Welcome ChrisWiduWood. Love the bridge, can I assume the handrail is acting as a truss. It looks really elegant, good job.
Hi GSP,
This Bridge is based on the 'famous' Mathematical Bridge in Cambridge, Our version was originally Iroko and 40+ or so years old, it had Failed in various places and was found unsafe and so we had the job deconstructing it and with what parts were still intact we had a giant game of suduku and drew up the bridge on Sketchup and made an exact replica in Opepe! (
Bilinga_(wood))
As it was a copy i don't really know too much about the design, but iv'e taken a snip of the wiki page and it explains-
"The arrangement of timbers is a series of
tangents that describe the
arc of the bridge, with radial members to tie the tangents together and
triangulate the structure, making it rigid and self-supporting. This type of structure, technically
tangent and radial trussing, is an efficient structural use of timber, and was also used for the timber supporting arches (
centring) used for building stone bridges.
[6] Analysis of the design shows that the tangent members are almost entirely under compression, while the radial timbers are almost entirely subject to tension with very little bending stress, or to put it another way, the tangent and radial elements elegantly express the forces involved in arched construction."
here is the link
Mathematical_Bridge
Cheers
Chris
, iv'
the stairs and of course welcome to you .
, where abouts in Bucks? I spent my first 27 years of life in Aylesbury.
