Project Ab

ENGR 697 Project SPRING 2021

Capstone  Design  Topic:  Spaghetti  Bridge     This  project  is  inspired  by  the  famous  Spaghetti  Bridge  Competition:   https://www.telg.com.au/spagbridgecomp/.  In  this  project,  you  will  be  designing  a   bridge  with  spaghetti  that  will  be  able  to  sustain  a  certain  number  of  loads  with  the   following  constraints:     1. The  bridge  must  be  constructed  using  commercially  available  spaghetti.  No  

other  form  of  pasta,  such  as  fettuccine,  is  permitted.  Tubular  spaghetti,  also   known  as  bucatini,  is  not  permitted.  Spaghetti  is  a  cylindrical  form  of  pasta  with   a  diameter  not  greater  than  3mm,  made  from  semolina  or  flour  and  water.  

2. The  bridge  can  be  constructed  using  PVA/white  glue,  hot  glue  or  super  glue.  Glue   should  be  used  to  join  the  spaghetti  only;  glue  or  any  other  material  cannot  be   used  to  coat  strands  of  spaghetti.  Two-­‐pack  epoxy  glue  is  not  permitted.  

3. The  bridge  must  include  the  supplied  loading  hook  as  close  to  the  midpoint  of   the  bridge  as  possible.  

4. The  bridge  must  have  a  deck  that  a  toy  car  (typical  matchbox  car)  could   theoretically  drive  across.  

5. The  bridge  must  span  at  least  37cm.  The  only  bridge  support  will  be  on   horizontal  surfaces  each  side  of  the  clear  35cm  span  on  the  test  rig,  no  thrust   support  from  the  vertical  sides  of  the  test  rig  can  be  used.  

6. The  total  mass  of  the  bridge  including  spaghetti,  glue  and  loading  hook  must  not   exceed  300  grams.  

7. The  bridge  needs  to  withstand  135  kg  (300  lbs)  of  weights.     Recommended  steps:   1. Investigate  different  types  of  bridges.   2. Perform  hand  calculations  on  the  potential  bridges  and  select  the  one  with  

superior  performance.   3. Research  on  the  properties  of  the  elements  (e.g.,  spaghetti  and  glue)  for  building  

the  bridge.   4. Build  finite  element  models  using  a  software  of  your  choice  (e.g.,  SAP  2000)  to  

verify  the  results  from  the  hand  calculations.   5. Build  the  bridge  and  test  to  see  if  it  can  withstand  the  required  weight  (135  kg).