The University of Waterloo Steel Bridge Design Team is a new addition to the wide array of student teams found at the university. The team was founded in 2014 under team leads Andrew Easton and Dylan Dowling, and quickly exploded to over 70 members. It is responsible for designing, fabricating, and constructing a 1:10 scale modular steel bridge. Three sub-teams led by captains are each responsible for the major tasks leading up to the competition. Once we’re at competition, there are two things remaining: a timed build and a load test. The construction team is timed as they build the bridge: the faster the build, the better. About 2500 lbs are loaded near the midspan of the bridge during the load test. The best bridge is one that is quick to build and has low deflection under 2500 lbs, an often conflicting set of objectives.
On the way to competition, the steel bridge team faced a number of issues. These ranged from a large number of connections (requiring a large amount of time) to fabrication tolerances that wouldn’t allow bolts to slip through. This passionate group of engineering students came together to finish creating the 19’-7” bridge prior to departing. Working from the early morning until late at night, the fabrication and construction teams finished welding and grinding with scant hours to spare before departure.
The team competed from April 16th to 18th at West Point, NY in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) competition. Despite driving for over 8 hours after writing exams, the team quickly got to work finalizing the build plan. The team performed very well for their first year, coming in 8th of the 12 teams there. Some of the teams present had competed for more than 15 years, and yet we still outperformed 4 of them! While at competition, the team also did more than just build a bridge. Other events included a scavenger hunt, a ‘mystery’ event involving a virtual firing range, and technical presentations.
The rules for the next year’s competition will be released in mid-August. From there, the design team will work towards optimizing a bridge that could range from 16’ to 24’ using software used in industry such as SAP2000 and SolidWorks. After finalizing connections and other details, the design and fabrication team will collaborate on a set of shop drawings, with continued collaboration throughout the fabrication process. The fabrication team will start cutting, milling, grinding, and welding the various pieces of the bridge. While all of this is going on, the construction team will be practicing with the existing bridge. Once the new competition bridge is nearing completion, the construction team will start practicing building it in preparation for the 2016 competition in Buffalo, NY.
The team is always looking for fresh faces and new talent. If you’re interested in joining, come out to the weekly Wednesday meetings in E5-2004 at 3:00pm. If you aren’t able to make it, you can also send an email to the team lead, Dylan Dowling, at ddowling@uwaterloo.ca.
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