Doors Testing/Validation Concepting
- Adrian Au
- Joy He (Deactivated)
Ownership
Testing/Validation DRI | Contributors | Project DRI |
|---|---|---|
@Joy | @Name, @Name, @Name | @Name |
Research
HINGES
Must be able to support the weight of the door with no assistance
Must allow the door to swing open easily
Must be designed to optimize weight
Must allow doors to be operable from both inside and outside the car
lots of stuff here
What are the requirements of our product?
Other things to include are: interesting research, images, links, recap of regulations, etc.
Risk/Unknowns Identification
What are the major technical risks or unknowns associated with this project?
ensure there is enough clearance between the car door and seats/other features in the interior
“suicide” style doors open more easily while car is moving due to airflow: latch must be user friendly, and it should be easy to tell when the latch is in its proper position
HINGES
how are the hinges being mounted?
design of door cannot make it too heavy,
or the hinges won’t be able to handle it.
components should aim to be as close to the side with the hinges as possible to reduce (moment? torque?) downwards
ensure that weight can be supported when the door is fully open (max moment)
get more info from structures about how much weight hinges can handle
door hinge should be easily taken apart so that door can be taken on and off easily
range of motion of door should be as large of an angle as possible to allow rapid, easy egress
if someone inside the car is knocked against the door, it shouldn’t injure them.
protruding features on the interior of the door should be avoided as much as possible.
if unavoidable, they should be positioned where someone is less likely to hit it
someone being knocked against the door should not open it
opening mechanism should be pull (standard pull handle) not a push button
latch should be moving side-to-side, not a push button
latch mechanism should be useable both in the interior and the exterior of the car?
ASC egress regulations, 9.6.B.2
must not affect safety features (side impact protection, etc) put into place by the structures team
visibility through windows
driver must be able to see 50mm high letters a distance of 3m from the side of the solar car (9.5.B.3)
potential cup/waterbottle holders → 11.6 specifies that there must be a minimum of 1L of water/fluids per occupant
Prompts for areas of investigation include regulation risks (i.e. headlight brightness doesn’t meet regs), mechanical risks (i.e headlight melting from hight temperature), manufacturing/assembly risks (i.e how does headlight mount to aero body?)
Risk/Unknown Mitigation Concepting
What can we do to mitigate these aforementioned risks/unknowns?
Risk/Unknown | Order of Importance | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
i.e Headlight brightness doesn’t meet regs | 1 | Use brightness sensor to compare our headlights with listed regulation standards |
Ensure clearance between door interior side and anything inside of the car |
| Create “forbidden zone” of a certain width in the interior beside the doors where nothing can be present |
Latch reliability and useability |
| Give latch design prototype to a few people and ask them to try it out (close/open latch, try to break it) Test latch system before mounting it permanently onto the door (perhaps use temporary adhesive?) |
Hinge needs to be able to handle weight of door |
| Figure out how much weight hinge can handle. Figure out how to measure downward force/moment of door at hinge position (and measure it) and verify the hinge can support it before installing the hinge |
Hinge issues in general |
| Either make the hinge easy to install/uninstall on the car, or create a “test station” ie sheet of car material, stick hinge prototypes on it, do testing |
Interior panel safety |
| Try to make as many features recessed as possible (like what we want for the handles) |
Parts coming off of door because adhesive is not strong enough |
| Test how well the adhesive bonds the armrest material with the carbon fibre material of the door: can we break them apart when we put all our weight on it? |
Hinge strength with added bodyweight |
| Passengers will lean on the armrest, adding extra weight onto the door. Need to ensure hinges can handle that. |
Issues with latch system |
| Armrest, door panel, etc should be temporarily attached while the car is being manufactured; only permanently attached just before the race. Door cover panel could potentially be temporarily attached? |
Heat from sun warps materials/ affects efficacy of adhesive |
| Stick samples of all the materials/adhesives in an oven/use heat gun thing at the lowest temperature to see what happens |
Can’t tell if latch is in proper position/what if something happens to it during the race? |
| Latch cover can be removed/put on easily. Should be routine to check that the latch is its proper position every time we start the car. Cover could be kept off most of the time, and only put on when car is being judged/for publicity. |
Doors needs to be “positively latched”, meaning that the latch catches automatically when the door is closed. “Velcro, magnets, cabinet catches, and similar closure methods that do not positively retain the egress opening will not be allowed” (9.6.B) |
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