Amusements
Industry
ATA
– Providing Experience When It's Needed
Amusements—Working
with the Industry to Enhance Safety
Roller
Coasters
ATA
– Providing Experience When It's Needed
Amusement
parks! Amusement rides! Roller coasters, water rides, Ferris wheels,
water slides, batting cages and numerous other rides and attractions
lead the list of high-profile projects that ATA has supported over
the years. ATA Associates has provided analysis, evaluation, and
technical consulting services associated with the amusements industry
since 1972. In addition, ATA provides occupational safety and emergency
planning/response consulting and evaluation.
In
its support to the amusement industry, ATA brings all of its expertise
in areas of mechanical systems, cable systems, hydraulics, pneumatics,
hydro-dynamics, electrical systems, control systems, structures
and human factors. Knowledge gained from experience in the aerospace,
industrial, transportation, and consumer products safety arenas
provides a strong support base to ATA's technical experts for providing
assistance to the amusement industry.
ATA
has evolved to a position of being a strong proactive advocate for
the amusement industry in providing safety analysis, evaluation,
and test support, as well as strong litigation support to leaders
in the amusement industry. As an independent consulting entity,
ATA strives to maintain its professional objectivity towards all
work within the industry by providing unbiased, professional, high-quality
technical and engineering support that addresses the issues head-on.
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Amusements—Working
with the Industry to Enhance Safety
by
Barry Richard
I
have had more than a little to say in past articles about ATA’s
involvement with the amusement industry and will, hopefully, have
more in the future. I am truly excited about what is happening there
and about the future challenges in the industry.
Roller
coasters aren’t just cars and curvy, hilly tracks any more.
They are sophisticated systems that more closely approach high-speed
rail, aerospace vehicles and fast attack ships in their technology
than the original wooden coasters they evolved from. Higher speeds,
higher loads (both structural and biomechanical), rolling loops,
reversing rolls, suspended passenger carriers, floorless carriers,
faster stops, and the need to positively control every facet of
the ride in order to maintain safety have placed an ever greater
technical demand on designers. It is no longer enough to design
a new coaster and rely solely on prototype testing and accelerometer
data to determine the safety of the ride. Fortunately, many coaster
designers and some operators recognize the challenge and are moving
aggressively to adapt proven techniques from the organizations they
have joined in order to reach the necessary levels of safety demanded
by the public.
We
at ATA are proud to be able to work actively with industry clients
to support pre-production system safety analysis, post-installation
safety assessment and testing and the requirements of the standardization
process. Some of our activities include:
1.
Multiple-channel strain gauge instrumentation to accurately assess
actual loads in structural members and to locate the exact locations
on the track where those loads are imparted to the train structure.
2. Traditional accelerometer testing to understand the bio-mechanical
loads imparted to the riders.
3. Systems level analysis of rides and attractions to identify potential
failure modes and operating hazards so they may be controlled in
the design.
4. Membership in organizations such as AIMS and ASTM F-24 to understand
the standards of the industry and contribute to the voluntary regulatory
process.
5. In-house study and conceptual projects to offer design solutions
to improve safety in amusement rides.
The
amusement industry has gone high-tech. In one sense it has come
of age, in another it is still in its infancy. The use of state-of-the-art
design methods is increasing with the complexity of the designs.
Some groups are also increasing the use of proven analytical methods
to assure the maximum level of safety in the design. Our hope is
that the use of such techniques will increase during the design
and development phases to assure that potential hazards are identified
and corrected before the customer sees the first ride installed.
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ROLLER
COASTERS
by
Ed Fritsch, P.E.
Sr. Staff Engineer
New
roller coasters are taller and faster than ever. But coaster enthusiasts,
like fans of high tech special effects movies and video games, want
more. To meet the demands of current riders (over 300 million per
year in the U.S. alone) and to attract new ones, ride builders have
recently introduced stand-up coasters, hanging coasters, and hyper-coasters,
which feature drops over 200 feet and speeds over 70 mph. These
marvels are developed almost entirely with computer-based design
and analysis tools – tools that permit designs that would
have been impossible only a few years ago.
Regardless
of the power of the new design tools though, the translation of
any design from computer workstation to reality is never accomplished
without surprises. Assembly tolerance stack-ups and dimensional
changes associated with wear are variables that can influence actual
performance, but those variables are often too subtle to be adequately
addressed during the design phase.
ATA
Associates, Inc. has the expertise and equipment to identify and
quantify such problems. ATA is currently working with a major amusement
park operator to reduce maintenance costs and to enhance safety
and reliability. The centerpiece of ATA’s research effort
is the use of strain gauges to measure actual loads applied to the
undercarriages of the coaster’s cars as they traverse a track
that includes four inverted loops.
Strain
gauges permit the direct measurement of the stresses in structural
components. Such information is fundamentally different from that
provided by accelerometers, which are commonly used in roller coaster
studies. Accelerometers integrate inputs from all parts of the car
to provide a g-load at one point in the car. That number is typically
used to characterize the rider’s experience, but it can say
little about what is happening at other points in the car’s
structure. On the other hand, the use of strain gauges and accelerometers
together provides two independent data sets that can support and
illuminate each other.
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