 |
| A-pillar representation |
 |
| Cross sectional area |
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Solidworks attempt
Just finished the a-pillar representation on solidworks. Tried to be as detailed as possible. How did I do?
Updates
Hi readers,
apologies for the lack of updates. The other courses have been taking its toll on me. Anyway progress so far has been rather lacking,
first up, the a-pillars are finally tested on the rig and the results are published. We had a little trouble getting some info off the machine as the output files only opens up through the Bluehill specific program and since none of us have any prior experience on the rig, it was a 'blind leading the blind' approach. Overall it was a good positive progress. I manage to extrapolate the data through the graphs the Bluehill test rig produced.
apologies for the lack of updates. The other courses have been taking its toll on me. Anyway progress so far has been rather lacking,
first up, the a-pillars are finally tested on the rig and the results are published. We had a little trouble getting some info off the machine as the output files only opens up through the Bluehill specific program and since none of us have any prior experience on the rig, it was a 'blind leading the blind' approach. Overall it was a good positive progress. I manage to extrapolate the data through the graphs the Bluehill test rig produced.
The first test was placing the pillar transverse-wise to the machine and perform a stress and depression test targeted at the centre of the pillar.
using those figures, I manage to recalculate the stress and pressure taken by the pillar before its yielding point. The figure calculated was 1.22 kN with a deflection of 40mm
The 2nd test was performed on the longitudinal direction of the pillar, by compressing it from the top to the bottom, we are able to identify the forces and pressures involved in the event of a frontal crash. which transmit the forces coming from the front of the car through to the pillars and off to the rest of the structure after the pillar.
The extrapolated data from the graph shows a force of 24.45 kN before the yielding point, this is the maximum value taken by the pillar before failure. Assuming we set the yielding point as the failure point. The deflection was 11 mm which is the length of the machine compressed.
Here are the after pictures showing the pillars after the test.
 |
| Test 2 - The result vs the original unit |
 |
| Test 2 - Failure point upclosed |
 |
| similar point on the original unit |
 |
| Test 2 (longitudinal direction) |
 |
| Test 1 - the result |
 |
| Test 2 - the result (alternate view) |
 |
| Test 2 - the result (alternate view 2) |
 |
| Test 2 - The result vs the original unit |
 |
| Test 2 - The result vs the original unit (alternate view) |
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Progress ahead!
Hi there, we finally have access to the welding room all to ourselves. the first a-pillar has been cut short and welded on to the mounting plates ready to be put on the test rig hopefully by Wednesday the latest. We still have another pillar to do before we finally start on the designing section of the project. Might be a little behind schedule due to our own personal commitments, but it should all smoothen out as we get back into the momentum.
here are some pictures:
here are some pictures:
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Semester 2
Hi fellow followers,apologies for the lack of updates as I was away on vacation for 5 or so weeks. We've progressed into the second part of the year 2011 and looks like things need to get into Top gear now. Working has been organized and we are planning to weld the mountings on our test pillar in order to fit into the test rig. Pray that all goes well with the welding as we're pretty rusty or have no experience in welding to begin with! so on to semester two! add oil!
regards
dennis cheang
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Week 10
Week 10 into the first semester of 2011.
Progress has been slow but moving none the less. Manage to obtain most of our A-pillars, next up is to modify it to fit in the testing rig and run some test to obtain some data so we can start designing our prototype. Been sending letters out to companies worldwide asking for assistance. So far, only MUARC replied with a polite No. That's alright, at least we tried.
Next up on the list is to design the A-pillar on Solidworks and protude it to simulate the pillar and run some simulations and gain more data.
Right now, i'll be busy finishing up my assignments for my other subjects. EMS with the two major assignments that is due on the 21st June 2011 and Body system's major assignment due on the 8 June 2011.
Progress has been slow but moving none the less. Manage to obtain most of our A-pillars, next up is to modify it to fit in the testing rig and run some test to obtain some data so we can start designing our prototype. Been sending letters out to companies worldwide asking for assistance. So far, only MUARC replied with a polite No. That's alright, at least we tried.
Next up on the list is to design the A-pillar on Solidworks and protude it to simulate the pillar and run some simulations and gain more data.
Right now, i'll be busy finishing up my assignments for my other subjects. EMS with the two major assignments that is due on the 21st June 2011 and Body system's major assignment due on the 8 June 2011.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Pick-A-Part (round 2)! Rosebank Rd
round 2
this time we got a set of pillars off a RED VR commodore
 |
| safety gear suit up! |
 |
| Pillar-less VR Commodore |
 |
| Viola! our pillars! after 2 hours of constant cutting and removing of panels |
 |
| Alternate view |
 |
| Alternate view of the car |
Monday, May 16, 2011
Letter of Request to Monash University Accident Research Centre
As you know, we require some data and information for our A-pillar project. To do this, I've devised a plan to write to Monash University Accident Research Centre requesting for data and assistance.
Cut short, I emailed the official letter in today via my dennis.cheang@gmail.com account to the MUARC team. To my surprise, MUARC responded very promptly. Dr. David Logan of the MUARC team responded with the following email.
Cut short, I emailed the official letter in today via my dennis.cheang@gmail.com account to the MUARC team. To my surprise, MUARC responded very promptly. Dr. David Logan of the MUARC team responded with the following email.
Hi Dennis, Jasmit & Mikhail,I must say, MUARC is a very professional body and I'm highly honoured that they took notice of my letter and responded. I would like to thank the MUARC team again for their help and expert view on the matter.
Our work at MUARC has always been focused on vehicle safety performance at a macro level. The vehicle inspection component of our real-world crash investigation program, now running for almost 20 years, identifies 'failure of the A-pillar' (for example), but goes no deeper than this. Our crash investigations have focused on identifying correlations between occupant injury and gross vehicle damage, as well as the contribution of driver behaviour and the road and roadside infrastructure in crash causation and outcomes. We examine crashes at a system level to better understand how to prevent them or minimise their injury consequences.
We conducted some work for a vehicle manufacturer in the early 2000s, but this focused on the interaction between the occupant, the vehicle and its safety systems and would not have investigated any specific component in the detail you describe in your letter.
Your assignment sounds like a worthy design exercise. Apologies for not being able to provide more assistance and very best wishes for your project!
Regards,
David.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
week 8
great weather today after that storm we had yesterday..met up with our team technical advisor, Mr. Gerry Hamilton and he briefed us with what we had to do for the next step...was great working with Gerry as he is a very knowledgeable lecturer with vast experiences in the automotive industry...
Today's task are:
1. Meet up with the groupmates and head off to Pick-A-Part Takanini and Mangere
Reason: Look for 'A-pillars' to saw off...haven't got a clue on how are we going to achieve that..but we will try none the less..I'm guessing plenty of pulling and shoving and breaking things...lets hope the business owner won't mind us students tearing the place up...The only concern i have is ruining certain parts that might be useful to other people..example...if the windscreen is still intact and we only needed the A-pillar, does that mean we have to break it? what if someone out there needs the windscreen? or if the business owner will charge us for breaking something potentially earning them a profit?
2. So far, i've got all my tools and safety gear ready to go! so all we need now is to get on there and see what we got. on a side note, i could also look for some parts for my daily driver..its missing a few parts since i bought it in early 09...we will see where the wind takes us today..again...great weather...sunny and cloudy with a hint of breeze..what more could you ask for for a day out in the open...
Our plan is to meet up at 1200 hours at the UNITEC carpark and head for lunch first..we will start with the Takanini branch as its the biggest in Auckland..if we need, we will head for the Mangere branch on the way home..lets see what we can fish out of the sea of car grave today! pretty stoke on going to a scrapyard! did i mention i love car yards?
PS: we completed our Gantt Chart for this year's project..will upload it with some pictures from today's outing tonight..
Edited:
with pictures!
Today's task are:
1. Meet up with the groupmates and head off to Pick-A-Part Takanini and Mangere
Reason: Look for 'A-pillars' to saw off...haven't got a clue on how are we going to achieve that..but we will try none the less..I'm guessing plenty of pulling and shoving and breaking things...lets hope the business owner won't mind us students tearing the place up...The only concern i have is ruining certain parts that might be useful to other people..example...if the windscreen is still intact and we only needed the A-pillar, does that mean we have to break it? what if someone out there needs the windscreen? or if the business owner will charge us for breaking something potentially earning them a profit?
2. So far, i've got all my tools and safety gear ready to go! so all we need now is to get on there and see what we got. on a side note, i could also look for some parts for my daily driver..its missing a few parts since i bought it in early 09...we will see where the wind takes us today..again...great weather...sunny and cloudy with a hint of breeze..what more could you ask for for a day out in the open...
Our plan is to meet up at 1200 hours at the UNITEC carpark and head for lunch first..we will start with the Takanini branch as its the biggest in Auckland..if we need, we will head for the Mangere branch on the way home..lets see what we can fish out of the sea of car grave today! pretty stoke on going to a scrapyard! did i mention i love car yards?
PS: we completed our Gantt Chart for this year's project..will upload it with some pictures from today's outing tonight..
Edited:
with pictures!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Week ending 6 May 2011
Greetings readers,
The day hasn't been such a good one. Team A1's members Jasmit Singh is fighting off a cold flu and Mikhail D'Souza is attending some personal matters. None the less, I,Dennis Cheang has been kind enough to attend the short class held in the usual lecturer room today.
Following up on the email sent out by Mr. Lixin Zeng, our group is required to hand in a Gantt Chart with due dates and time lines for our 'A-pillar' project. I plan to get the group to meet up for a meeting either tomorrow (Thu, May 5) or Friday, May 6 to continue on with our project. Its been a 2 week break from everything and I must say it's time to get back on the horse and back to work. Progressive work, maintaining a momentum in order to not fall into procrastination.
On another note, Mr. Anura Bakmeedeniya has pass off the responsibility to Mr. Jerry Hamilton as our primary Technical Advisor. Mr. Gerry is more experienced and knowledgable in the Structural part of Automotive Engineering therefore it is best that he leads us into this project.
A plan for an official group meeting with Mr. Gerry Hamilton should be done on Friday May 6th at 1pm if Mr. Gerry is available.
The day hasn't been such a good one. Team A1's members Jasmit Singh is fighting off a cold flu and Mikhail D'Souza is attending some personal matters. None the less, I,Dennis Cheang has been kind enough to attend the short class held in the usual lecturer room today.
Following up on the email sent out by Mr. Lixin Zeng, our group is required to hand in a Gantt Chart with due dates and time lines for our 'A-pillar' project. I plan to get the group to meet up for a meeting either tomorrow (Thu, May 5) or Friday, May 6 to continue on with our project. Its been a 2 week break from everything and I must say it's time to get back on the horse and back to work. Progressive work, maintaining a momentum in order to not fall into procrastination.
On another note, Mr. Anura Bakmeedeniya has pass off the responsibility to Mr. Jerry Hamilton as our primary Technical Advisor. Mr. Gerry is more experienced and knowledgable in the Structural part of Automotive Engineering therefore it is best that he leads us into this project.
A plan for an official group meeting with Mr. Gerry Hamilton should be done on Friday May 6th at 1pm if Mr. Gerry is available.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Project topic
Greetings readers,
sorry for the lack of updates. Its been a hellish time away as the group struggles to confirm a topic for the project. identifying something that is worth doing is no easy task. anyway here are the details
Topic: Can A-pillars in an automotive vehicle be altered and modified to decrease the frontal blind-spot?
Summary: The A-pillar in the automotive structure has always been the original design since day one. Its uses, one of the supporting pillars to hold the roof up, pillar to hold the frontal laminated windscreen, defines the shape of the frontal section of the vehicle. The downside that bears upon this design is, as the cars get faster, the risk of injury increases, from roof caving in, to decreasing the frontal drag frictions, the pillars gets thicker thus limiting the frontal side vision for the driver, creating a 'Blind-spot'.
Proposed project: Can something be done to the A-pillar in terms of design to decrease that 'Blind-spot' without compromising on its structural strength? Can we make the pillars transparent, allowing light through thus eliminating the blind spot?
Our team focuses on a particular design by integrating Structural Engineering design into the design of the A-pillar. By introducing an age old design known as the 'Truss System' into the solid section A-pillar design. The Truss design allows gaps in the middle cross section area to let light through thus allowing the driver to 'see-through' it. Without compromising on its structural strength, our team will try to design a 'Truss A-pillar design' and run tests and experiments to check if it is a feasible design.
Our course advisor is Mr. Anura Bakmeedeniya who is kind enough to lent us his knowledge in
automotive structures.
This project will proof to be a hard one. There will be plenty of long nights and days.
I hope we are all up to the task
end.
sorry for the lack of updates. Its been a hellish time away as the group struggles to confirm a topic for the project. identifying something that is worth doing is no easy task. anyway here are the details
Topic: Can A-pillars in an automotive vehicle be altered and modified to decrease the frontal blind-spot?
Summary: The A-pillar in the automotive structure has always been the original design since day one. Its uses, one of the supporting pillars to hold the roof up, pillar to hold the frontal laminated windscreen, defines the shape of the frontal section of the vehicle. The downside that bears upon this design is, as the cars get faster, the risk of injury increases, from roof caving in, to decreasing the frontal drag frictions, the pillars gets thicker thus limiting the frontal side vision for the driver, creating a 'Blind-spot'.
Proposed project: Can something be done to the A-pillar in terms of design to decrease that 'Blind-spot' without compromising on its structural strength? Can we make the pillars transparent, allowing light through thus eliminating the blind spot?
Our team focuses on a particular design by integrating Structural Engineering design into the design of the A-pillar. By introducing an age old design known as the 'Truss System' into the solid section A-pillar design. The Truss design allows gaps in the middle cross section area to let light through thus allowing the driver to 'see-through' it. Without compromising on its structural strength, our team will try to design a 'Truss A-pillar design' and run tests and experiments to check if it is a feasible design.
Our course advisor is Mr. Anura Bakmeedeniya who is kind enough to lent us his knowledge in
automotive structures.
This project will proof to be a hard one. There will be plenty of long nights and days.
I hope we are all up to the task
end.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Week 1+2
Orientation Week 1 and Week 2
Week 1 was all about orientation and a meet and greet with the lecturers in charge of this semester's TTEC 6112 module. Though it was a short meeting, Mr. LiXen gave out a crash course orientation presentation on the things we are suppose to show when it comes to our time doing the presentation. Overall a good presentation with a good turned out of students albeit a few students from the earlier semester gatecrashing in the middle of the presentation.
Hopefully i'll be able to maintain this throughout the entire module by updating this blog as frequently as i could. Shouldn't be too hard considering i had some prior experience with blogger.com while doing my Year 1 APPT 5110 module. Link can be found here: http://stormmybrain.blogspot.com
So off to a start. A good one i hope.
Off to Week 2 then, week 2 was a somewhat short day as Mr. LiXen only gave out the assessment package and a simple presentation on how-to-create a blog. We were all out by 9:45am when class started at 9:00am.
Progress on the assessment? Probably the first step done, which is to form a group. This module i got two of the most hardworking students in class:-
Mr. Mikhail D'Souza
- Had prior experience done together. Team mate for Electrical and Electronics Assessment.Great person and a great team mate to have. Knowledgeable and a great challenge. Lets hope the good relationship maintains and off to success we shall!
Mr. Jasmit Singh
- No prior experience of working together. Has heard great outcomes coming from him, should make a great team mate. Knowledgeable and hard at work. We will let the result at the end of the module speak for themselves.
Got some books off the Unitec Library today,
1. How to Tune and Modify : Engine Management Systems (Jeff Hartman, 2003), Motorbooks Workshop
2. Hillier's Fundamentals of Motor Vehicle Technology
3. Vehicular Engine Design (Hoag, Kevin L)
Personally i would like to major in Engine Management Systems when i finally graduate from Unitec, this is the field i would want to be an expert in. Hence i would like to base my TTEC 6112 assessment on something that relates back to EMS in some form or another. I've started Book no. 1, hopefully it won't take me too long to finish it.
hopefully more good news to come in Week 3? A topic to finally start on?
Week 1 was all about orientation and a meet and greet with the lecturers in charge of this semester's TTEC 6112 module. Though it was a short meeting, Mr. LiXen gave out a crash course orientation presentation on the things we are suppose to show when it comes to our time doing the presentation. Overall a good presentation with a good turned out of students albeit a few students from the earlier semester gatecrashing in the middle of the presentation.
Hopefully i'll be able to maintain this throughout the entire module by updating this blog as frequently as i could. Shouldn't be too hard considering i had some prior experience with blogger.com while doing my Year 1 APPT 5110 module. Link can be found here: http://stormmybrain.blogspot.com
So off to a start. A good one i hope.
Off to Week 2 then, week 2 was a somewhat short day as Mr. LiXen only gave out the assessment package and a simple presentation on how-to-create a blog. We were all out by 9:45am when class started at 9:00am.
Progress on the assessment? Probably the first step done, which is to form a group. This module i got two of the most hardworking students in class:-
Mr. Mikhail D'Souza
- Had prior experience done together. Team mate for Electrical and Electronics Assessment.Great person and a great team mate to have. Knowledgeable and a great challenge. Lets hope the good relationship maintains and off to success we shall!
Mr. Jasmit Singh
- No prior experience of working together. Has heard great outcomes coming from him, should make a great team mate. Knowledgeable and hard at work. We will let the result at the end of the module speak for themselves.
Got some books off the Unitec Library today,
1. How to Tune and Modify : Engine Management Systems (Jeff Hartman, 2003), Motorbooks Workshop
2. Hillier's Fundamentals of Motor Vehicle Technology
3. Vehicular Engine Design (Hoag, Kevin L)
Personally i would like to major in Engine Management Systems when i finally graduate from Unitec, this is the field i would want to be an expert in. Hence i would like to base my TTEC 6112 assessment on something that relates back to EMS in some form or another. I've started Book no. 1, hopefully it won't take me too long to finish it.
hopefully more good news to come in Week 3? A topic to finally start on?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)