Orange County Spaghetti Bridge Competition
Competition Organizers:
• College of Engineering and Computer Science, California State University, Fullerton
• American Society of Civil Engineers, Orange County Branch
Time and Date:
• 10:00-14:00, May 1st, 2015 (First Friday of May every year)
Venue:
• California State University, Fullerton
Eligibility to participate in the competition
• Any student group from Junior High School, High School, Community College, and four year
institution in USA
• Number of students in a team shall not exceed 10
Competition Format
• Each team will build a spaghetti bridge following the specifications provided in the attached
documents.
• A group of judges will check the compliance prior to loading the bridge.
• All bridges will be loaded until they break.
• A score sheet is prepared based on the total load held by a bridge minus the equivalent
deduction load for different types of penalty as specified in the rule.
• The team scoring the highest net load held by its bridge will win the championship trophy.
Winning team members will receive certificates.
• The trophy will be revolving every year to the winning institution. The defending champion
will ensure its return to the competition venue.
Competition Organization Committee
• Binod Tiwari, Ph.D., P.E., Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, CSU Fullerton
• Garrett Struckhoff, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, CSU Fullerton
• Victor Delgado, Assistant Dean, College of ECS, CSU Fullerton
Guideline
Orange County Spaghetti-bridge Competition
Each team shall build a bridge made from spaghetti and glue/epoxy. It important
that the bridge should follow the specifications mentioned below. Violation of each
specification leads to a penalty which will be calculated in terms of reduced load that
bridge could hold. Bridges will be loaded until they fail.
RULES
1. The bridge shall be built from spaghetti available in the market and glue, epoxy or
resin. The team can combine any size of spaghetti (regular or thick or thin or angel hair)
to build the bridge. No other type of pasta will be acceptable.
2. The bridge shall be free-standing and must span an open gap of 50 cm between two
level surfaces. An example of such support is two tables separated 50 cm apart.
3. The support for the bridge shall be from the top of the level surfaces. The edges of the
level surfaces cannot be used for support.
4. The bridge should include a decking of spaghetti to provide a suitable road surface at
least 5cm wide across the full span of the bridge. The decking shall meet the following
conditions: a) gaps in the bridge deck are not to exceed 2 mm, b) a block of wood (5 cm
x 5cm x 10 cm) representing a car must be able to move along the length of the decking
unobstructed from one end to the other end, c) the deck of the bridge shall not be more
than 5 cm above or below the ends of the bridge at any point along its length.
5. The “loading platform", which consists of an eye-bolt secured to a piece of plywood
(0.7 cm x 5 cm x 10 cm) should be incorporated. This platform should be attached at the
center of the bridge such that the bottom of the eye-bolt is no more than 5 cm from the
top of the bridge decking. All loads will be suspended from this eye-bolt, and there must
be a clear space directly below it to allow loads to be attached. Loads will be attached
using an S- hook.
6. The maximum vertical depth of the bridge, from the highest point in its structure to
the lowest should be less than or equal to 25 cm.
7. The maximum mass of the bridge including the loading platform shall be less than 250
grams to avoid severe penalty.
8. The teams are allowed to use any software to calculate the compression and tension
loads to be resisted by the bridge members.
9. The teams can get materials properties either through literature or through their own
laboratory experiments.
10. The team can bundle the spaghetti or make the members hollow by combining/gluing
any numbers of spaghetti strands.
Bridge Schematic
PENALTIES
1. Overweight Penalty


250

Re duced Load = Actual Load Held × 
 bridge mass in gram 
4
Note: bridge weight includes loading platform, but not eyebolt.
2. Height Penalty


25

Re duced Load = Actual Load Held × 
 bridge height in cm 
3. Narrow Decking Penalty
Reduced Load = Actual Load Held – 2 kg
4. Decking Spacing Penalty
Reduced Load = Actual Load Held – 1 kg
2