Week 2 Progress (9/14/16)

We have officially identified our main tasks for this semester. We will need to design and construct a small section of full-scale guideway and test it for thermal expansion and contraction. We need to research manufacturing processes for producing the guideway, columns, footings, etc. The columns will be constructed similarly to how  a company in South Africa, constructed theirs. We will perform load testing and torsion testing. In addition, we'll develop expansion joints that will be tested for noise control.

So far, we've specified that we need to design a track that is 24 meters long, though we will probably only construct about 10 feet of track. The current track design is supported by a bracing on one side of the guideway, but we will probably implement a new idea where it's supported on both sides by a squared-horseshoe kind of bracket. Instead of the bracing and guideway being directly attached to the columns, they will be suspended vertically by some kind of ductile wiring, hopefully with a method that can dissipate and minimize vibrations (i.e shocks and sway) felt by the riders. In any case, more research on this must be done.

We will need to communicate with the half-scale and bogey teams, though their changes probably won't affect our version of the full-scale model in a major way. We will also need to communicate with the person working on the solar panel array since he will be directly impacted by our changes.

Below we have rough sketches of our thoughts and ideas. Figure 1, below, depicts already existing boogie apparatus and a potential bracing for extra support. The boogie apparatus in Figure 1 has already been created to be the primary boogie, so we must make our designs and decisions around the existing structures for the full scale track. Also in Figure 1, there's a light sketch of how we might want to suspend the tram to minimize vibrations. Figure 2, below, is a sketch of potential ideas but not much research behind any substantial supports, beams and bracing - mainly speculation.

 Figure 1. Rough sketch of existing structure            Figure 2. Sketch of potential beams/post/bracing

In addition, we've updated our Gantt Chart, which can be
found on our first post.