Materials

The West Point Bridge Designer 2010 allows you to use three different materials in your design:

1. Carbon steel. This is the most common grade of structural steel, composed primarily of iron and about 0.26% carbon.
2. High-Strength Low-Alloy steel. This increasingly popular structural steel is similar to carbon steel but significantly stronger. The higher strength is attained from small amounts of manganese, columbium, vanadium, and other alloying elements added during the manufacturing process.
3. Quenched and Tempered Low-Alloy Steel. This very high-strength steel is similar to high-strength low-alloy steel, but its strength is further increased through a special heat-treating process.

Notes and Tips

Which material is the best choice for a given structural design? The answer depends largely on the relative importance of cost and strength (yield stress) in the design. Carbon steel is the least expensive of the three alternatives, but it also has the lowest strength. High-strength low-alloy steel is somewhat more expensive but about 40% stronger than carbon steel. Quenched and tempered low-alloy steel is both the strongest and most expensive of the three. All three materials have approximately the same density and .

The "best" material often varies from structure to structure, and a given design may use more than one material. You'll need to do some experimenting to determine which materials are best for your design.

To determine the actual numerical values of , , and modulus of elasticity for a given material, click the To determine the unit cost of a material, click the Report Cost Calculations button.