CompositesWorld
Issue link: https://cw.epubxp.com/i/742140
CompositesWorld.com 45 Illustration / Karl Reque Driving Simulator Dome PEI/Design Concepts DriverLab Driving Simulator Dome › Turned flanges between the dome's adjacent panels act as effective load paths, increasing dome stiffness and ensuring post-move stability and light-tightness. › Fabrication via vacuum infusion and use of foam tooling kept resin volume down and dome weight within budget. › Hospital fire safety requirements were met through the use of commercially available, fire-resistant foam core, infusion resin and finishing products. In terms of laminate strength, PEI determined that typical designs for aircraft flight simulators, which must withstand 2.5G quasi-static accelerations in any direction, combined with 1G gravity, would be sufficient, explains DiEdwardo. "ese values are much higher than the typical operational loads, and are specified to protect occupants from a software-driven motion system failure or a hydraulic strut failure." A big challenge was the fact that DriverLab would be routinely exchanged for four other lab modules that would share a common 6m by 6m, six-degrees-of-freedom hydraulic motion platform, so the simulator structure had to be capable of being unbolted from the platform, lifted and moved (Fig. 2, p. 46), with no risk of over- turning. us, the design had to account for stresses in the entire structure, including the metallic floor frame, taking into account the dome's access door, for lifting load cases as well as overturning stability, says DiEdwardo. "From our past experience working on a swappable payload flight simulator at NASA Langley," he says, "we knew that lifting stresses can really influence the design of the dome components, due especially to the flexure of the floor frame during lifting." ose stresses meant that the dome's access door would require extra attention, to maintain a light-tight seal after moves. e dome's interior wall (the tool-side surface) would function as the image projection surface. Strict requirements for that surface and the projection system's optics were provided by Inter- national Development of Technology (Breda, e Netherlands), 4m 5.8m HVAC duct Aluminum bracket (reinforces flange at floor frame) Alignment cones (ensure accurate mating to motion platform) Steel floor frame (three sections, bolted together) Aluminum door frame (ensures light-tight composite door alignment/position) Mechanically fastened, out-turned flange (acts as stiffening structure, creating load paths for inertial loads) HVAC duct Lifting point Lifting point for transport Alignment cones Infused, cored fiberglass panels