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Detailed description of the cause of the tacoma narrows bridge collapse
Failure analysis of tacoma narrow bridge
Failure of tacoma narrows bridge
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WHY DID TACOMA NARROW BRIDGE COLLAPSE
INTRODUCTION
The Tacoma Narrow Bridge is pair of twin suspension bridges that span the Tacoma strait of Puget Sound in pierce county Washington. () The bridge connects the city of Tacoma with the Kitsap Peninsula and carries state Route 16. But the paper focus on the Tacoma Narrow Bridge of the 1940 and some of the reasons that led to its collapse. The 1940 Tacoma Narrow Bridge become operational as from 1 July 1940 and unfortunately collapsed on November 7 the same year, just four months after. At the time of its construction and destruction it ranked the third longest bridge after the Golden Gate Bridge and the George Washington Bridge.
DESIGN AND
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This was due to the torsional vibration mode. This is where the left side of the road went down, the right side would rise and the central part of the main span remained motionless. The torsional vibration mode was caused by aero-elastic fluttering (Billah and Scanlan, 1991).
Fluttering is a phenomenon (physical) where several degrees of freedom of a structure become coupled with unstable oscillation driven by wind. This movement injects energy to the bridge with each cycle so that it overcomes the natural damping of the structure bring about a counter (negative damping) causing an exponentially growing response. In other words, the oscillations increase in amplitude with each cycle as the flutter velocity inserts more energy than the flexibility the structure can dissipate. Eventually this causes the bridge to fail due to excessive stress. Consequently the amplitude of the motion generated by the fluttering velocity increased beyond the strength of the focal point, in this case the suspender cables. On the event of failed suspender cables the weight of the deck shifted to the other cables causing them to break and making the central deck fall into the water below the
Steven Hermosillo Professor Wallace Fire Tech 105 15 November 2015 Silver Bridge Collapse According to Wikipedia, Forty-six people were killed in the silver-bridge collapse and another nine people were injured. “The Silver Bridge was an eye-bar-chain suspension bridge built in 1928 and named for the color of its aluminum paint. The bridge connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, over the Ohio River” (Wikipedia). This was a highly used bridge serving thousands of cars a day before the collapse.
The Bailey Island Bridge is located in Harpswell, Maine on Route 24. Before the making of the bridge, the fishermen that lived on Bailey’s Island wanted a bridge that connected their island to Orr’s Island. The town of Harpsweell made and voted on their decisions in the weekly town meetings (“Bailey”). The project was stalled because of some of the mainlanders in the town, but it was brought back up for discussion in 1912. They first agreed on a “road” which would connect the two islands and would be constructed with timber. This was to cost $3,000. The cost quickly reached $25,000 at a later town meting because they decided to build the bridge with stone and concrete instead. Once the legislature decided to pass a bill stating that it would fun state’s highway and bridge projects, they decided to move forward with the project (Hansen, 36).
The reasons for the collapse are to be found in the acts and omissions of those entrusted with building a bridge of a new and highly sophisticated design.
At the time of its construction in 1929, the Ambassador Bridge was the largest spanned suspension bridge at 564 meters until the George Washington Bridge was built. It was an engineering masterpiece at the time. The total bridge length is 2,286 meters and rises to 118 meters above the river. Suspension cables support the main span of the Ambassador Bridge and the main pillars under the bridge are supported by steel in a cantilever truss structure. In total, the McClintic-Marshall masterpiece is comprised of 21,000 tons of steel. The immense socio-economical impact that the Ambassador Bridge has on transportation and trade is imperative for daily interaction between the Un...
The Golden Gate bridge, standing as an icon of roadway innovations, took multiple engineers years to design and complete. They could not just simply build an ordinary bridge. They had to take into consideration the physics behind it, as well as, what kind of effect the environment would have upon the bridge. The bridge sits along one of the most active fault lines in the world, so engineers had to make sure their bridge could withstand a little movement. Today the Golden Gate bridge still stands tried and true, as does many other innovations that 20th century engineers came up with.
On August 1, 2007 at approximately 6:05 p.m. 1,064-foot section of the 1,907-foot long I-35W highway bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River. This catastrophic failure of the main bridge span resulted in the death of 13 people and injuring 145 others. In total, 111 documented vehicles were on the bridge at the time that it collapsed. Included in this total are 25 construction vehicles.
Golden Gate Bridge held the title as one of the longest bridges for a reason. It has a total length of 2,737 meters with a width of 27 meters. It also has a clearance of 67 meters for ships to pass by. Besides its incredible dimension, its architecture also plays a tremendous role for its beauty. The bridge employs art deco style, a chevron or beveled shape, used to add visual effect. The concrete structures at the ends of the bridge have chevron form as well as the concrete at the base of the towers. There are two shafts in each tower, 90 feet apart decreasing in width as they go up. The two shafts are connected by cross bracing and having four horizontal struts above. The bridge’s art deco design and towers were designed by architect Irving F. Morrow.
One of the most influential engineering discoveries in the past century was the ill-fated Tacoma Narrows Bridge. “Galloping Gertie” as she was known to local residents, the massive Washington state suspension bridge shook, rattled and rolled its way into the history books. Legendary in its time, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge held many records and drew tourists from around the world in its short life. However, the famous bridge is not known for its creative engineering or speedy construction, unfortunately the bridge was destined to fail. That failure in turn changed the way every building is constructed today as well as further man’s understanding of physics and the forces of nature. In this paper we will examine the history of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge from design to construction, the failure of the bridge, and ultimately the rebuilding project.
The 14-year construction of this urban landmark that stretched across the East River was completed in May of 1883. This was not only a bridge; it stood for many significant symbols. During this time period, the industrial aspects of things were at its peak and this represented the strength of the industry. Also it symbolized the use of immigrant workers and how much time and effort they put into making this bridge. Twenty seven men died while creating this bridge and that is something that most people forget when looking at the bridge, people risked there lives while giving a society that people needed. Not only that but it took tons and tons of steel and iron in order to complete this bridge and it was part of the steel and iron boom. This landmark led to the rise o...
In the city of Seattle, it runs along Elliott Bay and the city’s downtown and industrial districts. It was finished and opened to traffic in 1953. The construction of the Viaduct was itself filled with mishaps and delays. By the end of the project, the budget had doubled from its original five million dollar cost. Its opening solved little, too: “The over-budget, ugly Viaduct opened on April 4, 1953, at 1:40 p.m., purportedly to unsnarl traffic.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is perhaps the most notorious failure in the world of engineering. It collapsed on November 7, 1940 just months after its opening on July 1, 1940. It was designed by Leon Moisseiff and at its time it was the third largest suspension bridge in the world with a center span of over half a mile long. The bridge was very narrow and sleek giving it a look of grace, but this design made it very flexible in the wind. Nicknamed the "Galloping Gertie," because of its undulating behavior, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge drew the attention of motorists seeking a cheap thrill. Drivers felt that they were driving on a roller coaster, as they would disappear from sight in the trough of the wave. On the last day of the bridge's existence it gave fair warning that its destruction was eminent. Not only did it oscillate up and down, but twisted side to side in a cork screw motion. After hours of this violent motion with wind speeds reaching forty and fifty miles per hour, the bridge collapsed. With such a catastrophic failure, many people ask why such an apparently well thought out plan could have failed so badly?(This rhetorical question clearly sets up a position of inquiry-which iniates all research.) The reason for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is still controversial, but three theories reveal the basis of an engineering explanation. (Jason then directly asserts what he found to be a possible answer to his question.)
Ever since San Francisco was first settled, it was dependent on ferry service to get supplies to and from each bay county. In the 1920’s, San Francisco was the largest US city still reliant on ferries. The idea of building a great bridge was introduced to the state legislation in 1920, this idea faced many opponents such as the ferry industry, citizens worried about traffic, and experts who claimed the bridge could not withstand the harsh earthquakes San Francisco is known for. However, with support from the powerful automobile industry and the federal government, the bridge finally began construction in 1933.
Analyzed various documents and contacted many of the parties involved in the design, construction, maintenance and inspection of the bridge. According to the investigation report, what actually led to the collapse of the overpass was shear failure at a thick concrete section of an abutment cantilever. The failure was caused by chain of events attributed to problems in design, construction and supervision, maintenance and other environmental factors that contributed to such a
In her essay,”Importance of the Golden Gate Bridge,” Stephanie Stiavetti suggest that “It maintained this point of pride for nearly 25 years until the Verrazano- Narrows Bridge was built in New York in 1964. Today, this historic San Francisco landmark holds its place as the second largest suspension bridge in the country, behind Verrazano Narrows.” Back then, experts thought that it would be impossible to build a bridge across the tides and currents in that area because strong currents and tides would make construction extremely difficult and dangerous. The water is over 500 feet deep in the center of the channel, and along with the area's strong winds and thick fog, the idea of building a bridge there seemed nearly impossible. Despite all of the problems of building a bridge across the Golden Gate, Joseph Strauss was named as lead engineer for the project. Construction began January 5, 1933, and in the end cost more than $35 million to
A Failure of a Bridge My bridge performed to an acceptable status, however, the unique suspension design I gave it did not even effect the model’s capabilities while testing it. If anything, the excess material that came with the suspension design simply added weight to the model that was unnecessary. Unfortunately, the excess material was not the biggest flaw of my bridge. First off, the truss design did not have a clear flaw in it.