Cover Page

Bridge/Truss Technical Report

Team Members

Grade

Ben Mill

11th

Herbert Lee

11th

Michael Gunter

10th

Address

Royal Palm Beach Community High School

School ID #2331
Mr. Paul Miller
January 11th 2012

Table of Contents
Cover Page..................................................................................................................................................1
Table of Contents.........................................................................................................................................2
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Design.........................................................................................................................................................3
Bibliography................................................................................................................................................4

Introduction
The bridge has been used by humans for thousands of years since the time when humans
utilized the bridges for simple purposes such as crossing over waterways. (History of
Bridges)Around from 1000 B.C. to 250 A.D. simple bridges were constructed out of lumber to
form basic suspension bridges. Later on in the 2nd 5th century the Romans were developing
more sophisticated bridges one of which was the Roman Arch. The Romans designed the arch to
be larger than it is supposed to be to reduce any risk of harm when using the bridge. (History of
Bridges before 1700)

One interesting aspect of the Roman bridge construction was the building of bridges over
rivers in which no water is laid out. The SantAngelo Bridge is a great example of this kind of
bridge which was built around 134 AD. The construction of these bridges was to be made
possible by the Roman innovation of cement and concrete which helped. After the fall of the
Roman Empire around the 460s AD there was a massive slowdown in the advancement in
bridges that continued until The Middle Ages and the Renaissance. (Bridges (Engineering))In the
middle ages a gothic form of architecture was utilized for the construction of buildings which
included bridges. One of the known gothic architectures was the pointed arch bridge. During the
Renaissance an Italian architect Andrea Palladio used the concept of trusses and built numerous
wooden bridges spanning up to 100 meters. (Bridge) Another Italian architect Bartolommeo
Ammannati built upon Palladios work and made modifications to the medieval ogival arch by
beginning the curves of the arches in a vertical direction in their springings from the piers.

Of all of the bridges The Old London Bridge was the most famous bridge at the time. The
bridge was designed by Peter of Colechurch (1133 1189) and was commissioned by Henry II.
The building project took 33 years to complete, and neither the commissioner nor the designer
did not live to see the completion of the bridge. The big problem with the wooden bridge was the
sensitivity of it which often got damaged and swept away at many times and often was
vulnerable to damage to fires which occurred frequently in England at this time. After Henry II
passed away the job was passed onto his successor, Richard the Lion Heart (1189-99). He spent
little money on the project, in which he prefer to spend his money on his crusades and even
making an offer to sell London. The bridge was still incomplete by the time Richard died. His
brother John was then given the title of king who revived the project by giving up land to the
City of London. John even has to take loans from the merchant to provide money to finish the
project.

The structure of the bridge was mainly based off from the effect it had on the Thames, the
position of the bridge's 19 timber pier supports was determined by the conditions of the riverbeds
in which they varied in spacing across the river. As a result, the arch spans varied in size too and
boats that navigate through the arches come across different currents and river conditions at each

one. Some were more dangerous than others. Over the years, boatmen call the arches with
numerous names, for example the Gut Lock and Long Entry. The southern part of the bridge had
a span without an arch that came with a drawbridge with a toll that charged people who want to
walk on the bridge.

In addition to hosting houses and shops the bridge also served as a place of worship. The
church supported the building of the church mainly by the myriad of beliefs in the Middle Ages
of that river crosses attracted demons and the formation of bridges interfered with this. Having
churches nearby the bridges believed to have a strong power against demonic forces. A final
factor of influence of the bridge was the loans made by King John from the merchants to fund
the bridge construction project. The use of merchant loans along with tolls led to the formation of
a powerful source of income by the fruition a bridge that eventually came to be a monopolistic
enterprise.

Design
(Learning Activity #3)When designing bridges the factor of safety must be put into
consideration. When an engineer designs a structure there are three kinds of uncertainty that need
to be thought about.
1. There is always the substantial uncertainty in predicting the loads a structure might
undergo in the future. Weather conditions such as acid rain, wind, and earthquake loads
are highly unpredictable. The engineer can never be 100% sure of the maximum amount
of individuals that can occupy a transportation vehicle or other building that can
potentially cross a bridge. Truck weights are regulated by law in the United States, but
illegally weighty trucks often do drive our highways, and it only takes one of them to
damage the bridge. For example you can post a 12 ton limit near the bridge but it doesnt
stop someone with a 20 ton truck to drive over the bridge.
2. The strength of the materials used to build the actual bridge can be certain. Construction
manufacturers usually take caution to the quality of their products; regardless, it is always
possible for a batch of poor quality steel or concrete for use in a structure usually for
financial purposes. Even the most careful construction contractors sometimes make errors
on a project, and some construction errors can decrease the structure of carrying loads.
3. The mathematical models used for the structural analysis and design are not 100%

certain. Actual trusses do not have exact straight members. However assumptions must be
made, or the analysis of the truss cant be made.

The engineer must take into consideration all kinds of uncertainty increasing the strength of
the structure to a point higher than what is expected by the use of the formation of the factor of
safety in analysis and design calculations.

According to the formula the factor of safety is the level of failure divided by the actual level.
The actual level is also called the internal member force while failure level is called the strength.
So we can say that the factor of safety can mean this

And if that is the case if there was a structural member with an internal force of 5000 pounds
and strength of 10000 pounds we can say that by the equation below.
Factor of Safety=

5000
=2
10000

If the factor of safety is >1, then the structure is most likely safe and will have a low probability
of failure.

Bibliography
Bridge. (n.d.). Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britannica:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/79272/bridge/72047/The-Renaissance-and-after?
anchor=ref592409
Bridges (Engineering). (n.d.). Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britannica:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/79272/bridge/72046/The-Middle-Ages
History of Bridges. (n.d.). Retrieved from HistoryWorld:
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?gtrack=pthc&ParagraphID=dop#dop
History of Bridges before 1700. (n.d.). Retrieved from Bridges 101:
http://library.thinkquest.org/J002223/history/history.html

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