Week 4 Blog Post:

          While using the West Point Bridge Design program it became very clear that there were clearly some pros to the system as well as some cons. To start off on the positive side the WPBD program clearly helped as a guiding tool for those who have never used the program or ever worked with bridges before. Also, the program gave measurements of the stresses that would occur when weight was added. Some others may think that the exaggeration of the sagging of the bridge in the program would be a con to it but there is a way to turn off the exaggeration when in the animation screen. Because of this I do not consider it to be a pro or a con. However, there was a specific con that stood out right away to me as well as a lot of others. The WPBD does not take into consideration any external forces the bridge may encounter. Some external forces that may act on the bridges may include but are not limited to rain, snow, and wind. Also there was only one vehicle crossing the bridge at a time instead of a bunch of vehicles of varying shapes and sizes. Finally, the bridge in the program is not able to take into account the changes that occur of a long span of time due to wear and tear. Overall I did find the WPBD program to be a helpful tool, but only up to a certain extent.
          While in class last week we looked at some of the bridges that people designed for that week. The lowest costing bridge was around $250,000 which was far less than the bridge that I submitted which was around $400,000. During class each group was asked to create another bridge to be the cheapest design which our group got the cost down to $250,000, but even this is probably still not close enough to the lowest costing bridge. While still very intrigued about how to design the lowest costing yet still effective bridge in the WPBD program I kept at it and was able the create a bridge that cost just under $230,000. Unfortunately I cannot submit this bridge to get the extra credit point, but that does not matter to me as much. Now I look forward to the week ahead to the transition from the WPBD program to using Knex to build a bridge. When doing this the group as a whole will have to meet more often than the previous weeks to create the best bridge possible.
-Robert LaChance