Overview of Status of Analysis, Design, Fabrication, Tests, etc.

Solidworks file of existing ATC is in the works, pictured below. Waiting on meeting with sponsor on Tuesday March 10th for drawings of the dolphin stretcher, which will also be modeled. Materials and buckling literature research underway. 

Accomplishments from Previous Week

Materials: Commenced broad research of many different types of materials, but focusing more specifically on fiberglass to better understand the existing structure. Other prospective materials include HDPE, PP, ABS; (among other plastic polymers) and Carbon Fiber, Kevlar reinforced Carbon Fiber.

Meeting with sponsor, Anson, on 3/10. Objective: have sponsor approve or shoot down the different options in consideration, as to narrow down the list of potentials. Once the list has been reduced to realistic options, additional research on those materials will be performed more in depth, such as getting real quotes and looking more deeply into manufacturing obstacles that every material has.

Sources of material information:

1. Fiber-Reinforced Composites: Materials, Manufacturing, and Design, Third Edition  By P.K. Mallick

 2. www.wikipedia.com

 3. Carbon-carbon Materials and Composites (used online PDF edition)

        edited by John D. Buckley, Danny Dale 

Buckling: Literature research from the UCSD library. Currently reading through "Static and Dynamic Buckling of Thin-Walled Plate Structures: by Tomasz Kubiak, published 2013. Laura likes this paper for its huge amount of references to other studies, and its seeming application to our project. IE, there are many resources for buckling in beams, but not so many for walls, which is what our bath-tub like ATC is an assembly of. 

FEA: 

Cad file of old ATC:

Bottom View, Side View, Top View:

Simulation Status: Awaiting updates from Jonathan, Andrew, Chris

Goals for Next Week (list names after each item). Use specific and measurable objectives.

Laura: Finish reading through literature. Choose a way of analyzing buckling, and start matlab coding actual simulation of possible buckling, or use ANSYS software if at all possible. 

Daniel:

Chris:

Jonathan:

Andrew:

Sponsor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)

Awaiting meeting with sponsor on Tuesday at 4:30pm.

Edit: Sponsor has stated that turning the ATC lip inwards would not be feasible because it makes existing stretcher poles unusable. Sponsor is supportive of using aluminum as the new material for the ATC, and restated a dislike for fiberglass. Sponsor suggested making the new ATC from a wire frame and putting a fabric sheet inside as a possibility. Sponsor also suggested we research "strong shapes" such as u shapes, squares, etc that could replace the simple steel bars already inside the base of the fiberglass ATC. On modelling the current ATC, the sponsor suggested taking the "worst case scenario", aka a hollow ATC, and doing the FEA on that. A solid ATC model may also be a possibility if the hollow one is too difficult to CAD. If the new ATC is made from aluminum, that raises the possibility of corrosion between the aluminum and steel parts. This would mean we need to do research on possible coatings, such as Rhino coatings. On putting parts of carbon fiber in a fiberglass body, the sponsor didn't seem confident that would work because the carbon fiber would not stick to the fiberglass. Sponsor also reminded us of the importance of making the tie down rings on the long side of the ATC able to fold down, to reduce length.  

Instructor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments  (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)

Specific topics of interest (FEA, buckling, and materials) were assigned to each student to specialize in (as of Tuesday 3/3). 

Comments from Other Students in the Class (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)

NA

Risks and Areas of Concern

No updates. 

Resources or Information Required but not Available

Drawing of the dolphin stretcher. 

Schedule

??

Budget (list amount spent and amount remaining)

$0

Progress on Report and Webpage

Updated internal weekly report only.