From November 7th to 10th, 2024, the 17th National Structure Design Contest for College Students was successfully held at Guangzhou University. There are 121 participating teams from 120 universities in this contest. After three days of intense competition, including model production, on-site presentations, defense, and model loading tests, the entry “Liuhe” by Li Xinyang, a 25’ Civil Engineering undergraduate student of ZJUI, Wu Changlong and Meng Ziqi, 26’ Urban Planning undergraduate students at the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University, won the first-place award in this competition! This is the second time ZJUI undergraduate students have won this honor since winning the first-place award in the National Structure Design Contest for College students in 2023.

▲ Group photo of the team members

The high-rise tower structure is an important type of architectural structure, and it is widely applied in TV towers, power transmission towers, and observation towers. With the rapid economic development of China, landmark tower structures have been built in various cities, which not only meet functional needs but also enhance the urban landscape, showcasing China’s advanced architectural technology and the spirit of craftsmanship. This contest, centered on the Guangzhou Tower and using the towering tower structure as the basic unit, requires participants to carry out force analysis, structural design, model making and loading test for the complex scenarios involving horizontal loads, vertical loads, and horizontal vibration.

The entry from Li Xinyang’s team is titled “Liuhe.” “Liuhe” conveys the good meaning of auspiciousness, harmony, and balance, as well as the all-inclusive ambitions. Additionally, “Liuhe” is synonymous with “Six Harmony” in Chinese, resonating with the iconic Six Harmony Pagoda on the bank of the Qiantang River, a structure known for its stability in resisting tides and standing tall as a symbol of courage and innovation. The “Liuhe” model features a four- story, four-column frame tower structure, where the tower column adopts a closed box cross-section, and the beam adopts a circular cross-section to enhance the model’s overall rigidity.

▲ The team's entry and award certificate

To explore and optimize their model, the team members spent over 8 months refining the design, improving the model-making process, and continually optimizing strategies through interdisciplinary collaboration. In the early stages, the team used digital modeling techniques to conduct stress analysis on the bamboo tower model. After a series of physical model production and load testing, they ultimately settled on a four-layer column-frame tower structure. During the load testing phase, the team identified the biggest challenge in the model: the working conditions involving low-frequency horizontal vibration at the first level and high-frequency horizontal vibration at the third level. To address this, they designed elastic seismic isolation rings at the base of the columns. This innovative design effectively releases the degrees of freedom at the column base, allowing the structure to lift from the foundation when subjected to earthquake loads, and thus adjusting the natural vibration period through structural sway and contributing to the self-resetting functionality. When it comes to the preparation process, Li Xinyang told us, "ZJUI provides students with valuable experience of interdisciplinary cultivation and cooperation, and also cultivates students' ability of independent learning and exploration, which I think is crucial for us to finally win this award. In an interdisciplinary team like ours, members are passionate about utilizing their professional skills to design and optimize the model, working together to solve problems encountered during testing." Furthermore, the team members summarized key points, accumulated experience, and enhanced the accuracy and production speed of their models during the preparation period, making sufficient and comprehensive preparations for this structural competition.

▲ Models made during the team's preparation period

Experience Sharing

Li Xinyang, a 25’ Civil Engineering undergraduate student of ZJUI

This is the third year that I have participated in the structure design contest on behalf of Zhejiang University. Over the past three years, I have missed the award twice, but each challenge has only strengthened my resolve to move forward. From the initial stumbles to my current profound understanding of structural design, what has supported me all along is not just the determination to prove myself, but my passion for structure design. For our team, the past three years have been countless sleepless nights, numerous failed models, endless moments when we considered giving up, and yet countless instances of renewed determination to press on. Today, all of our efforts and perseverance have paid off. I would like to sincerely thank my two teammates, whose companionship and hard work have brought us to this point. I also want to express my gratitude to our guiding faculty and senior students, whose leadership and encouragement were indispensable to our success. At the same time, I want to thank ZJUI for its strong support and help. “Though wind and waves are strong, there will be times when the sails are set straight to cross the vast sea.” I hope this phrase will inspire all dream chasers, so that we may all achieve our dreams.

The National Structure Design Contest for College Students, with its focus on creativity, collaboration, and practical application, is the highest-level and largest-scale student innovation competition in the field of civil and architectural engineering. It places high demands on participants’ professional knowledge, innovative abilities, hands-on skills, and teamwork. ZJUI has consistently maintained a strong advantage in this contest, achieving excellent results in past competitions such as the 16th National Structure Design Contest for College Students in 2023 and the 22nd Zhejiang Provincial Structure Design Contest for College Students in 2024. In the future, ZJUI will also take this opportunity to further encourage students to actively participate in discipline competitions and professional practices. It will foster students’ awareness of innovation and creativity, enhance their teamwork and engineering practice capabilities, and inject new energy into the Institute’s undergraduate education reforms. It will also contribute to cultivating highly qualified, application-oriented, innovative engineering leaders for the future.