Keeping Wheels Where They Belong
I'd like to take a course taught by DaimlerChrysler engineer Hubert Gramling. This race-car safety specialist has a marvelous knack of analyzing complex matters with elemental tools. His Motorsports presentation on energy-absorbing wheel retention was exemplary in this regard.
And if you've seen recent tangles of Formula 1 cars, you've seen wheel retention in action. The problem, of course, is that a spinning wheel of an open-wheel race car possesses an immense amount of energy. Unleashed in an accident, it can be a horribly lethal object.
In fact, Hubert's analysis shows that simple tethering, even with a cable of advanced material, cannot be expected to absorb the worst-case energy. It's important, he observed, to separate the two functions of wheel retention and energy absorption.
What's more, he described a means of doing this: One end of the tether attaches to the wheel's upright. The other end passes through a tapered tube affixed to the chassis, this end of the tether fitted with a sphere that's snug in the tube's largest diameter. Tension on the tether draws it into the tube, the taper of which expands through deformation, thus dissipating a great deal of energy without destroying the tether.
Proof of concept has already been achieved. The next steps involve choice of materials and optimizing dimensions.
Esta es la parte del artículo citado por pero en el que se habla del sistema de sujección de la rueda. Efectivamente la imagen que aparece en la parte inferior derecha hace referencia un sistema de células de combustible de hidrógeno, siendo la misma una imagen de la manguera de repostaje de un vehículo de Hidrógeno.
Os amplio la imagen de arriba para que podais observar el funcionamiento del mecanismo, la imagen está ampliada y teneis en un recuadro rojo el famoso cable.
Un saludo.
