Seeking for Truth and integrating theories into practice—the 13th Extracurricular Science and Technology Innovation Competition for College Students and the Final of Bridge Load-bearing Group of 21st Structural Design Competition
The 13th Extracurricular Science and Technology Innovation Experiment Competition for College Students and the Final of the 21st Structural Design Competition for Bridge Load-bearing Group was held in X4250, No. 4 Building, Xipu Campus on May 16, 2021. Mr. Wang Qi and Mrs. Liang Yan from the School of Civil Engineering (SCE) were invited as judges for the final. The final competition was organized by the Science and Technology Innovation Center of SCE.
The teams arrived one after another to carry their own models to the designated storage place in the hallway from 8:30 a.m. to 8:50 a.m. After all the participants entered the room and signed in, each team sent one player to draw lots and made a copy of slides. A total of seven teams entered the final competition successfully after the preliminary round. This year's competition requires participants to design the models of load-bearing bridges, and such models could withstand surcharge and dynamic loads, as well as vibration and impact loads.
The final competition began at 9:00 a.m. The final competition included four parts: installing model, model presentation and defense, loading test and judges' comment, and all teams were engaged in the final by the order of drawing. Among them, installing model and the model overview were carried out together, model presentation and defense were allowed to give by slides, but the overview time was not more than 3 minutes, while the question time was decided by the judges. A load test was conducted and relevant coefficients were re-evaluated at the end of each defense. Then the judges would comment on the model and the loading.
During the defense, the representatives of each team made a preliminary introduction to the model with slides from the its design ideas, structural calculation, to construction process. Besides, the representatives also made explanations on the scientific nature of their bridge models, focusing on the calculation of shear force and stress. Many teams also carried out loading simulation and then made reflections on model structure, which showed that these competitors kept pursuing excellence and knowledge.
Then came the loading test. Loading test was mainly divided into three parts: concentrated load test, deflection measurement, vibration and impact load test. Among them, the deflection was judged by the displacement of the car in one of the lanes; the vibration and impact load test was, at a fixed height, to free lower a standard No. 7 basketball at the weakest spot in the whole deck assigned by the judges. After lowering the basketball, no one was allowed to intervene the ball until the basketball no longer bounced on the bridge deck, and by which each team could obtain the corresponding parameters. The above tests were supervised and recorded by the personnel of the Science and Technology Innovation Center of SCE.
The final competition came to an end successfully at 11:00 a.m. And the instructors, the participants and the staff took a group photo in the end. Final results would be posted on the website of SCE soon. This competition was full of joy. The students made use of the models to explain their modeling ideas and innovation, which showed that students from SCE of SWJTU had not only laid solid foundation but also cultivated strong practical abilities. We do wish all the participants good luck and look forward to more excellent works in the following competitions.
Finally, we would like to express our gratitude towards China Construction Fourth Engineering Bureau Co., Ltd. for their great support to this competition.
