![]() Next, engineers must determine what types of loads or forces they expect the bridge to carry.What are some questions the engineers might ask? (Possible answers: How strong would you need to make the bridge? What materials would you use? How would you anchor the pier foundations? What natural phenomena might your bridge need to be capable of withstanding?) First and foremost, engineers must understand the problem completely.Structural engineers go through several steps before even coming up with ideas for their final designs. Each pier (columns) and girder (beams) has to meet certain criteria for the success of the whole bridge. Have you ever wondered how engineers actually go about designing an entire bridge? Bridges are often designed one piece at a time. It is not easy to create a bridge the size of the Sky Gate Bridge. Because the airport site is built on compact soil, it sinks 2-4 cm per year - another condition for engineers to consider in the ongoing safety and maintenance of the airport and bridge. Four months later, it survived a magnitude 6.7 earthquake with only minor damage. Ĭonsidered a modern engineering marvel, the airport and bridge opened in 1994. Satellite image of Sky Gate Bridge to Kansai Airport in Osaka Bay, Japan.Ĭopyright © 2003 Earth Observatory, NASA. Spanning 3.7 km from the mainland in Osaka to the airport in an ocean bay, the Sky Gate Bridge is one of the longest truss bridges in the world and has an upper deck for auto transport and a lower, internal deck for rail lines. Since they had no land for a new airport, they decided to create the Kansai International Airport by constructing an entire island! On this new, artificial island, they built the airport terminal and runways. To solve the problem, the people of Japan took on one of the most challenging engineering projects the world has ever seen. ![]() It all started when the nearby Osaka and Tokyo airports were unable to meet demand, nor be expanded. One amazing example of a bridge's contribution to connecting people to other populations and places for both social and commerce reasons is the Sky Gate Bridge connecting people to Japan's Kansai International Airport, located in Osaka Bay. What are some bridges that you know that might be called simple bridges? (Possible answers: Log over a creek, bridges over streams.) What are some bridges you know that might be considered more complicated? (Possible answers: Golden Gate Bridge, other large bridges, bridges that carry both highway traffic and train traffic.) What makes some bridges simple and other complex? (Possible answers: Their size, multiple purposes, environmental conditions, environmental forces, material maintenance requirements, etc.) Some bridges are simple and straightforward others are amazingly complex. We know they are essential components of cities and the roadways between populations of people. We know that bridges play an important part in our daily lives. The students should have a familiarity with bridge types, as introduced in the first lesson of the Bridges unit, including area, and compressive and tensile forces. Load Combinations Worksheet Answers (pdf) Visit [ to print or download. Describe the process that an engineer uses to design a bridge, including determining loads, calculating the highest load, and calculating the amount of material to resist the loads.Explain why knowledge about various loads or forces is important in bridge design.List several examples of loads that could affect a bridge.Engineers often aim for a design that is strongest and lightest possible-one with the highest strength-to-weight ratio.Īfter this lesson, students should be able to: To design for safety and longevity, engineers consider the different types of loads, how they are applied and where. This engineering curriculum aligns to Next Generation Science Standards ( NGSS).Įngineers who design structures must completely understand the problem to be solved, which includes the complexities of the site and the customer needs. Students will begin to understand the problem, and learn how to determine the potential bridge loads, calculate the highest possible load, and calculate the amount of material needed to resist the loads. They learn the steps that engineers use to design bridges by conducting their own hands on associated activity to prototype their own structure. Students learn about the types of possible loads, how to calculate ultimate load combinations, and investigate the different sizes for the beams (girders) and columns (piers) of simple bridge design.
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