The scope of service
1 Project Management
Steel bridge design team meetings will inform all members of the design progress and project status. The engineering meeting will then cover the design restrictions thoroughly. The meetings will share all the information from steel bridge research and will present various steel bridge designs by members. The design team will provide meeting notices, prepare meeting materials and agenda, and attend and prepare meeting minutes for every meeting held. Project management is essential in making sure all team members understand what is expected of their work. The team will also decide on a project schedule through project completion.
2 Design Research
Design factors presented in the 2013 rules will be used to determine critical areas which the design team will focus on obtaining the best score. The three main scoring areas are bridge construction speed, lightness, and bridge stiffness. The design team will score alternative bridge designs based on the categories of construction speed, lightness, and stiffness. The following chart give an example of the decision matrix the team will use to determine which bridge is the best design to move forward with.
Construction speed is the total time required for construction modified by construction penalties, plus two minutes if repair time is commenced, plus double the repair time modified by construction penalties. The team has given this category a weight of 30%. The lightness category is the total weight of the bridge plus any penalty weight. The weight of lightness is 25%. The stiffness category is described as section where bridges are scored based on the aggregate deflection. The weight of the stiffness category is 45%. Based on the weighing of different categories, the design team has decided to focus on minimizing bridge deflections while not focusing on the total weight as closely.
The team will check proposed designs for any deficiencies according to the competition rules. A meeting will be held specifically to determine if all alternative bridge designs are within the rule guidelines. All bridge modifications needed for bridges to be within competition guidelines will be discussed if any are needed. The team will run loading calculations with these modified bridge components.
3 Analyze Design
The team will analyze the selected bridge design from the decision matrix in order to determine how to design the members with the best response to the loading detailed in the 2013 Steel Bridge Competition Rules. The team will utilize structural analysis software including RISA-3D and SAP 2000. The structural analysis software will help determine how each member should be designed to spread out loading and respond to moments from loading. The structural analysis tools will be vital in understanding how the bridge will react and where problem areas may lay in the bridge design. The moment diagram produced from the software will guide the shape of our bridge.
4 Steel Procurement & Fabrication
Once steel has been obtained, the steel bridge design team will fabricate all necessary steel bridge components. Construction will take place on the Northern Arizona University Campus machine shop. Storage of the bridge will also be at the machine shop. The team will reach out to the building manage and present the need for a location to store the bridge and fabrication machinery while not being constructed.
Upon completion of a final review of design constraints and fabrication of steel, the design team will move forward with construction of the bridge. Construction includes practicing the construction of the bridge in accordance with competition rules. A portion of scoring in competition is based on construction time and the team will focus on lowering building the bridge and go over and guidelines detailing bridge construction.
5 2013 ASCE/AISC Steel Bridge Competition
The steel bridge design team will compete as a combined team at the 2013 Pacific Southwest ASCE Regional competition on April 4-6, 2013. The event will take place at Loyola Marymount University.
6 2013 Undergraduate Symposium
The project conclusion will include a detailed presentation to the client and NAU community. This will occur during the 2013 Undergraduate Symposium. The design team will discuss all progress on the project and include details on how the project was completed. It will chronicle events from the design, construction, and competition stages. Following the presentation, the team will hold a comment forum for the client to field any questions regarding the bridge design. The final presentation is scheduled for April 2013.