Rigid body dynamic analysis on foldable stairs meant for evacuation system in buses during emergency using ANSYS

Abstract

In the modern world there is need for easy and fast mobility access to everyone. In developing countries like India, people are encouraged to use public transportation especially transportation through bus sector plays a major role. To do so there is a need for additional safety features in buses. Nearly 35 to 40 thousand bus accident cases are reported every year in India as a source from IRTD - Bus accident reports - 2017 [29]. In this thesis various accident case scenarios are studied in constrained territory and problem faced by passengers lies in easy evacuation of passengers. During emergency, for easy evacuation of passengers there is need of a mechanism or setup. All over the world research is going on to build a safety evacuation system. In this paper, existing solutions are studied; their drawbacks and reason for not using or implementing those solutions are discussed. Concept generation is carried out and concept screening is done by considering the known constraints and a final concept is selected. Concept of Pneumatically actuated foldable stairs with scissors like element is selected to address this issue. A structure of pneumatically actuated foldable stair is built using SOLIDWORKS software. ANSYS software is used for analysis purpose. Pneumatically operated actuation mechanism has been designed and developed. Finally Rigid body analysis is performed to ensure that either there is any necessary of extra link or to remove any excessive link for proper working (folding and unfolding) of stairs with minimum response time. Final design is verified with Rigid body Dynamic analysis for its operation (folding and unfolding). Automation of folding and unfolding of stairs is done by using pneumatic actuation system which will be helping the passengers to evacuate quickly and effortlessly. Hence, works as lifesaving gadget.