Transportation Success/Failure Report

Each student was assigned a successful structure and a failed structure. We were to research and report different aspects of each structure and present them to the class. My assigned successful structure was the Millau Viaduct Bridge in Millau, France. My assigned failed structure was the L’Ambiance Plaza in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Transportation Success: Millau Viaduct Bridge, France

•      Official Name: Le Viaduc de Millau

•      Location: Millau-Creissels, France. It stretches across the valley of the river Tarn. It is the chosen solution for taking the A75 Motorway.

•      Designers: Michel Virlogeux and Norman Foster

•      Design of Bridge: Cable-stayed. A cable-stayed bridge is one in which the weight of the deck is supported by a number of cables running directly to one or more towers.

•      Length: 1.55 miles

•      Height: 343 meters

•      Cost: $524 million

•      Construction on the bridge started October 10, 2001

•      The bridge opened to traffic on December 17, 2004

•      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbQc5QgH4Ws

The YouTube video link will show you different angles of the bridge. It is a beautiful bridge and you will certainly enjoy it!

The bridge has received many awards for their outstanding structure and architecture. Below are the listed awards.

•      Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award

•      International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering Outstanding Structure Award

•      The Building Exchange Award- Best Use of Architectural or Structural Design in a Regeneration Scheme, 2^nd Place.

•      Wallpaper Design Awards- Best New Public Building

•      ECCS European Award for Steel Structures

•      D&AD Gold Award

•      Travel & Leisure Design Award for Best Infrastructure

•      Singapore Construction Excellence Award- Civil Category

This bridge was a success because it eliminated traffic congestion, became a tourist attraction, and reduced travel time for drivers. Below are some pictures of the truly beautiful bridge.

Sources:

•      "Highest, Longest : Viaduct De Millau." Highest, Longest : The Viaduct De Millau. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. http://www.abelard.org/france/viaduct-de-millau.php

•      "Viaduc De Millau." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbQc5QgH4Ws.

•      "Foster Partners." Millau Viaduct. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/millau-viaduct/

Transportation Failure: L’Ambiance Plaza, Bridgeport, Connecticut

•      Official Name: L’Ambiance Plaza

•      Location: 210 Washington Avenue Bridgeport, Connecticut

•      Building Type: High-rise Building. A high-rise building is a building greater than 75 feet in height.

•      Structural Material: Composite Structure. Composite structure is a set of interconnected elements that collaborate at runtime to achieve a purpose.

•      Foundation System: Spread or Shallow Foundation. This is a type of foundation which transfers building loads to the earth very near the surface, rather than to a subsurface layer.

•      Architectural Style: Modernism

•      Main Usage: Residential

•      Height: 205.21 ft (estimate)

•      Width: 63 ft

•      The building collapsed during construction April 23, 1987

•      Killed 28 construction workers

•      There were 16 floors above ground

•      The building was constructed using the lift-slab method. The lift slab method is a method of constructing concrete buildings by casting the floor or roof slab on top of the previous slab then raising the slab up with hydraulic jacks.  

On the day of the collapse, at approximately 1:00 pm, workers were using a 12-ton horizontal jack between the two towers. Around 1:30 pm the ironworker was installing wedges in the west building, the worker heard the first loud bang, looked up to see the concrete “cracking like ice.” The floor slab above him collapsed onto the levels below. Within 2-10 seconds both towers collapsed completely.

The exact cause of the collapse remains unknown, however there are a few theory’s that have been made. They are as follows.

Ø  First Theory: Instability of the wedges supporting the 12^th floor and roof package. –Thornton Tomasetti Engineers

·        Wedges supporting the 12^th floor and roof package at the column were unstable and started the collapse. They state that a wedge supporting the package rolled out leaving the shearhead at this level supported by a single wedge. Additional movement of the slabs may have caused the remaining wedge to roll completely out, causing the buildings to collapse.

Ø  Second Theory: Jack rod and lifting nut slipped out due to a deformation of an overloaded steel angle welded to a shear head arm channel. –National Bureau of Standards

·        The NBS concluded in their investigation that the failure began at the buildings most heavily loaded column. The testing determined that when the shearhead and lifting angles were loaded with forces nearing 80 tons, they had a tendency to twist. During the lifting process the shearheads and lifting angles were loaded close to their maximum capacity. The angles deformed under the excess of force of the three 320 ton slabs, causing the jack rod and lifting nut to slip out of the angle and hit the column.

Ø  Third Theory: Global instability caused by lateral displacement. –Failure Analysis Associates

·        FaAA consultants focused on the response of lateral loading and overall torsional instability. In the absence of lateral loading the building would be completely stable. In the presence of lateral loading, the slab could become flexible.

Below are some pictures of the collapsed building.

Sources:

•      L'Ambiance Plaza, Bridgeport | 200341 | EMPORIS." L'Ambiance Plaza, Bridgeport | 200341 | EMPORIS. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. http://www.emporis.com/buildings/200341/l-ambiance-plaza-bridgeport-ct-usa

•      Web. 11 Mar. 2015. http://failures.wikispaces.com/L'Ambiance Plaza

•      Removable Forms (Cast-In-Place)." Cast-In Place/Removable Forms. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. <http://www.cement.org/think-harder-concrete-/homes/building-systems/cast-in-place>.

Egg Drop Challenge Report

Our first major lab in this course was The Great Egg Drop. The class divided into teams of two or three, and chose a country to represent. Alexandra and I were a team, we represented Japan. Each team was responsible for designing and building an ‘egg catcher.’ The contraption should have been able to catch a naked egg from a height greater than or less than 17 feet. The catch? You were only allowed to use one roll of masking tape, and 100 straws.

For the past few weeks, Alex and I have worked hard to create our contraption. Not only did we sketch our design, and build it, we spent some time calculating the egg’s energy and speed. Below are our calculations. We revised our problem definition to: “Our clients’ chickens are laying eggs at heights less than or equal to 17 feet. She is having trouble collecting the eggs because they are breaking once they hit the ground.

We had many ideas on how to design our contraption. At first, we decided to do a funnel design, with a centered basket (pictures below). We had two separate plans for our basket, either we were going to build a straw bottom or a hammock bottom made from tape.

Once we started building our egg-catcher we noticed a few things. First, it made more sense for us to have a square foundation because it gave our basket more support. Then, instead of using just one basket design, we decided to use both for more cushion and support for the egg. 

Finally, we completely disposed of the funneled top to help with our budget and the amount of used materials. In the pictures below, our foundation is composed of for triangles made from straw and taped together. Our basket was created by using straws cut into thirds with a tape drape interior. Lastly, Alex covered our base and top with some extra tape for sturdiness. Our final product is below. Our chicken farmer told us that our design looked like something out of Jamestown, so we decided to call it JTEC (Jamestown Egg Catcher).

Throughout the design process we tried to use as little materials as possible. We did not use 100 straws and we did not finish our roll of masking tape.

For our first test, we used the plum bob to make sure we aimed just right. Alex was our designated egg dropper. However, she was so nervous that we missed our basket and broke our egg. Alex tested her egg dropping skills just a bit more and managed to succeed in landing our egg into our basket unharmed almost every time. She dropped an egg from about 16 feet but missed her first try. However, she learned that in our final test, we would have to put JTEC closer to the wall so she doesn’t have to reach her arm out so far. There is a picture below to show her practice.

On our competition day, everyone was nervous! But, each team did their best and I’m sure our client was pleased. To start things off, Alex and I weighed JTEC and it was 49.9 grams. Then we picked three eggs out of the carton, weighed them and named them. Our first egg was AM and it weighed 60.8 g. Our second egg was MA, it was our heaviest egg weighing 65.1 g. Our third egg was EA and it was the lightest weighing 56.6 g. First, we dropped MA from about 7 feet. The egg landed directly in the basket, with no cracks! Next, we dropped AM from a little less 9 feet and it landed in the basket unharmed! Finally, we dropped our lightest egg, EA, and we weren’t so lucky. EA did not make it safely into our basket. There were no adjustments made to JTEC in-between drops. Below is a video showing our second drop with AM.

Alex and I both worked hard in completing this project. I really enjoyed having her on my team because we fed off of each other’s ideas to create bigger and better ones! We learned that teamwork is the most important thing when designing and creating something to solve a problem. We also learned to be open minded about all of our ideas, which is what helped us to create such a great device.

I had a lot of fun with this lab and I know everyone else did as well! I was very impressed with the other teams as well as Alex and I. Everyone had some awesome ideas, and I’m glad our client was pleased!

The Great Egg Drop Week 2

Alex and I have made incredible progress in just one week. We have revised our problem definition, built our contraption and tested it once (from a height more than just two inches)!

Our new problem definition is: Our clients chickens are laying eggs at heights less than or equal to 17 feet. She is having trouble collecting the eggs because they are breaking once they hit the ground.

We are here to help her with the problem and that is why we are building this contraption to catch her falling eggs.

You saw in my last post our design layout and all of our planning. This week we put everything together realizing a few things. First, it made more sense for us to have a square foundation because it gave our basket more support when the egg falls in. Then instead of using one basket design, we used both designs together for more cushion for the egg. Finally, we completely got rid of the top of our contraption (the funneled top). This helped us with our budget and cost of the contraption.

In the pictures below, our foundation is composed of four triangles made from straw and taped together. Our basket was created by using straws cut into thirds with a tape drape interior.

With our first test, we used the plum bob to make sure we got it exactly in the basket. Alex was our handy dandy egg dropper and if she wasn't so nervous she would have made it in, but she missed it by a hair and our egg hit the corner of the basket and cracked. However, next week we will definitely make it inside our basket unharmed!

Alex and I have come a long way since last week and we are definitely going to succeed! We have built this contraption by bouncing and feeding off of each others ideas. I couldn't be more proud of our team!

The Great Egg Drop Week 1

Our first project in this class is The Great Egg Drop. We have divided into teams of 2 or 3 and we represent different countries. For example, Alexandra and I are a team and we are representing Japan. Each team is responsible for creating an ‘egg catcher.’ This contraption should be able to catch falling eggs from a height greater or less than 17 feet.

The trick to this challenge, we are only allowed to use one roll of masking tape, and 100 straws. For the next three weeks Alex and I will be posting regularly about our contraption and the progress we are making. Here are a few pictures of sketches and problem solving done in our first lab class.

This first picture representing our problem definition, criteria, and physics behind the challenge.

This second picture represents our design from a top view.

Finally, this represents a side view from our design sketch. We have decided between two designs. We will either build a straw bottom for our center basket, or we will create a hammock with the tape.

There is much more where this came from and I can’t wait to share with you! Alex and I are a great team, and I am so excited to begin building!