Week 1

WEEK 1 STRUCTURES
STRUCTURE ONE:

 
The first bridge structure was created out satay sticks, Hot glue and rubber bands. After looking into structural support systems research showed the the triangle form has a lot of advantages over that of a square. because of its three sided form when a force is applied to a point it travels down the edges to the ground and stay ridged where as a square form would tend to bend and buckle. To ensure the horizontal structure was structurally sounds multiple satay sticks were used to form strut pieces therefore making it bulky and strong .

Testing:
This form was able to hold 9 loads of paper totalling 22.5kg kilos, Although not without visible buckling. From there further force was applied by pushing down on the structure and was able to resist for quite a bit until ultimately succumbing to failure.


STRUCTURE TWO:

The materials used  in this second structure include: Foam core, Satay sticks. Nylon fabric and rubber bands. With this structure we wanted to build of stuff learned in making the first one because of this we kept the focus on very triangular shapes with a cross beam truss  shape forming the base of the bridge structure that was held together with the use of rubber band. From there we rested a piece of form core over the top to help distribute the weight across the structure. Going forward we wanted to replicate a suspension type bridge but didn't succeed since... it wasn't a suspension bridge rather just looked like one we formed a triangular support system on either side out of satay sticks, forcing through the  foam core and attaching it to the satay sticks that formed the base. We ended up just using the nylon to secure everything rather then to suspend anything.

Testing:
Out not suspension bridge faired quite well despite its title managing again to hold up 9 stacks of paper (22.5 kg) again needing physical intervention id say the structure managed to withstand around 50kg.


STRUCTURE THREE:

The next structure was entirely constructed out of paper (not including the foam core base). This structure  was the most unique out of the three since we took a much more different approach straying away from triangle and and trusses, instead focusing on reinforcing. The structure itself is quite simple consisting of folded up lengths of paper to make them ridged and encasing them all within a large piece to make the whole structure one solid piece.

TESTING:

We were not expecting to much from this bridge but to out surprise the structure was quite sturdy, withstanding 10 stack of paper (25 kg) and immense downward pressure from one of us. The structure in total to a load of about 60kg.