Flat Ride Simulation

For a final project in a class I took last fall on multibody dynamics, I looked at the motion and forces that would be exerted on a rider during a flat ride that I had the idea for awhile ago, but never had a reason or the means to investigate whether it would be plausible. But now I did! It's a combination of a zipper and a scrambler. Here are some pictures, and I'll try to post a video of it.

The riders are modeled by blocks that are just the average weights of a male and female in the U.S.; this was both due to time and computation limitations. The main arm spun at 7 rpm and the outer ones spun at 20 rpm. You can see in the force plots that the vertical forces stay within the usual limits, but the forces that would throw the rider into the seat and restraint are pretty high and, I imagine, would be really uncomfortable. Even past the force data, I couldn't find any information on jerk limits of the human body, but I can't imagine the very rapid change in forces would be very comfortable either. As a final thought, it got me to thinking how engineers design rides based on chaotic motion. They defy modeling not only because of their random nature, but also because of computer limitations in modeling random nature. Is there a perfect storm of motions that would result in a fatal force applied to the rider? Who knows!

Vertical Scrambler 3.avi

Plot of motion traces

Plot of forces (blue is vertical, red is sagittal)

Plot of forces over 120 seconds to show variation

This is really awesome! Good job.

I would definitely ride this as long as the forces wouldn't cause too much harm.

I have yet to find a flat ride intense enough for me, although Top Scans come close!

Disclaimer: This is purely speculation and guesswork, I'm not an expert on this...

Maybe if the seats weren't facing outwards, but instead inwards? A stationary zipper car would lean riders backwards, and the center of rotation in each carriage is in front of their chests instead of behind them. I'd imagine people can handle more forces towards their backs compared to their fronts.

It sure looks like a lot of fun (and great work, by the way)! But I would be concerned with where more forces are being exerted.