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.