Advanced Computational Design: CODE2121

Week 1 - Horizontal Support

Structure 1

The first structure was generated using sate sticks and hot glue. After looking at examples of bridges during the week 1 lecture, our team believed a triangular structure would be the most suited design using these materials. We also believed that building the bridge with a small amount of height would be beneficial as a flat bridge may cave in on itself in the centre.

Weight? The weight of the structure itself was approximately 65g.

Weight it held? The bridge itself had no damage, but the weight fell off the top at approximately 6kg.

How and where the structure failed? The bridge may have failed due to the top being too narrow; the plate on top barely balanced before any mass was applied. Another possible reason would be the materiality. The sate sticks where very thin and quite flexible. This enabled the bridge to bend when weight was applied, making the bridge fall over. There was also a lack of triangulation in the structure. For the bridge to be successful, it should have resembled a space frame structure; however a lack of materials and a time frame made that concept unrealistic.

Diagrams

Weight of supported load/weight of structure?

6000.00g / 65.00g = 92.30g

Structure 2

Again after viewing bridges in the lecture, we attempted to create a suspension bridge using sate sticks, rubber bands and mono filament. We thought that the use of triangulation in the first structure was the correct idea, it just wasn’t executed properly. Therefore, we decided to generate a triangular base for the plate to sit on. Originally, the design was flipped the other way; however, we decided to flip it the way it is shown as it utilised the mono filament and generated more tension and therefore generated a better solution.

Weight? Approximately 120g

Weight it held? 12kg, we then ran out of paper reams and used our own body weights to push down on the structure (approx. 30kg)

How and where the structure failed? The structure failed due to the way the sate sticks where connected. The sticks were purely connected with rubber bands and once a force was pushed into the middle, these connections snapped.

Diagrams

Weight of supported load/weight of structure?

42000.00g / 120.00g = 350.00g

Structure 3

Structure three was created from paper only. This bridge design was difficult due to the lack of materials involved. The structure needed to be dense due to the bridge having to span the full 30cm without collapsing on itself, and hold up some weight. We cut and folded numerous pieces of paper that were 5 cm high and when folded where approximately 40cm long. We then grouped these together as close as possible to create a dense structure.

Weight? 50g

Weight it held? Approximately 6 kg

How and where the structure failed? It appears that one folded piece collapsed when the last weight was applied, making all the other pieces of folded paper be unbalanced and fall. This may be due to the weights not being placed on the plate carefully, or one of the folded pieces being weaker than the others.

Diagrams