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.

Pick-A-Part (round 2)! Rosebank Rd

round 2

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

this time we got a set of pillars off a RED VR commodore

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.

Hi Dennis, Jasmit & Mikhail,

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.