Week 5

Week 5 Update

For this week, we decided to focus on dimensions and design of the third rail system. 
For our dimensions, we are currently going with what Futran was able to provide us. Below is a table with the different dimensions  and figure 1 shows where those dimensions are placed. 

Table of Dimensions

Dimension #	Millimeters (mm)	Inches (in)	Notes
1	520	20.47	Space between the outside supports
2	122	4.8	Dimension of the gap
3	200	7.87	Dimensions of the top and bottom of the cross beams that support the wheel
4	225	8.86	Dimensions of sides of the cross beams that support the wheel (plus the thickness of the sheet metal)
5	220	8.66	Dimensions of sides of the cross beams that support the wheel (minus the thickness of the sheet metal)
6	566	22.28	The height between the cross beam and top of guideway (plus sheet metal thickness)
7	563	22.17	The height between the cross beam and top of guideway (minus sheet metal thickness)
**All dimensions from Futran

Figure 1 (above): Where we were able to pull the dimensions from 

We are going to be sharing these dimensions with the other Full-Scale teams in order to have them design their portions accordingly. These dimensions are more than likely the dimensions we will be using for our final design in order to keep everything concise and not change things at the last minute. 

We are also working on the third-rail design. We received an e-mail from Ethan that shows a different concept for the third-rail; this is shown in figure 2. However, after taking it into consideration, we are more than likely not going to be using this because it seems to pertain to sharper turns and not continuous turns. We will continue our design using a beam angled at 45 degrees to help support the bogie during a continuous turn.

Figure 2: Alternative design of third rail.

We are also looking into manufacturing and how much that is going to cost. Currently, we are finding that the cross beams themselves are very expensive to manufacture in steel. We do not want to manufacture a solid beam because that is the most expensive option, so we decided to break the beam into three different cross sections. Figure 3 shows what these cross sections would look like. 

 

Figure 3: Possible alternative track cross section.

For the next week, we will be furthering our design in order to start some analysis. We are currently on schedule for presentation #2. We are hoping to add more designs to that presentation as well as some ANSYS analysis.