Overview

During my time as a student in Statics, I was tasked with working with a group to create a circular toothpick truss to support a minimum spherical load of 20 newtons. This project culminated in a 19-page report, detailing the mathematics and physics regarding the truss.

Process

To begin, the truss was to be created using only toothpicks and glue, so my group wanted to get creative with the construction in order to simplify it. I had the idea to create 3D-printed frames in order to ensure consistency of the sections, as well as simplicity of construction. One of these frames can be seen to the right. Additionally, examples of the three different types of cross-sections can be seen in the image below.

Next, calculations were done in order to calculate the state of stress identified within each member of the truss. This was required for the final paper, and it helped pinpoint the failure mode for the truss.

Finally, all of the cross-sections were completed, and all we had to do was put them all together to get our final product and test it.

Conclusion

The final project ended up holding more than 115N, which is 575% greater than the required load, 20N. The paper and project was overall a success.

This project is interesting to note because it is the first time I created a design and analyzed each member of the design for stress consideration. Because of this, I developed the skills of design, dynamic structural analysis, and teamwork.

One of the most important skills that I learned was using 3D-printing to aid in physical construction. The use of frames to help assemble the toothpicks made the process extremely seamless, and we ended up spending a significantly less amount of time on assembly compared to other groups in the class.