Team Design Project Description & Guidelines

Fundamentals of Engineering

1182.01 Spring 2015

Roller Coaster Project Description Document

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION4

Table1. Outline of Milestones for the Roller Coaster Project4

PROJECT OBJECTIVES5

THE ROLLER COASTER REQUIREMENTS6

Roller Coaster Configuration Requirements6

Speed Sensor Requirements7

Feature Definitions7

Feature Scoring8

Operational Requirements8

ROLLER COASTER CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS9

Table 2. Roller Coaster Construction Materials9

LAB MANAGEMENT10

INITIAL PAPER DESIGN (8% OF COURSE GRADE)11

Goal11

Logistics11

Timeline11

Requirements for Roller Coaster Initial Paper Design11

Drawing (40%)11

Calculations (40%)11

Table 1. Roller Coaster Theoretical Calculations (Example)12

Initial design Feature list (5%)13

Other Design Questions (10%)13

Energy analysis spreadsheets (5%)13

Initial Paper Design GRADING GUIDELINES14

PROJECT MANAGEMENT GUIDELINES15

Project Planning and Scheduling15

Introduction15

Tasks for the Roller Coaster Project15

Project Schedule GRADING GUIDELINES17

PROJECT NOTEBOOK18

Description & Requirements18

Project Notebook GRADING GUIDELINES19

TESTING OF THE ROLLER COASTER20

Preliminary Test of the Roller Coaster20

Final Test of the Roller Coaster20

Scoring for the Final System Test20

Roller Coaster Final Test Grading Sheet21

FINAL REPORT22

Draft Final Report22

Final Written Report: Suggested Final Report Details22

Final Report GRADING GUIDELINES27

ORAL PRESENTATION28

Oral Presentation Details28

Oral Presentation Outline and Draft28

Oral Presentation Evaluation Form29

INTRODUCTION

In the competitive amusement park industry, engineers are responsible for continually innovating and developing exciting new roller coaster rides while still being constrained by the laws of physics and by safety requirements. As part of the lab in Engineering 1182, your team will design, build, document and test a model roller coaster. The design/build project consists of several different kinds of labs:

1. An introductory lab, where you will measure structural components and build a sample section of roller coaster in order to get an idea of how the components fit together.

2. A basic roller coaster physics lab, where you will gather information about energy losses that will aid you in the design of your coaster. You will use two production versions of the speed sensor to instrument a horizontal curve and investigate energy losses as a function of g-force and track support. You'll need to use up to eight of these sensors to instrument your actual coaster.

3. This is followed by an electronics lab where you will prototype a speed sensor to measure the speed of the roller coaster ball at a given point on your roller coaster track.

4. The fourth lab is for you to understand calibration of the LED speed sensors using different techniques.

5. Then, you'll finally, there are three construction labs, where you will build and test the coaster. The last two lab periods are for final coaster testing and an oral presentation about the coaster. A competition is held among all the coasters in the lab during the final test session.

Table1. Outline of Milestones for the Roller Coaster Project

Milestone 1

Review Project Design Document

Milestone 2

Work on paper design, Begin Project notebook

Milestone 3

Due: Initial paper Design, Update Project Notebook

Milestone 4

Due: Project Schedule, Update Project Notebook

Begin construction

Milestone 5

Construction, Update Project Notebook

Milestone 6

Preliminary testing, Draft Final Report, Update Project Notebook,

Milestone 7

Due: Update Project Notebook

Final System Testing

Milestone 8

Oral Presentation

Due: Final Written Report/Final Design

Due: Completed Project Notebook

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

Project Management and Teamwork To successfully bring any complex project to completion requires proper planning and the coordinated effort of a group of people. To help your team achieve this goal, you will be introduced to the basics of project management and teamwork. This includes, but is not limited to: time management and task scheduling, team communications and meetings, fair division of labor and team member responsibilities. You will be expected to produce related documents such as a work breakdown structure, a project schedule, and team meeting records, all of which must be regularly updated and kept in the team project notebook. Additional information is included in the Project Management and Project Notebook sections of this document.

Design Process Rarely, if ever, does a new design work perfectly the first time. Your roller coaster will likely be no exception to this. While it is a lot of fun to dive right in and start prototyping any sort of project, your team will reach a useful design much sooner if you follow a more formalized approach to the design process. In short, it consists of: identifying the project requirements and constraints, gathering background information, brainstorming, identification and management of materials, preliminary analysis & initial design, and the build/test/modify/document cycle. As part of this process, you will produce the initial paper design of your roller coaster, document any revisions to it as they occur, and produce a final paper design that accurately reflects your final coaster design. You should also keep the initial and final paper designs, with all revisions, in your project notebook. For more details, read the Initial Paper Design, Project Management and Project Notebook sections of this document.

Project Documentation Your project documentation consists of three parts: the team project notebook, the oral presentation and the final written report. The team project notebook is the complete documentation of the roller coaster project, and which will be reviewed on a weekly basis. It should contain your lab memos, paper design, team meeting minutes, project management documents, and anything else of importance relating to the roller coaster. The complete requirements are in the Project Notebook section of this document. The final oral presentation is an overview of your roller coaster design experience. The final written report is a complete summary all aspects of your design. The oral presentation and final written report are both due in the last week of the semester see your course website for the exact date. The requirements for each of these are described in detail in the Oral Presentation and Final Written Report documents. Other references are: Technical Communication Guide on EEIC course website.

THE ROLLER COASTER REQUIREMENTS

The roller coaster is a simple open-loop coaster, meaning that it does not have any physical connection from the end back to the beginning. Photos are shown on the cover page of this document. The track rails are made of two 25 lengths of 1/4 inch OD polyethylene tubing, connected to the support structure by snap-fits. The snap-fits also serve as spacers to maintain the proper spacing of the coaster rails. The snap-fits are attached to the track support structure by nylon strap clamps and their associated hardware. The support structure is made of 1/2 plastic (CPVC) tubing and various kinds of piping connectors. You will be provided with a wood and CPVC tower to use to support the start of your track.

Roller Coaster Configuration Requirements

These are the requirements relating to the physical layout of the roller coaster and the minimum set of required features. These will be evaluated during reviews of the paper design, and again during preliminary test. They will be graded during final test.

Your team will build an open-loop roller coaster that includes the following minimum required features. The features will be defined in the following section.

Vertical loop

Horizontal loop

Bump

Straight horizontal

To get the maximum score for your roller coaster, you will need to either modify these features to more complex versions, such as a cobra, or add features. A list of standard features is given on the next page. Scores for these features are given in the final testing section. If you want to introduce a feature not on the list, ask your instructional staff ahead of time about how it will be scored. For example, you could construct your coaster in less than half the allowed horizontal space.

In addition to the minimum set of features, your coaster will need to meet the following requirements:

Your roller coaster design must use the full 25 of track provided in other words, you must start the ball within 6 of the start of the track, and the ball must finish by dropping off the other end of the track into the catch bin. Note that if you build your coaster with more turns one direction than the other, then at the end of the track one piece of tubing will be longer than the other. The requirement is that the ball stays on the track until the end of the shorter piece of tubing.

Roller coaster dimensions: The roller coaster track must fit on the lab table top, inside a space that is 5 long, 4 wide, and using the provided starting tower. (Use of the tower is optional if your design suggests something else, but the same conditions apply.) Portions of the starting tower may be ou