Group Project
1. General Information
This group assignment consists of 30% of your final mark. You should also participate in the peer
assessment activity in Engineering Communication using SPARK to assess the performance of yourself
and your peers. Participation in peer assessment will be 10% of your total mark. In addition, the report
mark will be multiplied by the peer assessment multiplier to give an individual mark out of 30.
It is very important to understand and practise peer assessment because Structural engineers in
practice do peer reviews. You can find information via this link:
https://www.structural-safety.org/publications/view-report/?report=2137
 The intent of the group project is to introduce role play and scenario-based learning frameworks
to students to work in a team environment, which is a feature of professional practice and is
required as part of Engineers Australia accreditation requirements.
2. Project Instruction
Step 1. Select your group (5-6 students in each group) by Sunday 16th August 23:59. If you do not
choose group by the reported deadline, you will be assigned to groups.
Step 2. Analyse the problem: Your team has been asked to design a steel beam bridge with 6m length
as a simple supported beam (e.g. Figure 1, which is located in the Blue Mountains). The beam weight
is 6000N distributed over the beam length. In addition, in the worst case, two bushwalkers with 900N
weight each will be on the bridge, they can pass the bridge together or individually. You only need to
take the self-weight and pedestrian load into account in your calculations. Hint: you can consider two
loads on the beam for each person or one load including the weight of both people.
Step 3. Consider the proposed loading condition.
Step 4. As a group of design engineers, you need to solve problems and answer questions in
collaboration with your team members rather than individually! Make sure to work as a team to
achieve the best result.
You will need to choose a ‘Lead’ engineer and the ‘Supporting’ engineer for each requirement. The
roles are explained below:
• The Lead Engineer will be the person who has led that section;
o For example, the Lead Engineer is the student who is taking primary responsibility for
leading the section – they are leading the analysis, calculations and discussion.
• The supporting engineer is someone who ‘checked the maths’ or provided feedback.
o A key element of this person’s role is to document the feedback provided to the Lead
Engineer. The supporting engineer is required to check the calculation provided by
the Lead engineer and provide the comments. When the supporting engineer
approves the calculation, he/she must sign the bottom of calculation form to approve
the calculation. The calculation form has been provided to you. Students are required
to attach all the calculation forms in the Appendix.
• Each student is responsible for assuming both ‘lead’ and ‘supporting’ roles.
o The key here is that each student is able to assume the role of and be in the position
of Lead and Supporting Engineer. Doing so will enhance your understanding and
experience of what it means to be in lead and supporting roles as an engineer.
Step 5. Examine the requirements for the project and assign a lead engineer & a support engineer for
each requirement:
(a) Determine the scenario that will create the maximum shear force and bending moment on the
beam.
(b) Draw the shear force diagram and bending moment diagram based on the loading condition.
(c) Determine the size of steel I beam with specifications shown below with the smallest possible
section that can carry the bending moment. Maximum allowable stress is 100MPa.
(d) Decide on an alternative steel rectangle section as shown below that can also carry the moment
and discuss its difference with previous section in detail. Which section is your preference?
Explain your reason.
(e) Find the deflections of both beams based on the worst case scenario that you chose in part (a)
above, and compare results. What is your judgement on the deflection? Is it acceptable or not?
(f) By considering the bridge location, determine the thermal stress range. The bridge is fixed at
normal temperature (18°