0

NTU Bridge Design Competition 2021

Preliminary Round

Official Case Document

Nanyang Technological University

Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Club

Prepared by NTU BDC Committee 2021

All rights reserved.
 1

1. Case Details

As an engineering firm specialising in bridge design and construction, you are tasked to design a
bridge to provide for movement of cars and other light goods vehicles across the Serangoon River
as part of a prequalification process for an upcoming tender.

You are required to prepare a structurally optimised bridge design to span 44 metres (support to
support) across the Serangoon River using the Bridge Designer 2016 software. This bridge will
run parallel to the existing Lorong Halus Bridge which only permits pedestrian movement. The
site location can be found on Google Maps at http://tinyurl.com/1hq5n7mo.

The client has requested that the bridge must consist of cable stays as well as a truss frame below
the bridge deck. Additionally, the client only allows a maximum of 4 different sizes for the
tensioned cables and a maximum 6 different sizes for the truss members.

Teams are to submit only the Bridge Designer file (i.e., the .bdc file) for their submissions. Your
submitted file is to be named “BDC_file_<Assigned Team Number>” (e.g., BDC_file_4.bdc).
Teams can only submit one Bridge Designer file (.bdc file) during the submission period.

The local contest code to be used for this round is NTU15A.

The relevant appendices to be used in conjunction with this case document are:
• Appendix A - Bridge Design Specifications
• Appendix B - Judging Criteria
• Appendix C - Rules and Regulations

Prepared by NTU BDC Committee 2021

All rights reserved.
 2

2. Timeline

Virtual Case Competition (Preliminary Round)

(Monday, 1 March 2021 – Friday, 5 March 2021)

Timeline* Activity

Mon, 1 Mar
Release of case to participating teams
0000h
Tue, 2 Mar
Deadline for submission of Bridge Designer (.bdc) files
2359h
Fri, 5 Mar
1200h Announcement of Top 10 qualifying teams

*Time specified are in GMT +8 time zone.

3. Submission

Teams are required to submit their Bridge Designer file (.bdc) via email to cee-bdc@e.ntu.edu.sg
The email heading should be in the following format: “Team <Assigned Team Number>
Preliminary Round Submission” (e.g., Team 4 Preliminary Round Submission).

All entries must be submitted by Tuesday, 2nd March 2021, 2359h (GMT +8). Late submissions
will strictly not be entertained.

4. Qualifying Teams

The top 10 highest scoring teams based on the judging criteria described in Appendix B will
qualify for the Final Round. The top 10 qualifying teams will be notified via the team leader’s
registered email on Friday, 5th March 2021, at 1200h (GMT +8)

Prepared by NTU BDC Committee 2021

All rights reserved.
 3

Appendix A - Bridge Design Specifications

Please use the local contest code NTU15A and ensure that your bridge design is constructed
using the specifications in the local contest code which should be similar as those listed below.

All bridge designs are to be constructed on the Bridge Designer 2016 software which is available
at https://bridgedesigner.org/download/. Only original submissions are accepted. Please note all
other design restrictions stated in the main case document.

The local contest code NTU15A will load the below site configurations. Please inform the
committee if the following site configuration does not load upon input of the local contest code.

1. Deck elevation set at 24m

2. Standard abutments used
3. No piers allowed (i.e. one span)
4. Two cable anchorages at both ends of the bridge
5. Medium-strength concrete for deck material
6. Standard 225kN truck loading with two lanes
7. No templates allowed
8. Solid bars or hollow tubes can be used for the members

Prepared by NTU BDC Committee 2021

All rights reserved.
 4

Appendix B - Judging Criteria

Submitted bridge designs shall be judged solely on their structural capability as described below. All costing and loading values will be
taken from the Bridge Designer software and all results will be cross-checked by a separate member of the committee to confirm the
scores. Any bridge designs that do not meet the submission deadline, that neglects any of the technical specifications as listed in the
case document or breaches any competition rules will be disqualified.

Weightage
Criteria Grading
(%)

The team with the highest Cost Efficiency Ratio (CER) gets 100 marks and every other team gets a
proportional number of points based on their achieved CER. For example, if the highest scoring design’s
CER is 0.9 and another team scores 0.6, this team scores 0.6/0.9 x 100 = 66.7 points.

Structural Cost Efficiency Ratio (CER) = Bridge Cost Ratio × Average(Force-to-Strength Ratio)
100%
Capability Bridge Cost Ratio = Lowest Overall Bridge Cost / Submitted Bridge Cost
Force-to-Strength Ratio = Compression or tension force of member / Member strength

The total bridge cost of each team’s submission will be benchmarked against the lowest bridge cost out
of all submissions. Costing will be based on the number provided by Bridge Designer 2016.

Prepared by NTU BDC Committee 2021

All rights reserved.
 5

Appendix C - Rules and Regulations

The rules and regulations listed below are non-exhaustive and may be revised accordingly.
Actions that jeopardise the integrity of the competition will be thoroughly reviewed, and teams
involved may be awarded demerit points or be disqualified, if deemed necessary by the
Committee.

1 Contest Rules
1.1 Teams are responsible for thorough reading and understanding of all contest documents.
Failure to adhere to stated rules in the contest documents by intention or ignorance may
result in the award of demerit points or disqualification, wherever deemed necessary.
1.2 All work submitted must be original. Cheating or plagiarism of any form will not be tolerated
and may result in disqualification. Working with other teams is not allowed and may result
in those teams being disqualified, if found guilty.
1.3 Each team is only allowed one submission. Multiple submissions by the same team will
result in a demerit points of 40% of their total score for their design.

1.4 Teams are to adhere strictly to the deadlines for submission. Late submissions will not be
accepted or considered.

1.5 Bridge designs will be evaluated based on the criteria described in Appendix B.

2 Technical Rules
2.1 Submitted bridge designs must satisfy the technical specifications in the main case
document and in Appendix A for the designs to be considered.

2.2 All bridge designs are to be constructed in the Bridge Designer 2016 software available at
bridgedesigner.org. No tampering of the software is allowed.

Prepared by NTU BDC Committee 2021

All rights reserved.