Sustainable Mobility System for Silicon Valley Project

This week I reviewed a couple of my current design ideas. The cable idea for the trussing system has now been scrapped, as compression forces will need to be accounted for. The top running beam is too small and flimsy to be able to carry load on its own. Therefore I will need to revise my previous X-bracing design to maximize strength while minimizing the volume. Other design changes and new designs I have been working on have been the vertical column supports and clamps, as well as making a mounting bracket for the track to attach to the horizontal crossbeam. The difficult part of this task is to determine where the placement of the bracket should lie. As the vertical hangers are very small and have few mounting holes, figuring out the size and orientation of these brackets will be difficult to visualize. After these two parts are completed, I will be able to run a stress analysis on the whole assembly to determine if there are failure points and what may require reinforcements.

The past 3 weeks I have been working on revising my current design. Originally the trussing for the vertical bracket supports involved sheet metal cutouts which assembled into an X-bracing design. With the suggestion of cost and weight reduction, these braces are now going to be redesigned as cables. The cables will be able to handle similar tension loads, while reducing the costs of fabricating sheet metal. For the vertical columns, a smaller mount and vertical supports will be designed to make the two columns stand closer together. This is done in order to accommodate narrower roadways and paths. The top column has also been modified so that the beam lays flat against the vertical columns to accommodate solar team's designs. I will continue revisions of these parts, while also create a vertical mounting bracket that will hold the tracks.