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.