Assault bridges are an essential part of a military land campaign, enabling supplies and heavy artillery to support the advances made by the infantry. However, the assault bridge is a heavy piece of equipment and it is necessary to make this as light as possible but still supporting heavy artillery such as battle tanks. The challenge was to find a way to increase the load capacity of the bridge without, significantly, increasing the weight.
Several design alternatives were studied using 'King Post' and 'Queen Post' modifications to the design. Each was analyzed in several variations using the ANSYS finite element software. This enabled the identification of the most effective configurations and recommendations to the UK Military Vehicle Engineering Establishment (MVEE) for the necessary design changes to maximize the load capacity of the bridge.
MVEE were able to make a modification to the standard assault bridge which increased its capacity by a factor of greater than 2 enabling them to support both heavier armour and, just as important, increase the span of the bridge to cope with more situations in the field.
I was responsible for developing the relationship with the customer and driving the business with them. In this instance I was responsible for developing the approach to the study and getting the customers agreement to engage. Once agreements were in place I performed the analysis and presented trhe recommendations back to MVEE. The proposed design recommendations were implemented by MVEE.
An example of the final configuration can be seen in the illustration above which shows the vertical 'Queen Posts' and the tension links under the bridge which increase the load carrying capacity of the bridge.
