Progress

Things are going ahead of schedule. I have already fulfilled all of the deadlines, and I am starting on my work on the  Kalwad model. I have came in to contact with Kriti Kalwad, and she has greed to assist in supplying me with all information she has (she had to rush her project, so much vital information did not make it in to the report. In addition, I have stayed in touch with bengt and I have obtained a new model of the guideway from him.

A new project!

            Something very exciting has happened quite recently, because I have just started on a new research project! This time, I will be working on performing stress analysis using ANSYS. I will be building off of Bengt Gustaffson's response to the Kalwad report to implement . The steps and deadlines for the project go as follows: By 11/05/16: Learn ANSYS. By 11/26/16: Get Model of guideway uploaded to ANSYS and take in to account Bengt's suggestions. By 12/17/16 Obtain Peak stress, max von mises stress, realistic podcar loads, torsion, and bending stresses. I will also have to write up a final report that includes a title page, table of contents, table of figures and tables, introduction / background to why this work is important for the Spartan Superway, state myspecific project (ANSYS Analysis), what Ifound, results, and conclusion.

I have already mastered the basics of ansys, and am now going through the tutorials.



Some of my work in progress:

Week 08/01-08/05

This week was quite an interesting one. First, I went with Ron and the small scale track team to TCI Aluminum and Vanderbend to obtain quotes for both companies, then I helped prepare some of the Korean intern's final reports so they would be ready for the next team to assemble.

Week 07/17-22

This week was a much calmer week for me. I did research on linear motors, estimated the necessary force and power needed for propulsion of the bogie, and talked with a potential sponsor for linear motors. Unfortunately, after getting a quote on the cost for linear motors, it was decided that the team should not pursue such technology and focus on rotary motors instead (also, the team has very little experience with such technology, and since they have only two months here, they  would not have enough time). Alxeandre is thinking about charting out the course for his summer work as follows: 1. Assemble a model of the cabin, 2. Make a test power of the cabin with a direct plug, and 3. Make the framework for wayside electrification.

Week 07/10-07/15

What a week! On monday, I got ready for the conferance, on Tuesday, I gave the presentation at the conferance. On wednesday, i started to co-oridnate with Jon Pan about regenerative braking systems. On Thursday and friday, I started preliminary research on linear motors as well as assisting the French with their PowerPoint. It seems that we will be doing research to see if linear motors are pragmatic for the Spartan Superway. Linear motors are like unfolded AC motors, in which a rotor will move in a linear motion alongside a stator. So far, my research reports that such systems are Linear motors reduce the overall weight of the bogie, allow for tighter radial stearing, are much more quiet, and work much better with Regenerative braking systems. Currently, the future looks bright, and I am excited to see what happens!


An example of a linear motor

ASES

WOW!!!!! I had an amazing time at the ASES solar 2016 conference. I met alot of people from all aspects about  different companies of solar, One company that stood out was a Japanese company called I-pals that did quantitative shadow analysis, something that I found as highly relevant to my paper. I was also interested in the green city of Freiburg.

The Freiburg presentation

My favorite part of the journey was when I gave my presentation. I felt as if I had just passed a major milestone in my life, and I hope I did a good job!




After the presentations, I hung out in fisherman's wharf with the French interns, we all had alot of fun.

Alexandre's girlfriend with an intern we meet

Wrap up of research

This week was the most productive, stressful, and enjoyable one I have had in the superway. First, I modeled the entire South campus guideway over the weekend. Then, I performed shadow analysis over this week. Now, all I have to do is finish up my paper, make my presentation, and create the poster.



An example of the Superway model


An example of the shadow analysis on the stadium