Heather Mello
Heather Mello
Structural Analysis
Structural Design for the Stage | 2024
The objective of this project was to design an elevated platform that could support both a 50 psf distributed load as well as a concentrated load from a drawbridge. My final design can be seen on the right, and my final report can be found here.
The design utilized a beam and joist construction technique, with plywood as the lid. The selected girders and beams were able to support the distributed load and pass the bending, shear, and deflection tests.
Drawbridge Platform Project
Stressed-Skin Panel Analysis
In this class, we were also tasked with creating a spreadsheet that could streamline the structural analysis of a stressed-skin panel. The spreadsheet I created requires inputs for the size of the panel, the species, grade, and thickness of the skins and stringers, and the number of stringers. The spreadsheet takes these values and returns the allowable loads for top-skin deflection, total panel deflection, bending in the top and bottom skins, rolling shear stress, and horizontal shear stress. My intention for this spreadsheet is for a user to enter the materials they have selected for a panel and understand its structural capacity without having to search through tables themselves. An image of example inputs and outputs from this spreadsheet can be seen to the right, and the spreadsheet itself can be found here.
