Week 4

Week 4 Update

This week, we decided to focus on the presentation attached below. We identified our set objectives and continued to work on them throughout the week. So far, our objectives remain:

• Design the junction system on the track that allowed bogies to switch tracks (ideal for entering/leaving stations).

• Design the curved track section to ensure the bogie does not fly off the rail or inconvenience the passengers on board.

• Adding another rail to create a three-rail system that would further support our bogie

• Work with the other full scale teams to ensure their systems are able to integrate with the track we design

The first two objectives are going hand in hand because we need to accomplish one to be able to accomplish the other. The same can be said about the last two objectives. As stated before, our plan is to continue on from previous years. We are keeping their design in mind as well as modifying certain aspects. We are looking into other tracks that already exist (Milotek and Futran) to take into consideration other designs. The track that was provided by previous years takes inspiration from Futran's existing system. As of now, we are still hoping to get our hands on other Futran files that could help us with our design so that we don't have to design from scratch.

Moreover, our research seems to indicate that we are on the right path and we are continuing on to designing. According to our Gantt chart, in the next week we are designing and finalizing our constraints. We want to ensure that our dimensions are universal throughout the groups (Bogie, Guideway, Solar, Wayside Power Teams). We are aware of a possible bogie redesign, and we will be taking into consideration any new dimensions as we will design around them. We are also looking into feasibility of manufacturing our track, which will ultimately affect our design. 

Below is our first presentation. Some improvements need to be made for our next presentation from the feedback received. For our next presentation we will improve our assertion titles, as some could be better. We will also implement a Functional Specifications slide to quantify some of the goals and targets we are looking to hit, such as the length and height of the track we are going to build, total weight and weight capacity of the finished product, and maximum deflection numbers for the track itself.

Week 3

Week 3 Update

During our second week working as a team, David and I began by getting ahead of our schedule and begin designing something to show proof of concept. We wanted to have something feasible for our first presentation coming up next week. Our goal was to understand what the problem is and how we would be tackling it. 

We then decided that our designs would be showing the straight section of the track, the curved section, the junctions, and possibly adding a third rail for further support during the turns. We identified that our interests for this year's design would be in those four sections. 

Image 1: The section of the track we are choosing to focus on. 

Notice that there are two bars, in parallel, with this design 

First, we agreed to design the straight section of the track very similarly to the design left behind from the previous year. We are keeping the dimensions the same in order to ensure that other teams design accordingly. For instance, the Solar team would need the dimensions to be consistent in order to design their portion of the Spartan Superway accordingly (their piece is mounted onto our track). The Bogie team is also interested in our dimensions because the bogie must fit onto the track in order to function properly. The image below shows one side of the track and its design. 

Image 2 (left): cross section of the straight track

Image 3 (right): overall view of the design of straight track 

Second, we decided to design the curved section of the track. For this, we had to take into consideration the radius of curvature. We have decided to settle with a 15-meter radius. We are still looking into/researching sharp turns and how that will affect our radius. The image below is the section we have designed taking into consideration the 15-meter radius.

Image 4: The curved section with a 15-meter radius is shown. 

This would apply to short turns and turning in or out of a station.

Thirdly, we decided to design the junction. Previous years had problems with the junctions because the bogie could not properly use the them. We have come up with some design ideas that are shown in the images below. The first image depicts what the junction would look like in if we want to optimize the movement of the bogie while ensuring passenger comfort. The second image, on the right, depicts a possible solution for the drop in the wheel that will be present in junctions. This idea was inspired from passenger comfort as well as ride smoothness for the bogie. 

Image 5: Design of the junction 

Image 6: Design of ramp to ensure ride smoothness and passenger comfort 

Some issues with designing the curved section can be seen, but overall idea is shown

Lastly, we will also be taking in the idea of adding a third rail. We want to support the bogie as much as possible and a three-rail system will ensure that our bogie becomes more stable on the track. We are hoping to design that very soon, definitely before our presentation next week. These designs will be presented in our presentation #1 if they are found to be contenders for the final design. We want to ensure that the sections of the track that we are designing are feasible and successful. We are also going to try and keep the dimensions as close to our working wood model. Finally, we are choosing to continue with the idea of making this out of steel, especially if funding is plentiful. 

Contact Information

• David Bunker
• E-mail:  david.l.bunker1@gmail.com
• Phone #:  925-621-9800

• Evelia A. Leyva 
• E-mail:  eveliaa6277@gmail.com
• Phone #:  831-235-4694

Initial Considerations

During our first week as a team we took the time to look over the work of past Guideway / Track teams to see what work had been completed, objectives that had not been achieved, and recommendations that they had to future teams.

The 2017/2018 team originally aimed to design and build a full scale track with a curved section from metal. They were not able to fully achieve this due to their time constraints for manufacturing as well as the work load being handled by only two people. They had to stop design of the curved section of track and had to build a full scale model out of wood due to budget and manufacturing constraints. This set them back, but also allowed future teams to have a concrete idea to continue from. The wooden model is going to be used for analysis and understanding of the concepts laid out by previous years. It will continue to inspire us as a team and lead the way to finalizing a track.

The 2018 summer team built off of their design and worked towards making a junction where the bogie could change tracks. The issue with this design was that it was planned and built with the hope of adding it to the wooden model that had already been built. Our intention is to continue on this idea and optimize the design.

Taking these findings into consideration we have decided that it would be best for us to fully design the junction of the track to be made in metal, as well as a continuing curved track section. Our hope for the year is to be able to finalize a working design that we can fabricate from steel, is funding dependent, and that is fully compatible with what the Bogie and Wayside Power teams develop this year. We are looking to work closely with everyone on the other teams in order to ensure that our Guideway will be a success.

Below is our first presentation as a team: