SIMULATING CRASH TESTS
Level - UndergradEngineering designers are often devise means by which their design ideas can be evaluated quickly, effectively, and at minimal expense during the design process. For example, automobile designers today often struggle with safety versus performance tradeoffs in their designs. Rising fuel costs encourage the use of lighter-weight materials in the construction of the vehicle. At the same time, occupant safety concerns tend to favor stronger, and often heavier, materials. While computer simulations play an important role in designing automobiles for occupant safety, the complexity of the modeling task often necessitates the use of crash tests to measure the level of protection afforded to the vehicle occupants.
The objective of this problem is for you to design, build, and test a fast, inexpensive lightweight four-wheeled vehicle capable of protecting its occupant in a high-velocity head-on collision with a concrete wall. To keep things simple (and interesting), the occupant in this case will be a chicken’s egg. The vehicle will not have an engine. Rather, a wooden ramp with an adjustable height and gravity will be used to propel the vehicle towards a concrete block. This test rig will be provided for your use in testing your design (each group may develop more than one design) in Rm 250. Your vehicle’s design is constrained in that its length and width must not exceed 1.25 times the corresponding dimensions of its occupant. The top of the vehicle must be open (ie a convertible) to allow the condition of the occupant to be easily monitored. Contact Mr. Joe Polinsky (404-385-4254, joe.polinsky@bme.gatech.edu) if you need to use the department’s machine shop to fabricate components for your vehicle.
Your design(s) will be tested on Wednesday October 6th during the class lecture period. Each vehicle to be tested must be accompanied by its specification sheet that lists its weight (w/o occupant), length, width, and cost (include both materials and labor at $75/hour). The actual testing will determine the maximum elevation of the ramp for which the vehicle occupant will not “crack”.