The unique doors design, the uPods design and the high smoothness of the ride – in the Naked Science blog

Recall that Unitsky String Technologies Inc. has a blog in the well-known popular science publication Naked Science. Scientific materials are regularly published here, covering all aspects of uST transport and infrastructure complexes, from design to operation features. What is the uniqueness of the sliding doors designed by UST Inc.? How was the ideal aerodynamic shape of the uPod created? The answers to these questions can be found in the series of articles.

The unique door unlocking system – the development of engineers at UST Inc.

The article says that the company’s specialists have developed a unique model of sliding doors for uPods, reducing the risk of injury to a minimum.

The door system of electric rail vehicles is equipped with sensors that allow the intelligent system to detect obstacles, analyze the situation in the doorway and respond to a particular situation.

Thanks to this system, touching at the doors of uST transport either does not occur, or turns out to be insignificant and does not cause any damage to the health or property of passengers. The door leaf movement mechanisms themselves work almost silently.

Sniper rifle to help: how to develop a model for the destruction of heterogeneous material

As noted in the publication, UST Inc. engineers faced the task of creating a concrete building structure capable of resisting fire from small arms, including armor-piercing ammunition. Based on this, the Dragunov sniper rifle (SVD) was selected for testing.

The scientific purpose of the experiment was to develop and implement a computer simulation technique for bulletproof protection of uST building structures.

The practical goal is to develop and use uST building structures capable of resisting a shot from hand portable small arms of large caliber, and to verify their reliability experimentally.

In search of the perfect shape: how was the design of the uPod created?

The company’s specialists, working on the aerodynamic shape of the rolling stock for the uST complex, were able to significantly reduce air resistance. The optimal shape was calculated using a gas dynamics model based on the Reynolds equation (RANS approach).

Several 3D models were prepared for the calculations. The design optimization developed based on the results of the study made it possible to reduce the force and aerodynamic drag coefficient of new configurations of uPods by 16.9%. In particular, the tropical uCar U4-431 was created using the results of the study.

How to achieve 99.7% efficiency and high smoothness from a steel wheel?

Steel wheels with a modified wheel-rail pair contact are used in the uPod suspension. The string rail, with a pre-tension of 100-250 tons, depending on the ambient temperature, the span and the structural arrangement within the track structure, combines the properties of a flexible string and a rigid beam. The efficiency of each “steel wheel – rail” pair of the uPod is 99.7%.

As noted in the material, steel wheels have a number of advantages: due to their unique design, they wear out much less, and the low coefficient of rolling resistance significantly minimizes the consumption of electricity required for the uPod movement. All this generally reduces the cost of operating rail unmanned vehicles.

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