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Case study: Roller Coaster Tracks

Introduction:

Roller coasters are commonly associated with fun and excitement. To enable this thrill for every passenger in a safe way over the full life cycle of the roller coaster, simulation is extensively used in the amusement branch. LIMIT® offers a wide range of functionality to carry out the assessment in a quick and reliable way.

Challenge:

The complete strength assessment of the track of a new roller coaster design according to Eurocode 3 has to be created. To capture the loading on the track a multi body simulation and a finite element analysis of the ride are performed, resulting in 400 load steps which represent 400 positions of the train along the track.

With these 400 load steps the base material and the welds are assessed for static and fatigue loading under the assumption of 5 Mio load cycles or 30 years of operation.

Advantages of using LIMIT:

  • Automatic identification of all weld positions: Weld positions can be detected automatically with a range of different algorithms.
  • Model Cleanup using LIMIT® Part Sets: A reduction of the number of welds in the model is possible, by combining them. This reduces the number of individual weld definitions from over 200 to only 20 different weld types. All weld positions are considered, but the time which is necessary for the detailed definition is reduced.
  • Efficient load management: All 400 load cases are directly imported from the finite element results and can be used for the assessment.
  • Fast report generation: With LIMITs included report generator, the results of the assessment including figures of all weld types and weld positions are automatically documented.

LIMIT® allows for a detailed assessment of base material and welds. The pictures below show degrees of utilization for the base material assessment.

 

Result: Very happy kids!

 

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