Components - Load Cycles

About this video

Steam trains, bridges and potential catastrophe.

Professor Matyn Paview heads out on location and into the test lab to explain the science of cyclic loading.

By testing how cyclical loading patterns differ from static ones he explains how the effect is a crucial consideration when choosing materials for use in load-bearing structures like railway bridges.

To help demonstrate this continuing importance of materials testing in modern engineering Professor Pavier heads to the station, hops on a lop-sided bycical and explores the history of the bridge-collapse in the age of steam.  

This film is part of a project funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering to develop the on camera  communication skills of engineers across the UK.