Presentation 2

This past week we met on Saturday and a smaller group on Tuesday. On Saturday, we delegated topics for the coming presentation on 10/23. Shane would concentrate on the shoe design that we collectively decided on. The shoe would be split into three contacts. Splitting the contact into segments like this would provide constant contact with the rail even thought there are obstacles on the rail. Each segment would go over the obstacle as the other two would remain on the rail. Alex described that a pantograph would not be easily incorporated the suspended railway but a third rail would be easier to maintain and integrate with a bogie. He also analyzed the problem with using a carbon brush for our shoe. Carbon is extremely brittle which would be very problematic in high speed and stress situations. Reynaldo created a CAD sketch of a segment of our theoretical third rail. It had the framework of insulation, protective rail hood, rail, shoe and shoe mechanism, and bogie. Melody presented the summary and purpose of our team. We must streamline this introduction for third parties to understand the mission of our organization. She also constructively produced an invaluable Cardboard Aided Design of our conductor shoe. It was made of cardboard, wires, glue, and spray paint. I was in charge of the theoretical analysis of our designs. The resistivity of steel and aluminum are well within the electrical demands that we will expect. I generalized our specifications to add a safe factor that would accommodate most real world inconsistencies. Below is a link to our presentation.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Hw5b9X9rM5GM9XjI1S0V5aNhWNOV-m1YxU_WJBn2jbI/edit?usp=sharing