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).
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