MM4GDM

Group 12: Crash

Supervisor: Donal McNally

Executive Summary
Project Overview
A crash test is defined as a situation whereby a vehicle or object of interest is deliberately collided
under controlled conditions in order to evaluate and improve its ability to withstand impact. It is a
form of destructive and non-destructive testing usually performed to ensure safe design standards
in crashworthiness and crash compatibility for various modes of transportation or related systems
and components.
This project involved the design and make of a mechanism to stop a 100kg sled of a crash track at
accelerations of up to 100g. The crash sled is located in Dr Donal McNallys laboratory at the
University of Nottingham. It is used in experiments to measure the force required to cause damage
to a chosen subject and thus determine its injury threshold. A further use of the sled is in testing
the security of the brackets that house gas bottles in ambulances. The customer has an existing
stopping mechanism which consists of spear-shaped olives fixed to the sled and polymer tubes at
the end of the track which, on impact, the olives are forced into. Kinetic energy of the sled is
dissipated as heat energy as a result of frictional contact between the olives and polymer linings of
the tubes. However the tubes deform and become unusable after only a few uses. This incurs high
operational costs as disposable components need to be bought and manufactured every time the
tubes become unusable. Other problems include the long amount of time taken (up to 3 hours) to
reset the sled to its original position and effort needed to maintain cleanliness. It was made clear
by the customer that these particular attributes of the previous mechanism must be improved.

Statement of Requirements
Following on from being quick and efficient - in case of emergency, there must be a contingency
mechanism in place discussions with Dr McNally, a set of requirements that the stopping
mechanism must achieve were formed. The sled that must be stopped will have a variable mass
of 45kg up to 100kg. The sled will produce accelerations within the range of 15g up to 100g and
velocities in the range of 5m/s to 15m/s, respective to the variable mass. After impact, the
mechanism must negate recoil and the current track and sled dimensions must be adhered to (see
appendix 2 of the requirements and planning review form in the DHF for full dimensions of the sled
and track). There is a facility door below the track, just beyond the current stopping mechanism.
This door must be accessible at any time. I.e. no part of the mechanism or sled must prevent
opening the door or using the facility below. The final mechanism must also be able to provide a
constant square wave pulse and a linear ramping stopping force. There must be a system in place
to program these crash pulses, and the ability to do this must to stop the sled if the primary
mechanism should fail. Health and safety of the operators and those present is paramount
throughout testing and maintenance of the mechanism. These requirements were next signed off
by Adam Clare at the Requirements and Planning Review stage.

Concept Generation
From this point until the end of term, focus was on the Preliminary Design Review stage and the
progress report. The group began with several brainstorming sessions, after which they divided
the initial ideas amongst the four of them and did further research to deduce whether the ideas
could be realistic concepts.
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Supervisor: Donal McNally

In addition to this, they tried to find others that hadnt already been thought of during the group
meetings. It was agreed within the team that sufficient time should be spent during this phase on
making sure that all possible ideas were considered and vetted so when we finally came to our
final concept, we could be confident that we hadnt left any rocks unturned.
By the end, there were seventeen ideas on the table. After further brainstorming sessions, it
became clear that all the ideas fell into a number of general themes: hydraulic, crumple/material,
friction, electricity/magnetism, elasticity and water/air. Once these were formed, the team were
confident that they had considered every possible method as all the themes were extremely
disparate and spanned most types of modern-day mechanical and non-mechanical braking. This
allowed discrete topics on which group members could focus and compare with neighbouring
ideas within that theme and those outside.
Another benefit of categorising the concepts was if a problem or disadvantage was found for an
idea, it was likely it would also affect another one within the same theme. Each group of ideas
presented a different set of advantages and disadvantages. Over the duration of the project, more
ideas materialised and were added to this brainstorm. Along with the general outline of how each
idea could be used as a stopping mechanism, initial sketches were done of them all and they were
slowly expanded by applying their specifications and capabilities to our set of requirements.

Market Research
Extensive market research was then undertaken for the categorised concepts. Each group
member was assigned a theme to work on. The market research consisted of a number of things.
Firstly, a summary of the fundamental process behind the concept i.e. how it could be used as a
stopping mechanism. Another important research area was to look at the companies that
manufacture, sell and use a similar product. They helped provide an insight as to how and where
these products were generally used in industry and commercially, which formed the examples and
implementation section of the market research. This information was very useful when it came to
eliminating unsuitable ideas at the early stages of the design process. The final area of market
research considered was the advantages and disadvantages of each design. This allowed
comparison of all the ideas with one another, despite them being different. For example, some
might be less expensive than others but could be inferior in other ways, like causing a high amount
of wear during impact.

The Design Process

As the design process progressed, research resulted in certain concepts being inapplicable. Entire
themes were eliminated. For example, the friction theme was discontinued because they led to
heavy abrasion of the mechanism, track and sled. They would also require major alterations to the
track, which was against the wishes of the customer. Elasticity was also removed shortly after
because bungee systems or steel cabling would produce major recoil and it was thus rendered
both dangerous and unable to pass the recoil requirement. Crumple was the final theme that was
eliminated. The issue that always arose across all of the crumple concepts was that they tended to
be consumables. This gave rise to high operational costs and exceeded the 5 operational budget
specified. Furthermore, the life cycles mostly couldnt exceed 1-5 uses. The team were left with
two remaining themes which survived elimination during the design process: hydraulic systems
and electromagnetism. Four different hydraulic concepts had the potential to succeed.
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Group 12: Crash

Supervisor: Donal McNally

An eddy current braking system was the fifth and final concept that passed the scrutiny of the
design process and had the capabilities to fit the projects specification.
Design rationale diagrams were the next step in developing the five chosen ideas. These were
done in the form of a flow chart which highlighted every important aspect of the design and project
requirement in the logical order of the decisions to be made. For example, the concepts method of
energy absorption, its orientation and how the system would be programmed tended to be the first
things to be decided. The second part of the DRD comprised of the different ways they could be
achieved. As the DRD progressed and the big decisions were made, more specific aspects of the
design were added. For example, how the mechanism could be fitted to the track, which wouldnt
be considered before working out if it was mechanically and dynamically sound first. This helped
to depict the journey that was made in order to apply the idea to the projects full set of
requirements. Alongside the DRD, supporting information was provided, which analysed each
decision in more depth and the possible routes were compared to find the optimum solution.
The following is a summary of the five chosen concepts. First: the wedge-brake system, which
comprises two main parts. These are the hydraulic system and the brake pads. The lower brake
pad is stationary and the upper one is connected to a hydraulic piston that is housed in a cylinder.
An impact wedge connected to the sled intrudes at impact speed between the two brake pads.
Due to its angle, the wedge forces the upper pad to move upwards absorbing the impact of the
sled.
The next concept was electromagnetic eddy current brakes. They are used to slow or stop a
moving object by dissipating its kinetic energy to heat. The drag force used to stop the object is an
electromagnetic force between a magnet and a nearby conductive object in relative motion, due to
eddy currents induced in the conductor through electromagnetic induction. The circulating currents
will create their own magnetic field, which opposes the field of the magnet. Thus the moving
conductor will experience a drag force from the magnet that opposes its motion. The electrical
energy of the eddy currents is dissipated as heat in the electromagnets coils due to the electrical
resistance of the conductor.
A hydraulic accumulator system was the third potential solution. It comprises of a piston housed in
a cylinder. One end of the piston is the contact area where the sled impacts and the other end has
an orifice with a one-way valve. During impact, the piston forces oil through the valve into a tube.
Offset from this tube are two accumulators, one large and one small. The flow in and out of these
accumulators can be controlled by valves on the tube. The oil is pushed into the fluid chamber of
the hydraulic accumulator, compressing the pressurised gas, which in turn provides an opposing
force on the fluid and absorbs the momentum of the sled.
Fourth: the hydra-cable concept. This system absorbs the impact of the sled through the use of
cables guided by pulleys to an absorption mechanism (hydraulic cylinders). The layout for this
system uses two hydraulic cylinders placed either side of the track. The cables are under tension
and pull the pistons of the cylinders in the opposite direction to that of the sled.
The teams final concept was the hydraulic buffer system. The buffer system consists of a plunger
with a metering pin fixed to the end, housed inside a cylinder submerged with hydraulic fluid.
When the sled impacts the buffers head, the plunger is displaced, forcing hydraulic fluid through
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Supervisor: Donal McNally

an orifice and dissipating the kinetic energy of the sled into thermal energy in the oil. The metering
pin regulates the flow of oil through the orifice and the resultant force exerted on the sled by the
buffer can be controlled by modifying the size of the gap between the orifice and the plungers
metering pin. As the orifices cross sectional area remains constant, this could only be done by
changing the profile of the metering pins cross-sectional area (i.e. different sections of the
metering pin are different sizes depending on the mass and speed of the sled that is being tested)

Professors and Suppliers Communication

In the first term of the project, the team initiated an open dialogue with university professors and
suppliers. As the customers area of expertise was biomechanics, it was necessary to seek help
and advice from specialists in the fields of hydraulics and electromagnetism. Professor Garvey
and Dr Branson played a key role in assisting the team to draw up initial calculations and possible
methods of programming for each concept. They also pointed out the limitations or potential
pitfalls associated. For example, the drag force produced by the electromagnet to oppose the
motion of the sled is proportional to the velocity it is moving at. It would be much more effective for
stopping the sled at the higher end of the velocity range than the lower end. Suppliers played an
integral part in helping the team form an idea of the costs involved to procure the main
components of each concept and gave their input on certain functions of our proposed designs.
For example, upon contacting the hydraulic buffer manufacturer Oleo, they expressed their
concerns when the group asked if it was possible to dismantle one of their buffers because of the
high pressure compressed gas in one of the chambers used to reset the mechanism. They also
informed the team that the maximum recommended impact speed of their buffers was 6m/s. If it
was hit at a higher speed, the gas in the cylinder would be at risk of compressing too quickly,
causing the sled to significantly recoil. The team subsequently adapted each of the concepts
following guidance from respective suppliers.

Scoring and Cost

To work out whether the chosen designs were within budget, cost estimates had to be done. This
involved finding all the approximate parts needed to make up the full design, and their price. At this
point, only preliminary force and energy calculations based on the prescribed sled data had been
completed for each concept so arbitrary dimensions were assumed. These approximations were
relatively accurate because the mechanism had to be able to cope with the high forces
comfortably but if the chosen dimensions were too big simply for a larger safety factor, the cost
would rise greatly. Cost-benefit considerations were important to deduce the size of each concept.
After this, the costs of the required machineable parts were found via the L2 store catalogues (to
the required cut length) and the externally bought parts from online suppliers (including shipping
and tax) were added to form a total score for each design.
Once the final five concepts were picked, they had to be ranked against each other. This was done
via the use of decision matrices. A scoring system was put in place whereby each project
requirement was assigned a value between 0 and 10. Once all the attributes for each of the
concepts was assigned, they were summed to give a total score. Therefore in theory, the concept
with the highest score should be the one to choose as it best fits the statement of requirements. A
score of 10 meant the concept fully achieved the attribute. If the concept achieved no aspects of
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Group 12: Crash

Supervisor: Donal McNally

the attribute at all, it scored zero and this caused the total score to automatically fall to zero also.
Some requirements were considered less important than others and werent scored out of 10. For
example, cleaning compared to programming of the system. Furthermore, some requirements did
not have any intermediate values in between 0 and 10 as they could either be achieved or not,
there wasnt a possible middle ground. The ones that did have intermediate scores were the
quantifiable requirements with numerical constraints assigned to them. For example, the cost
requirement of 5 per test score a 10 if the mechanisms operational spend came under that and
every 2 over lost a few points. This process was done closely with our supervisor as it was vital
to get his opinion on what he considered the most important requirements. After the scores had
been totalled, the group were left with the superior concept the hydraulic buffer. This and the
eddy current braking system were the only concepts to come under the 500 budget. The
accumulators scored zero overall as they were so expensive that they scored 0 on that attribute.

Preparation for the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and Progress Report
The PDR was the first major milestone the group had to overcome. It involved a brief presentation
to two academics that included the groups progress and its plan for the future. The purpose of the
PDR was to convince the reviewers that a comprehensive range of ideas had been systematically
explored and that soundly justified design architecture had been chosen. It needed to provide
proof of this through the use of a design rationale and preliminary quantifiable attributes. It also
needed to convince the academics that project management and capability requirements had
been considered.
The PDR presentation contained all results of the creativity sessions, the design rationale
diagrams for all concepts and their initial pricing, along with the score of each concept against the
others. A plan for the embodiment and manufacture was also presented.
Following the PDR, the group collated all the completed documents into one paper in the form of a
Progress Report. This collection of work needed to be able to illustrate to the assessor all the
capabilities of the design and a proposed method of compliance to validate the deliverables.

Division of Work
Early in the project timescale, the strengths and weaknesses of each group member were
discussed. Dan expressed that he felt his strengths lied with writing reports, mathematical
calculations and programming but preferred not to be too involved with the 3D CAD modelling of
the design. Joe stated he had proficiency with CAD modelling but felt weak at presenting
completed work for reviews. Alex expressed that he was proficient in most fields and volunteered
to oversee the project management, but had weakness in manufacturing. Nitharshan felt his
strengths lay with creativity and ideas and preferred to act in a supporting role rather than an
organisational one. Long term allocations were then assigned to each member of the group. Dan
was tasked with the main report writing and editing for the project, Alex was assigned with
ensuring the Design History File was organised and filed correctly, Joe was allocated with writing a
master programme and Gantt chart for the project timescale, and finally Nitharshan Natarajan was
to write weekly reports for the groups work and aims.

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Group 12: Crash

Supervisor: Donal McNally

Embodiment, Final Design Rationale and CREO Modelling

A CREO model of the track, sled and restrictive surroundings (i.e. the facility door) were created
following the design review. This allowed for initial drawn sketches to be embodied to the track.
Various ideas were then further shown through CREO modelling throughout the embodiment
process, until the team obtained a final 3D design. This was used to create 2D detailed drawings
on which machining and manufacture could be based on.
The group agreed that they would purchase a hydraulic cylinder to modify, as opposed to making
one from scratch. The assessors suggested this during the PDR because manufacturing hydraulic
cylinders had to be done to a very high degree of tolerance and that it was unlikely to be achieved
in the student workshop. The next decision the group had to make was to decide which type of
cylinder was best suited to their needs. After looking at the available options, the group chose to
use a welded body cylinder because of its low cost, accessibility to purchase within the UK and
had potential for modification. The next challenge the group faced was to decide the most suitable
design for displacing the oil. Using a flexible fluid container was preferable to another metal
cylinder with an additional reservoir because it covered both functions in a single component. It
also reduced costs and manufacturing time, as well as allowing better accessibility of the metering
rod within the cylinder. Another major aspect of the design was how to meter the size of the orifice
to regulate the correct flow of oil to acquire the desired profiles. There were two ways the metering
pins could be designed. They could be machined by the workshop staff using CNC machining to
obtain the exact pin profiles for each sled mass, but due to the limit of provided technician time,
making 24 pins was not viable and programming these profiles would be very difficult. The extra
time and cost needed to make them all would render the project late and would exceed the project
budget. The solution therefore was to machine discs with the same sized bores as a central rod
which is threaded into the piston head. These discs have varying external diameters based on precalculated profiles. These discs would be spaced along the rod of pre-calculated length so they
increase in size, then fixed with a nut. This would give the same overall effect as if the pins were
one solid piece, regardless of having stepped cross sections, although the profile wouldnt be as
smooth.
The group designed a metering orifice plate to be welded to the end of the cylinder. This had more
than one function, acting also as a platform in which the supports for the mechanism are attached
as well translating the force through the system into rods fixed directly into the concrete block
behind. Due to the large nature of the cylinder, the team were limited to the L2 stores stock sizes
which as a result affected the overall support structure as the force translation rods had to be fixed
relatively close together. However this proved not to be a problem due to the flexibility of the bag in
between the rods. To fully seal the hydraulic mechanism, the bag was to be attached using cut
gaskets and a machined washer that are bolted to a connector which was then threaded onto the
metering orifice. This design made accessing the metering pins easy as the bag could be removed
between tests. As for resetting the system, it was decided that pins would be places into holes in
the side of the orifice plate. Brass bushes were put on the pins and slotted into the support
structure. This allowed the hydraulic system to be tipped and oil would be displaced into the
reservoir bag due to gravity. The benefit of this design was that oil didnt have to be pumped or
bled from the system manually, which would increase the overall project cost and the rest time in
between tests. With regards to the support structure, it holds the hydraulic system via the metering
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orifice plate and a front mount which sit directly on beams which sit on the track. These are not
fixed to the track so no force is transmitted into it during impact this was strongly advised by the
customer. To transmit the force from the sled, the group decided on the four rods attached to the
metering orifice which fix to a plate, acting as a connection to the concrete block. Neoprene rubber
(which was also used for the gaskets) was used on the impact head and sled attachment to
reduce the initial inertial spike on impact.
Another part of the final design was the emergency stop, which was also one of the teams
requirements. Originally the groups choice of emergency stop was two polyurethane buffers,
which are commonly used for elevators. They therefore have high stability and dynamic load
bearing capacity. These would be situated either side of the hydraulic cylinder. However, from the
SIMULINK model plots (see programming section below) the velocity graphs show that the sleds
speed is not reduced to a complete stop by the hydraulic buffer. In all tests the velocity is reduced
by approximately half of its starting magnitude. Therefore in order to comply with the requirements,
a supplementary emergency stop is needed because what was the initial emergency stop should
the system fail (polyurethane buffers) is now an integrated part of the system that will be used for
every test. Therefore it was decided that the square beams supporting the polyurethane crane
buffers would be used for the mechanisms emergency stop should the hydraulic cylinder fail to
stop the sled.

Dynamic Calculations and Programming

One of the most vital and complex phases of the project was the dynamic calculations required for
the final concept. These were used to derive a relationship between the size of the metering pin
and the resultant force against the motion of the sled. By varying this relationship, the desired
profiles of the pins can be determined depending on the mass of the sled being used and whether
a constant or ramped deceleration pulse is desired. The metering pin diameter varies with respect
to time. Starting with the definition of volumetric fluid flow across an orifice and undertaking some
manipulation of the variables, the resultant force on the difference between the orifice and the
metering pins cross sectional area due to P was determined. This equation formed the
foundation on which the simulations were built.
The formulae were modelled using Mathworks SIMULINK. This enabled a plot of how the
variables varied over time to be visualised and a deceleration pulse graph to be created based on
the size of the metering pin. The first step in this process was to write a MATLAB function in which
arbitrary values of the metering pin radius could be entered for different displacements of the
piston head, x, during impact. The force is dependent on the difference between the orifice and the
metering pins cross sectional area, Ag, which is dependent on the metering pin diameter, D m
(which is double the radius, Rm). This function allowed adjustment of the metering pin radius with
respect to the displacement x of the plunger to find the profiles that provide constant and ramped
acceleration pulses. This was done via a series of loops whereby each 'if' statement referred to a
0.025m thick disc positioned along the metering pin rod which was threaded directly into the piston
head. There were 12 statements therefore 12 discs and a total length of 0.3m. This length became
the modelled stroke length of the cylinder, over which the pulses would be obtained. This function
was then integrated into the SIMULINK model.
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Supervisor: Donal McNally

Each variable that makes up the resultant force equation was converted into block diagrams in
SIMULINK, including an interpreted MATLAB function which links the MATLAB function into the
model. This means that as displacement, x, was changing during the simulation, the value of R m
changed and thus affects its outcome. Values of the metering pin radius were then changed for
different sled masses to see how the force, acceleration, velocity, displacement and pressure
changed as we do. By iteration and trial & error, constant and ramped force/acceleration profiles
were found for each sled mass range. For each new simulation, the mass of sled being used and
its associated velocity had to be changed in the model manually. After varying values of the
metering pin radius via the first MATLAB function and seeing how the resulting forces looked, the
group were able to collect all the data for each mass range to give a final table of metering pin
profiles. The mass was increased incrementally by 5kg. That means it is possible to choose
between 12 different masses, each with a constant and ramped profile, so 24 tests in total. Each
mass in the table has the velocity associated with it, the time interval over which impact will occur
and the size each disc needs to be in sequence along the metering pin rod to give either a
constant or ramped pulse. It was found during the iteration process that it wasnt possible to
achieve a ramped pulse for the mass range of 45-60kg as the pressure exceeds the 350bar rated
limit of the cylinder.
Finally, a MATLAB script linked to the SIMULINK model was written to plot the relevant variables
over the time of impact. This could be done on SIMULINK but the group felt that MATLAB provided
more professional and visually effective plots. The code outputted plots of the six variables that
were vital to understanding whether a profile was going to work physically and fit the specification:
force, pressure, acceleration, velocity, displacement and the shape of the metering pin profile itself
(metering pin radius).

Preparation for the Critical Design Review (CDR)

The CDR was in a similar arrangement as the PDR but needed to convince the reviewers that a
complete workable design had been acquired and plans to manufacture and test had been
developed. A complete set of detailed drawings and general assembly drawings were presented to
show the reviewers how the system fits together and operates along with process sheets for each
component, cost sheets and cutting lists.

Manufacture & Purchase

After the critical design review was passed and the all-clear was given to proceed with
manufacturing, the cutting list was handed to the L2 stores. Also a project requisition form was
completed to secure the few components needed from external sources (e.g. the hydraulic
cylinder from RAMKO). On return to the University following a two week Easter break, the
components were ready to be machined. CNC capabilities were required for the most complex
components (i.e. the orifice plate and front/back supports) so the detailed drawings for those parts
were handed to the main workshop. For the rest of the components, a manufacturing plan was
created in advance and this was followed. The plan outlined the parts that needed to be made and
the group member that was assigned to it. Two weeks were spent in the EA workshop
manufacturing all the parts and another week was spent assembling.
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Supervisor: Donal McNally

Testing and Outcomes

Potential over industry standard systems

This design provides several advantages over similar crash track stopping mechanisms found in
industrial applications. Primarily, it provides a cheaper, more viable design, for a smaller scale
crash track such as the one found at the University of Nottingham. Similar, larger products found in
industry cost approximately twenty times the cost of this projects design. This is mainly because
the development and design of stopping mechanisms for crash tracks is a niche market, especially
for smaller applications.
Smaller braking systems involve the use of high impact absorbent materials or crumple zones to
absorb the momentum and energy of a fast moving object. While these systems are extremely
effective at slowing and stopping an object, the use of crumple materials renders the mechanism
useless after a single cycle, due to the deformation of the material. The advantage of using a
hydraulic system, such as in the system designed for this project, is that it permits a large number
of cycles at a very small operational cost per test. A more specific advantage of this design is that
it permits a highly programmable crash pulse to be achieved. By having highly customisable
metering pins, constant or ramped deceleration pulses can be obtained, this characteristic is rarely
utilised in smaller stopping mechanisms where crumple materials as the energy absorption and
deformation can be unpredictable. This design has an advantage over larger hydraulic stopping
mechanisms in that it can be reset and reprogrammed within 15 minutes. This is largely due to the
collapsible reservoir and easily detachable force rods that enable the resetting of the piston and
adjustment of the metering pin to be done with ease and efficiency. Larger hydraulic stopping
mechanisms rely largely on a gas chamber within the cylinder to compress and reset the piston
back to its original position in order to begin another test; the cylinder used in this project has a
removed gas chamber. This reduces the stagnant pressure of the system thereby decreasing the
risk of injury from working with pressurised gas, while still allowing the system to be reset
manually. It also enables easy access to the working parts of the system without having to
depressurise, and it decreases the reset time, as large industry systems have to re-pressurise the
gas to reset the mechanism.

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