Building/civil engineering/architecture computer resources?

[Pen]

My son would like to find websites or (MAC accessible) computer programs that would teach him about structural architecture, building and civil engineering. He is 11 with math at pre-algebra and a bit of basic geometry stage.

 

He saw in one of the Percy Jackson books that Annabeth, the lead female character, was supposed to have had something that taught her about building design and stresses and loads and so on--apparently allowing structures to be designed on the computer and then giving feedback as to why they likely would or would not work. We do not know if it is wholly fictitious or if there actually is something like that.

 

Any leads would be appreciated. If someone knows of something not Mac accessible, I am still interested, though Mac access makes things much easier for us.

[abaent]

I am following! My 11 year old son is in the same boat. I can't wait to see what you all come up with!

[Arcadia]

http://bridgecontest.usma.edu/ the software can be downloaded on both PC and Macintosh

iPad apps that "teach" similar stuff (we got those when free): Santa's Engineer, Dummy Defense

 

Your child might want to do a quick read of this chapter on Young's modulus too http://www.ibid.com....ogy/DT_Samp.pdf

 

ETA:

This is fun too. Design a bridge to withstand a California earthquake http://www.eduweb.com/portfolio/bridgetoclassroom/engineeringfor.html

[Luckymama]

I second the West Point Bridge Contest----it consumed dd's life the week we learned about it! She plans on competing next year :)

[jennynd]

Depends on how much money you want to spend.... :) This is one of the industry standard software that is very easy to use and does stress analysis. It has 30 days trail.

http://www.ptc.com/products/

 

It was previously called pro/engineering (drafting) and pro/mechanica (stress analysis). Not sure if civil use this but it used heavily in mechanical engineering world for design and simple analysis.

For hard core stress analysis, the commercial code that most company use is called ansys. It can also take account thermal affect in stress analysis.

http://ansys.com/Ind...s/Construction/

 

All those are finite element analysis. Simple code like pp mentioned probably are one bar/stick analysis, lwhich is a simplified 1 dimensional analysis and you can really do it by hand

 

 

There are still whole bunch stuff you need to do after you get the stress to determine the life. It is beyond a 6th grader.

Edited May 22, 2013 by jennynd