DYNAMIC RESPONSE STRUCTURES

Structures such as buildings and bridges must be designed to withstand a variety of loads and forces.

Earthquakes cause great damage to buildings and bridges and it is the job of Structural Engineers to ensure that these structures can withstand the forces involved. In Australia such an earthquake was experienced at Newcastle in 1989 where much damage was done to buildings not adequately designed for earthquake forces. Structural Engineers may be called upon to design buildings in seismically active areas, such as Indonesia, New Guinea or New Zealand.

The dynamic response of structures, such as bridges and chimney stacks, due to wind loading is also a significant aspect of design. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed due to its dynamic response to wind loading. Chimney and industrial smoke stacks have also collapsed due to wind and earthquake loadings.

In this project, you should use the internet to research the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse. There are many web sites about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse and you can also use the Engineering Village database (available through the UQ library) to find technical information about the collapse. Your group should investigate the following aspects of the Tacoma Bridge Collapse.

· Describe the bridge and give some background on when it was built and when it collapsed.

· Describe the weather conditions on the day of the collapse.

· Describe (from a mathematical perspective) what caused the bridge to collapse.

Developed by Liza O'Moore.

http://www.maths.uq.edu.au