What kind of bridge holds the most weight

Even though the truss bridge design has been around for literally centuries it is widely regarded as the strongest type of bridge. The design itself looks extremely simple, so what makes it the strongest type of bridge and why? This is a load-bearing bridge which consists of an array of triangular structures. Interestingly, the triangular beam structures are pinned in place rather than rigidly connected which is important when spreading the load.

The vibrations caused by traffic moving over the bridge or even weather conditions are not isolated; instead they are spread right across the bridge structure, moving between triangular sections. As the load is spread right across the bridge this also increases overall stability and reduces flexing. The Beam Bridge is the most common type of the bridge.

It is also the simplest to build — please see the detailed description above. When you look at the different types of bridges and how they work, it opens up a whole new area of design engineering. What many of us assume to be an aesthetic feature of a modern day bridge is often an integral part of the design. These features often help control tension and stress in a variety of ways.

It is also interesting to see that different bridge designs are suitable for different terrains. The fact that many of these basic designs go back centuries says everything about their viability, durability and safety.

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September 4, Mark Benson. What are the 7 main types of bridges? What are the 5 main types of bridges? Which type of bridge is strongest? What is the most expensive type of bridge to build? What is the best type of bridge? What is the most common type of the bridge?

Example of a Beam Bridge: Iowa River bridge. Source: please see note 1. Truss bridges The truss bridge has been around for literally centuries and is a load-bearing structure which incorporates a truss in a highly efficient yet very simple design. Source: please see note 2. Cantilever bridges When the first cantilever bridge was designed it was seen as a major engineering breakthrough. Share on email Email.

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If you want to impress your mentors and peers, you should choose a design that is especially strong. Some kinds of bridges and their subclasses lend themselves to this task more readily than others. There are five main types of bridges, which vary primarily in their basic shape and therefore in terms of how the stress they experience — from both their own considerable weight and that of their traffic — is distributed.

Chances are good if you live in a major city that you have made use of some or perhaps all of these bridge types, probably without being able to name more than one of them. Beam Bridge: This is the simplest kind of bridge, requiring just a straight span , which bears all of the tension "pulling" stress of the bridge load, and piers , which bear the compression forces.

These are cheap and easier to build than other bridges, but they're poorly suited for large waterways because their individual spans between piers cannot be very long. Also, while inexpensive, they are considered aesthetically charmless in most settings. Arch Bridge: This type of bridge dates back to ancient Roman times. It is favored for its beauty, but in many cases the land to be bridged doesn't allow for the broad contact base of this type of bridge.

These can reach impressive sizes. An arch bridge over the New River in West Virginia built in has a single strong span exceeding 3, feet.

Truss Bridge: There are actually at least four different individual truss bridge designs, with the number depending on the source consulted. These, like beam bridges, are inexpensive and easier to built than most types of bridges, but they are unattractive to look at and poorly suited for waterways for the same reason beam bridges are — a short distance between piers. Suspension Bridge: If you were able to name a single type of bridge before delving into this article, it's most likely the suspension bridge, revered by the world for its grandeur and by engineers for its mathematical and physical cleverness.

The Brooklyn Bridge and other suspension bridges have cables running along the deck and anchored to land at each end to offset tension; two usually giant piers called towers absorb the compression, and the deck is suspended by a set of vertical cables from the other set. Like a suspension bridge, it makes use of cables and individual spans can be enormously long, in excess of one mile 1. The cables, however, run from the tops of the towers to the road deck instead of to each end of the bridge.

You can use different materials for different styles of scaled-down bridges. Suggestions are given below for using ordinary playing cards, but feel free to improvise as long as your bridge meets the definition for its kind. For all bridge types, you could use toilet-paper or paper-towel rolls or something else that is inexpensive and easy to acquire.

You'll also want a good supply of scotch tape, scissors, a stapler, string, a ruler and perhaps a hole punch. This bridge design is more complex than the Warren truss variation, and is also more expensive due to the extra materials needed to build it. The Pratt truss is a hot favourite among engineers and those nerdy science folk because when you crunch a whole heap of numbers better them than me!

The Howe truss, patented in by William Howe, a millwright from Massachusetts, is very similar to its friend the Pratt truss; except that its diagonals face the opposite direction away from the centre.

The small change simply means a change in direction of where the force is applied. Originally, because their larger parts were constructed from wood, it was a popular design because it was cheaper to build. However, in recent years the Pratt design tends to be more popular and is slightly better at distributing force. If you want to get technical about it: in the Howe truss design, the longer diagonal members are in compression, while the shorter vertical members are in tension.

This is in contrast to the Pratt truss design. The K truss bridge design was a variation on another Pratt truss style, called the Parker truss. The idea of the K truss is to break up the diagonal members into smaller lengths, in the hope of reducing their likelihood of buckling under pressure. Truss bridges, unlike other bridge designs, are able to carry roadway within their structure. Neat, right?! Furthermore, the pony truss allows traffic to travel through the structure of the bridge, however the two sides of the bridge are not joined at the top or cross-braced.

Happy bridge-building! Remember Me.