 |
Third Annual Popsicle Stick Bridge Building Contest
 |
Line-up of Bridges |
The Sea to Sky branch held the 3rd Annual Popsicle Stick Bridge Building Contest at Capilano Mall on Saturday
March 8th, during National Engineering and Geoscience Week.
A total of 24 bridges were submitted in the elementary division. Nathaniel Hartley grabbed 3rd place with his
bridge holding 854.4 N. Second place was taken by the partnership effort of Wesley Dekleer and Connor Lowen,
with a bridge sporting a Vancouver 2010 Olympics sign and holding up 1294.2 N.
Kirin Lamb, with a family history dominating the popsicle stick bridge contest for the past 2 years, came with a
highly controversial design. The judges huddled to debate the rule compliance of the bridge. The ultimate decision
came down, Kirin’s bridge was OK, giving her the 1st place position, with her bridge holding up a whopping 1927.9
N!
In the secondary division, 9 bridges were vying for the graphing calculator. Third place was taken by a group effort
consisting of David Hsieh, Aminollah Sabzevari, Rory Ferries and Ali Nayeri, with a bridge withstanding 710 N.
Marissa Lamb, previously excelling in the elementary category, came with a repaired bridge from last year’s
competition. She placed second, holding up 805.7 N, nearly 100 N better than last year’s performance.
Reigning Elementary champion from last year, Alexander Stojkovic, took 1st place in the Secondary category with a
1506.2 N strong bridge, wow!
 |
Arch bridge in testing apparatus |
Open category entries were thin again this year, with only 5 entries. Repeat competitor, Theresa Wai placed 3rd this
year with a bridge strength of 416.9 N. Next we moved into the engineer’s submissions, with Ian Harvey, P.Eng.
placing second at 424.2 N. Taking top spot, with another highly controversial design, and questionable “insider”
knowledge, Bill Vaughan, P.Eng., using a clever abutment thrust design, overloaded the load cell! The bridge did
break, but who knows what force it actually held up past the 2000 N limit of the display! I’ll be contacting RST
instruments to let them know the 3000 N load cell and display was not as advertised!
With the top bridges in elementary and open being designed for the testing apparatus, discussions have already
begun to change the testing apparatus for next year.
A big thank you to all the volunteers who helped organize this event and those who came out to help on the day of
the event. Another big thanks to all our sponsors and supporters! I will be stepping down as the organizer for this
event; I wish the best of luck to the future organizer and I encourage all of you to get involved next year!
 |
Everybody watching the bridge testing |
Thank you to:
Sponsors and prize donors:
Our supporters:
Our distribution locations:
Elementary Catagory
Elementary Winner Kirin Lamb
| Name |
City |
Weight |
Bridge Description |
Force |
Failure Description |
| Kirin Lamb |
Gibsons |
179 |
Abutment thrust style |
1927.9 |
Support failure |
| Wesley Dekleer |
North Vancouver |
164 |
Single abutment thrust type |
1294.2 |
Top deck cord failed |
| Nathaniel Hartley |
North Vancouver |
171 |
Under arch/truss |
854.4 |
Top deck in compression at support |
| Keegan Tom |
West Vancouver |
151 |
Underslung double truss |
846.6 |
Glue failure of joints at support |
| Kyle King |
North Vancouver |
170 |
Inverted divided truss |
837.5 |
Deck failed, high deflection |
| Tyler Tom |
West Vancouver |
149 |
Double under Frink truss |
829.5 |
Tension failure of chord |
| Dylan Marjoribanks |
Garibaldi Highlands |
150 |
Howe Trusted arch |
598.3 |
Glue Joint at support |
| Angus Milne |
Roberts Creek |
160 |
Single Truss lattice |
551.2 |
Stability Failure, slipped out of testing machine |
| Justin Wong |
North Vancouver |
137 |
Single pratt truss |
509.2 |
Unstable structure, slipped out of testing machine |
| Jeffrey Clements |
North Vancouver |
119 |
Through Pratt arch/truss |
509.2 |
Top chord buckled, glue joint failed |
| Jonathan Garmulewicz |
Roberts Creek |
160 |
Inverted single pratt truss |
508.5 |
Top chord buckled |
| Justin Ratzburg |
West Vancouver |
172 |
Under triple howe truss |
488.3 |
Glue joint at support |
| Angela Ratzburg |
West Vancouver |
167 |
Triple Howe Under truss |
410.9 |
Glue joint at support |
| Nathan Spratt |
North Vancouver |
150 |
Tied arch |
391.7 |
Structure unstable, slipped out of testing machine |
| Kelsey King |
North Vancouver |
172 |
Inverted Howe truss |
370.4 |
Glue joints at end diagnal failure |
| Matias Jow |
West Vancouver |
129 |
Double under truss |
319 |
Glue joints in bottom chord |
| Jordie Turner |
Squamish |
136 |
Double girder |
274.3 |
Glue joints sheared at support |
| Kong Cheng |
North Vancouver |
119 |
Double upstanding simple truss |
244 |
Top Chord buckled and eventually failed |
| Edward Wu |
North Vancouver |
139 |
Upstanding double Warren Truss |
160.8 |
Joints in top chord failed |
| Ben Tuck |
Squamish |
104 |
Through Pratt double truss |
147.3 |
Top chord buckled, joints at support failed |
| Carter Kerzner |
West Vancouver |
152 |
Through double diagnal truss |
147 |
Top diagnal glue joint |
| Darien Niamir, Fraser Barke |
West Vancouver |
187 |
Under double complex truss |
147 |
Shear failure of glue joints at support |
| Jinwhan Kim |
West Vancouver |
158 |
Double upstanding diagnal truss |
109.9 |
Glue joint in top chord failed |
| Geoffry Wong |
North Vancouver |
135 |
Plate |
34.5 |
Plate maximum deflection |
Secondary Catagory
|
Secondary Winner Alexander Stojkovic
|
| Name |
City |
Weight |
Bridge Description |
Force |
Failure Description |
| Alexander Stojkovic |
North Vancouver |
149 |
Single Pettit truss |
1506.2 |
Joint failure at support end |
| Marissa Lamb |
Gibsons |
164 |
Single underslung Warren truss |
805.7 |
Buckling of Bottom chord |
| David Tzu-Kuan Hsieh,
Aminollah Sabzevari, Rury Ferries and Ali Nayeri |
North Vancouver |
153 |
Double underslung pony truss |
710 |
Joint failure at support end |
| Justin Spratt |
North Vancouver |
148 |
Single underslung Warren truss |
592.8 |
Shear failure at support |
| Michelle Tom |
West Vancouver |
152 |
Double underslung Warren truss |
563.1 |
Joint failure at support end |
| Ali Nayeri, Amin Sabzevari,
David Hshieh and Rury Ferries |
North Vancouver |
182 |
Double underslung Warren truss |
536.1 |
End strut failed in compression |
| Jingjing Wang, Donald
Burkeholder and Connie Xi |
Burnaby |
134 |
Through arch truss |
290.7 |
Top chord buckled |
| Philipp Krebs |
North Vancouver |
206 |
Simple Plate Girder |
273 |
Excessive deflection caused bridge to slip off supports |
| Ricky Braich |
North Vancouver |
143 |
Plate girder with pony truss portals |
118.8 |
Excessive deflection caused structure to slip off supports |
|
Open Catagory
|
Open Catagory Winner Bill Vaughan
|
| Name |
City |
Weight |
Bridge Description |
Force |
Failure Description |
| William T. Vaughan |
West Vancouver |
148 |
Abutment thurst bridge, plate deck |
Over 2000 |
Glue joint at abutment - exceeded maximum reading of instrument |
| Ian Harvey |
North Vancouver |
147 |
Warren through truss |
424.2 |
Truss buckled at support |
| Theresa Wai |
Burnaby |
159 |
Double underslung warren truss |
416.9 |
Joint failureat support |
| Alex Wai |
Burnaby |
160 |
Warren space truss |
399.3 |
Glue joints at support |
| Mac Meedah Desctruction Co.
(Chris Van Ihinger) |
Burnaby |
146 |
Double lattice truss through bridge |
320.3 |
Glue joint at support |
|
|
 |
