Introduction to West Point Bridge Name__________________________________________

In this tutorial you will learn how to use the West Point Bridge software to create, test, and make revisions to a bridge design.

Instructions

1. Click the Start button and open the West Point Bridge Program.

2. Select “Create a New Bridge Design”, then click “OK”

3. On Screen 1 read about your design objectives. Your two objectives are #1___________________________and #2___________________________

4. On Screen 2 select “No”5. On Screen 3 you will determine your building site specifications.

Try changing the Deck elevation. How does lowering the elevation affect the span (length) of the bridge? How does it affect the site cost? ___________________________________________________________

On Screen 3 you are also given the option of adding arch abutments, a pier, and one or two cable anchorages. Each of these options will impact the site cost. You can see a breakdown of the site cost by clicking on the arrow in

the bottom right corner. For this tutorial we will set the deck elevation at 24 m, use standard

abutments, and no pier or cable anchorages. Keep in mind that although this configuration has the lowest site cost it may not be the best choice for designing a bridge with the lowest total cost.

6. On screen 4 you can select the type of concrete used and the loading conditions. We will leave these set at the default.

7. Novice bridge designers are encouraged to select a template as a guide. For this tutorial we will select “Through Truss –

Howe” on screen 5.8. On screen 6 enter your name and period where it says “Designed By”. For your

project ID enter today’s date followed by the letter a. Example: “11.25.14a” 9. On screen 7 read about the steps you must follow to design a bridge then proceed to the design

window.10. Select the “joint tool”, then click to place joints at the locations shown in the

template.11. Each steel beam, bar, or cable you add to the bridge is called a bridge “member”.

Select the “member tool” then click and drag from one joint to a neighboring joint to add members.

12. To test the bridge, click on the load test icon at the top of the screen.

13. The bridge must pass the load test to count as a successful design. If it does not pass the load test you will have to go back to the drawing board.

14. Select each member that failed the test and increase its size to 180. Then load test the bridge again.

15. Once your bridge passes the load test your status indicator will change to a green box with an arrow

pointing up. 16. Go back to the drawing board and look at the last two columns in the table of

load test results. Compression and tension loads experienced by each bridge member are expressed as a fraction of the maximum strength. If this number is much smaller than 1 the bridge member is stronger than it needs to be. Try making these members smaller to reduce the cost of your bridge.

17. Goal: without changing your site conditions try to reduce the cost of your bridge to less than $300,000. To accomplish this read about hollow tubes and solid bars in the help menu and try to get all of your force strength ratios to between 0.8 and 1.

Home Assignment:

If you have a home computer navigate to https://bridgecontest.org/resources/previous-versions-of-the-software/ and install the 2014 version of the West Point Bridge Designer software

Part I. Explore the help menu. In particular read “Overview: How to Design a Bridge”, and the section titled “Solid Bar or Hollow Tube”. Part II. Go back to the beginning and design a bridge on your own. You can choose whatever site configuration and template that you like. Once you have a working bridge optimize* it to get the cost as low as possible. How low can you get the cost of your design?

*For this first assignment a design will be considered “optimized” if the compression or tension to strength ratio is at least 0.8 for every bridge member.