3. (a) Use MATLAB to calculate the shear forces and the bending moments acting on the beam, in terms
of time t and position y along the bridge, as the vehicles move across the bridge.
(b) In your report, show the explicit calculations of shear force and bending moment for the case
when t = 6 seconds.
(c) Using the results of part (a), write a simulation program in MATLAB that shows how the
diagrams of the shear force and the bending moment change as the vehicles move along the bridge.
 The duration of your simulation should be exactly 31 seconds, starting from the initial
time t = 0. The time interval should be 0.1sec.
 The distance between the points of calculation across the bridge should be 0.5m, starting
from the left endpoint y = 0 and going across to the other end of the bridge.
 In each figure, label the axes appropriately, including units, and give a title.
 In the report, include a labelled graph showing a `snapshot’ of the shear force animation
at some particular moment in between t = 0 and t = 31. Do the same for bending moment.
((a)+(b)+(c) = 8+2+8 = 18)
4. In addition, use MATLAB to plot surface graphs of the shear force and of the bending moment in 3-D
format (in terms of y, t, and shear force, and of y, t, and bending moment, respectively), and to generate
contour plots for the shear force and for the bending moment. Label the axes appropriately, including
units. Analyse the figures and discuss them briefly in your report. (8 marks)
5. Use MATLAB to find the numerical value of the maximum bending moment that occurs. When and
where does it occur? (5 marks)
6. Write up your work in a report, as described above. (23 marks)
[Introduction and brief statement of problem (4 marks) Explanation (6 marks) Conclusion (2 marks)
MATLAB code in appendix, with appropriate comments (4 marks) Presentation of report (7 marks)]

Project scenario

Page 2 of 4
 Figure 1

Suppose that two three-axle vehicles (trucks) and one two-axle vehicle (car) are crossing a two-lane simply-
supported bridge, as shown in Figure 1 above. We think of the bridge as a single beam. Let the span of the
bridge be S = 500 metres. We ignore the weight of the bridge. Since all three vehicles are moving at different
velocities, the distances between vehicles are changing continuously as a function of time t. For convenience of
calculation, we assume that the distance d between two vehicles moving in the same direction is the distance
from the rear axle of the front vehicle to the front axle of the rear vehicle. When two vehicles are moving in
opposite directions, the distance d is defined as the distance between the front axles of the two vehicles (see
Figure 1).

As shown in Figure 1, one vehicle (vehicle 1) is moving from the left to the right while the remaining two
vehicles (vehicles 2 and 3) are moving from right to left. The total weight of the two-axle vehicle (vehicle 3) is
35,000 N. The weight is distributed onto the axles with the front axle load being 35% of the total load and the
rear axle load = 65% of the total. The distance L1 between the two axles of vehicle 3 is 5 metres. For each three-
axle vehicle (vehicles 1 and 2), the total mass is 200,000 N. It is distributed onto the three axles with the front
axle load = 30% , the middle axle load = 15% and the rear axle load = 55% of the total load. For each of
vehicles 1 and 2, the distance L2 between the first two axles is 5 m, and the distance L3, between the last two
axles is 10 m.

For each axle, we define a variable x as the distance from the axle to the left-hand support of the bridge, as
shown in Figure 1 for the middle axle of vehicle 1. So there are eight such variables; we label them more
specifically as x1F, x1M, x1R, x2F, x2M, x2R, x3F, and x3R (Front, Middle, Rear). Each such variable x is a function of time.

We will write MATLAB code that calculates the shear force and the bending moment acting on the beam as the
vehicles move across the bridge. We use two independent variables: t, defined as the time elapsed since an
initial time t0 = 0; and y, the position coordinate along the beam. At the end, we will plot each of the shear force
and the bending moment as a function of these two variables, t and y.

Page 3 of 4
 Vehicle movements
 The initial speed at time t = 0 of vehicle 1 is v1(0) = 36 km/h. Vehicle 1 accelerates at the
constant rate of 0.5 m/s2, until its speed reaches 72 km/h. The time at which vehicle 1 reaches 72 km/h
will be denoted by tA . From that moment on, its speed is kept constant at 72 km/h. At time t = 0, the front
axle of vehicle 1 is already on the bridge and is exactly 10 m away from the left end of the bridge: x1F(0) =
10.
 The speed v2 of vehicle 2 is constant at v2 = 68 km/h, in the negative direction. At time t =
0, the front axle of vehicle 2 is already on the bridge, exactly 23 m away from the right-hand end of the
bridge: x2F(0) = S - 23.
 The initial speed of vehicle 3 is v3(0) = 56 km/h (negative direction). Starting at time t = 0,
vehicle 3 accelerates (in the negative direction) at the constant rate of 1 m/s2. At time t = 0, the front axle
of vehicle 3 is not yet on the bridge; it is exactly 25 m away from the right-hand end of the bridge: x3F(0)
= S + 25.
 Since vehicle 3 will eventually be going faster than vehicle 2, it would collide with vehicle
2 unless vehicle 3 slows down. We assume that vehicle 3 does slow down to avoid a collision.
At time tB , which is to be determined, vehicle 3 starts to decelerate to match the speed of vehicle 2.
Assume that it takes 4 seconds for vehicle 3 to reduce its speed from the instant of the beginning of the
deceleration, tB , to the instant tC (4 seconds later) when it reaches the same speed as vehicle 2. Here we
assume that the deceleration starts at the same instant as the previous acceleration of vehicle 3 stops.
When vehicle 3 reaches the same speed as vehicle 2, the distance from the front axle of vehicle 3 to the
rear axle of vehicle 2 should be 5 metres, |x3F – x2R| = 5, and this distance is maintained subsequently. The
deceleration is assumed to be constant from the start to the end of deceleration. After the completion of
the deceleration, the speed of vehicle 3 is kept constant at the same speed as vehicle 2.
 We are also interested in time tD when vehicles 1 and 2 pass each other. We take this to be
the time at which their front axle positions coincide. Further, let tE be the time at which the positions of
the front axles of vehicles 1 and 3 coincide.

Page 4 of 4