Pro-G

Spaghetti Bridges help students to understand materials and structures resistance with fun and at low cost. Richard Williams from Las Vegas, Nevada designed the “Barilla Fettucini Bridge ” with SolidWorks, and we calculated its strenght with CosmosWorks.

Dry pasta material data can be found in [1] :

• density : 1.5 kg/dm³
• Young modulus 3600 N/mm²
• elasticity and yield limit : 16.778 N/mm²

Using CosmosWorks, we made a statics study of the bridge under a load of 10N (~1Kg) on 0.1m x 0.1m square placed on the center of the deck, and obtained the safety factor which gives the maximal load of the bridge as well as the location of maximal stresses, which indicates the points to reinforce

Référence:

1. Luis Alberto Segovia González, Inácio Benvegnu Morsch, João Ricardo Masuero, “Didactic Games in Engineering Teaching – Case : Spaghetti Bridges and Building Contest “, 2005, Proceedings of COBEM 2005 18th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering