It seems a bit of a stretch posting these questions here. I'm hoping that there are some civil engineers on this forum. Its worth a try.
Anyway this isn't a homework question. More like seeking some advice.
Basically my group has to build a theoretical bridge over a creek. What we've come up with is a bridge that is 110 feet long, 8 feet wide and with 2 beams supporting it. The 2 ends will be fixed ends on the edges of the creek. There will be 61 feet space between the 2 beams. Just your basic run of the mill bridge.
My first question is. Is there a better way to calculate for deflection? The teacher told us we can cut the bridge into 3 pieces; 2 calculations since 2 of them are the same length. Basically he told us we can just use fixed cantilever formulas to solve each pieces. I probably don't even need to ask this but I was just wondering.
My second question is whether there is a better option for doing our bridge. So far we're going to use 5 I-beams -a foot tall- laid across evenly along the 8 feet width. Going to put an inch of grating on top and bolt the railing on the sides of each of the outer I-beams. Initially we were going to make the width of our bridge 6 feet but was adviced to change it to 8 feet. Because of this some of the members are thinking of switching to 4 columns instead of the 2 beams. Basically in place of each beam there will be 2 columns instead. The size of each of the columns we don't know yet since we haven't calculated the load yet. You guys think there is a better way of doing it? There probably isn't that many options to create a bridge like this but I was just wondering. I forget to mention that we're going to be using steel mainly with concrete for the columns. Of course it'll also be nice to save some money too since we also have to give an estimation. The less material the better although price isn't that big of a concern.
My third question is whether there is a nice software to calculate beams, deflections etc. We found the free version of STEELbeam by Engineering Software Solutions to be very nice. I am wondering if there are better software that does the same thing.
Thank you for taking the time to read.
Anyway this isn't a homework question. More like seeking some advice.
Basically my group has to build a theoretical bridge over a creek. What we've come up with is a bridge that is 110 feet long, 8 feet wide and with 2 beams supporting it. The 2 ends will be fixed ends on the edges of the creek. There will be 61 feet space between the 2 beams. Just your basic run of the mill bridge.
My first question is. Is there a better way to calculate for deflection? The teacher told us we can cut the bridge into 3 pieces; 2 calculations since 2 of them are the same length. Basically he told us we can just use fixed cantilever formulas to solve each pieces. I probably don't even need to ask this but I was just wondering.
My second question is whether there is a better option for doing our bridge. So far we're going to use 5 I-beams -a foot tall- laid across evenly along the 8 feet width. Going to put an inch of grating on top and bolt the railing on the sides of each of the outer I-beams. Initially we were going to make the width of our bridge 6 feet but was adviced to change it to 8 feet. Because of this some of the members are thinking of switching to 4 columns instead of the 2 beams. Basically in place of each beam there will be 2 columns instead. The size of each of the columns we don't know yet since we haven't calculated the load yet. You guys think there is a better way of doing it? There probably isn't that many options to create a bridge like this but I was just wondering. I forget to mention that we're going to be using steel mainly with concrete for the columns. Of course it'll also be nice to save some money too since we also have to give an estimation. The less material the better although price isn't that big of a concern.
My third question is whether there is a nice software to calculate beams, deflections etc. We found the free version of STEELbeam by Engineering Software Solutions to be very nice. I am wondering if there are better software that does the same thing.
Thank you for taking the time to read.
