Our students’ bridges conquer the world

Two teams from the Scientific Circle of Bridge Builders of the Warsaw University of Technology qualified for the second stage of the international steel bridge competition DE&CO ’23. Our students will be the only representatives of Poland.

In the first stage, the participants’ task was to design a steel bridge with a span of 6 m (measured from the inside of the supports). The gauge under the bridge had to accommodate a box with a height of 75 cm and a width of 2 m. The structure itself could not be higher than 2 m, with the total weight not more than 300 kg. In addition, each part of the bridge (excluding the supports) should fit within the dimensions of 120x25x25 cm and weigh no more than 7 kg.

As it can be seen, there were a lot of requirements, but the WUT students lived up to the challenge. The teams focused on other aspects of the structure.

The creators of the Beautiful bridge: Maciej Siemionko, Edgar Maciejewski, Mateusz Rajda, Paweł Pachla and Radosław Szarwiło focused on minimizing the assembly time and the lightness of the structure.
The Kartal 7 team consisting of Michał Pawłowski, Julia Czaplicka, Karol Urbańczyk, Mateusz Frydrycki and Piotr Ambrochowicz opted for a proven arch structure, minimization of deflection and aesthetics.

These different design approaches will be essential in the second stage of the competition. There, participants will present and then independently assemble the designed bridges. The structures will then be loaded: horizontally (applying 25 kg to the side together with 35 kg at the top) and vertically (applying 1250 kg at the top). The assessment will be comprehensive. The teams will receive points for aesthetics, uniqueness, assembly time, vertical displacement, horizontal displacement, and bridge weight. The second stage of the competition will take place in May at the Boğaziçi University in Turkey.