February 28, 2021

The structural team has taken a deeper dive into the specifications given by ASTM F2376 along with further refinement of the selected design alternative. The primary focus on the design refinement thus far has been column placement. Every two sections of the slide, or 20 feet, need to be supported. There is no limitation on how far the cantilevers can extend from columns, but it is impractical to extend them farther than 10 feet. As a result, a more optimized placement of the columns has been designed (shown below) and will be what is used going forward.

In addition, loading conditions have been further examined. ASTM F2376 references ASTM F2291 which uses 5 combinations of Wind Load, Liquid Load, Rider Load, Snow Load and Dead Load to determine the design load for the slide. All will be examined in order to conform with the standard. Along with the calculation of these loads, loading diagrams have been created for the slide, cantilever support and column. These will be used to determine the beam characteristics required in the design.