Generalized path following constraints with spatial curves for roller coaster applications

Abstract

A roller coaster ride consists of a vehicle negotiating a track characterized by a sequence of spatial curves and straight lines. During the track negotiation, the occupants are subjected to accelerations that depend, not only on the car speed variation, but also on the instantaneous curvature of the track. The design of the roller coaster geometry requires reliable computational tools to simulate roller coaster rides. An important ingredient to simulate the exposure of the occupant to accelerations is the modelling of the vehicle-track interaction. In this work, an approach to model the car-track interaction is proposed, being two new path motion constraints implemented for the purpose. These constraints allow to prescribe the path of each wheelset along each one of the track rails. Two paths are generated based on the roller coaster geometry, representing the geometry of the rails of the track. A multibody models to represent the roller coaster vehicle is developed and analyzed, serving as application examples of the tools developed in this work.