Nilupa-Gunaratne-Spartan-Superway

I spent a lot time help the team to assemble the full scale track. It was pretty tiring but fun to work with wood. Since Dustin was sick, the work load split between Guojun and myself. Jack was a great help to me and my team. We worked really hard to complete the track.

In week 4, we built the subassemblies such as track supports, curved track, and column supports using wood. I was able to help the team to build the split portion of the track as well. In week four, we made a lot of progress towards finishing the full-scale track. However, I had problems fabricating the guide rail out of mild steel. I used 90-degree angle mild steel angle iron to make the guide rail. I was able to kerf the angle iron using a chop saw following Dan's directions. With the help of Dr. Furman, I used the acetylene torch to bend the angle iron.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to bend the angle iron to the proper radius because the shop didn't have the resources to do the task. Roller bending machine requires to bend the angle iron correctly. Fortunately, the same day I failed to make the guide rail our of mild steel, my team and I were able to come up with another solution to make the guide rail. Eric and I went to the Home Depot to buy 2 x 2 x 8 wood 3 pieces

During week 3, after our design presentations, my team and I were able to fabricate column supports for the track. Also, I help my team cutting plywood mold to make the curve track. The idea was to kerf the wooden track, add wooden clue to the slits, clamped on to the arc-shaped mold, and leave it overnight to dry. Since I am planning to fabricate the guide rail, I emailed Dan about kerf specifications for the angle iron. I am planning to use 3/16'' thickness 2'' x 2''x 6 ft 3 pieces and 2'' x 2'' x 3 ft 1 piece of angle iron to fabricate the guide rail.  Dan emailed me back saying that each slit has to be 4-6'' apart and depth of each slit has to be about 3/4'', and also to use an acetylene torch to help the angle iron to bend. I am planning to get the guide rail done the beginning of next week. On Thursday, I helped Eric to buy wood and fasteners from Home Depot.  We bought all the wood stock we needed to build our full-scal

This week I focused on finishing the wooden track model on SolidWorks. We ran into some complications on the split portion. The problem was how to support split weight on the track. We decided to use lift cables to carry the weight and hold it in place in the same plane as the rest of the track. The idea was to attached the cable on to the dead end support and vertically mounted to weight on the ground. We decided to use steel U bolts to mount the cable to the split portion of the track. I also made a SolidWorks model to show how to attach the guide rail on to the columns. The idea was simply a bolted joint. Then, I moved on to designing the Steel Full Scale structure. I used the same beams parts from the wooden SolidWorks model and converted into steel, and designed Gusset plates to strongly mount the joint of the beams and brace support. I used simple beams to make track structure because it makes easier to do the FEA analysis on the structure. I performed an Static

Hi, The first week was productive for our team. I spent time modeling the straight portion of the track from last semester in SolidWorks. My team helped me to take measurements from the track. I tried to take more details from the physical model as possible to create the model. Dustin helped me with modeling the split portion of the track in SolidWorks. It came out pretty good and Eric was satisfied. A picture of the wooden SolidWorks track model is given below. We encountered several challenges when it comes to designing the split portion of the track. I started off the track with 5 m curving radius, but after discussing with Eric and Burford, I changed the curving radius to 30 m. The idea behind increasing the curvature to 30 meters is to model more realistic full-scale track and it eases the other teams to install and run their bogie, Wayside, controls systems to the track. I spent quite amount of time changing the track model to satisfy the requirements of the project. One bi