On the last day of April, GMS engineers participated in the Structural Engineers Association of New York Balsa Wood Truss Competition—hosted by the Young Members Group and the Sustainable Design Committee.
This exciting event challenged participants to showcase their engineering skills through the design and construction of balsa wood trusses, putting each structure to the ultimate test. We’re proud to share that our teams took home both first and second place! Seven teams competed from NYC based firms.
SEAoNY supplied balsa wood sticks, 12 inches long and a sheet of metal strengthened tape which each teams cut to connect the wood segments together. The only other supplies were transparent scotch tape and cardboard. The challenge was to create a truss to span 28” and support a one pound load for one minute. After one minute a second one pound weight was applied. Contestants were judged on aesthetics and the weight of the truss – how efficiently could they use the material? But also on strength; the longer their truss sustained the loading, the more points the team received!
One GMS team created a classic Pratt Truss and included horizontal bracing between the top chords, avoiding collapse along the axis perpendicular to the span, which proved to be a winning strategy. Victor Daldegan, Julian Feldberg and Dara Hecht used single balsa wood members, and their truss was 6.5” deep.
The other GMS team built a top chord supported Pratt Truss using two top chords and a single bottom chord (a V in cross-section) similar to the trusses at our Quinnipiac University M&T Bank Arena. Yolanda Leon Leiva and Christian Molina also used horizontal bracing between the top chords, plus they doubled the balsa wood for each of their members and their truss was 4” deep.
Congratulations to everyone involved—an impressive demonstration of creativity, precision, and structural ingenuity.