7th Bridge Building Contest 2011

The Civil Engineering Society is holding the judging and testing of bridge entries for the 7th Bridge Building Competition this March, 19, 2011 at the DLSI-Manila CE CTM Laboratory. The contest is open to all undergraduate civil engineering students in the Philippines.

The contest challenges students to build a truss bridge using popsicle sticks that will be laid on two smooth supports with a span length (S) of 560 mm and can carry a minimum load of 20 kg.
The bridge must satisfy the following specifications:

• 560 mm ≤ Length (L) ≤ 770 mm
• Width (B) ≤ 120 mm
• Height of Truss (H) ≤ 100 mm from the flat surface of the deck to the top
• Depth (D) ≤ 50 mm from the support surface to the flat surface of the bridge deck
• H + D ≤ 150 mm
• Weight (W) ≤ 1.50 kg

Materials and Construction
a) The bridge must be constructed using plain popsicle sticks only.
b) The popsicle sticks may be cut or sanded in any manner.
c) Only all purpose glue (white) must be used to connect the popsicle sticks.
d) No other materials must be used.
e) Do not paint, coat or stain the bridge with any foreign substance.
Category of Winners - Cash prizes will be given!
(a) AESTHETIC Design Category – one winner (Best Aesthetic Design)
(b) STIFFNESS Category – The bridge with the maximum stiffness rating score (K) at the required minimum load of 20 kg. K is computed as the ratio of the load over displacement divided by the bridge weight – Two winners (Stiffness Champion and Runner-up)
(c) STRENGTH Category – The bridge with the maximum strength rating (SR =P/W) where P is the maximum load the bridge can carry before failure and W is the bridge weight – One winner (The Strongest Bridge)
Join the yahoogroup to get details: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bbc1011/

To view photos and rules of past CES Bridge Building Constest: Go to http://digitalstructures.blogspot.com/search/label/bridges