Engineering Question

[pontiacgp]

Conditions:
A digger weighing 22 tons is on top of a trailer and heading east on the Trans-Canada Highway near High River, Alberta. The extended shovel arm is made of hardened refined steel and the approaching overpass is made of commercial-grade concrete, reinforced with 1 inch steel rebar spaced at 6 inch intervals in a criss-cross pattern layered at 1 foot vertical spacing.


Solve:
When the shovel arm hits the overpass, how fast do you have to be going to slice the bridge in half? (Assume no effect for headwind and no braking by the driver.)



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[pencero]

pic failed from my POV just a heads up

 

[pontiacgp]

fixed I think

 

[307 Regal]

umm.. :shock:

 

[pontiacgp]

the driver was supposedly on his cell phone...but it is a great add for Hyundai

 

[307 Regal]

the driver was supposedly on his cell phone...but it is a great add for Hyundai

"Hyundai.
Tougher than you'd think."

:lol:

 

[CHRIS.O]

Could you imagine being the guy driving on the bridge? Where in the hell did that excavator come from haha

 

[Dugan]

That is nuts. I use to do concrete and I know how strong those bridges are that guy must have been flying

 

[khan0165]

not an engineer... but as a Mechanical Technologist, I am qualified in many of the fundamentals of the engineering.

... there are many ways to aproach the above problem, intelligently exploring the dynamics involved in the above structural and mechanical failure...

however, I fear there was very little intelligence involved in the accident.

 

[beermonkey9417]

it looks as if the arm was infront of the machins cab and the the "elbo went in at an angle and kinda twisted as it entered the bridge and the got ripped back punktureing the bridge kinda like the pointy end of one of them bottle openers. ill draw a pic!

so what had happend was, the truck driver ether ignored the height of the bridge sign or didnt know how high his load was and just said eff it.

if ya look at the bottom pic from the OP you can see that the top of the crane "elbow" hit there and then it was forced under and kinda like "can opener-ed" its way through the bridge.so its not like it cut the bridge like a knife, it hit at an optimal angle to "perce" the bridge kinda like the pointy end church key does to a can:

this is how bored i am at work.... :|