Abstract. During a roller coaster ride, the vehicles and their passengers are exposed
to multiple times the acceleration of earth's gravity. The corresponding
forces must be transmitted by the wheels to the track and the support
structure. To validate the load assumptions of static and fatigue analysis,
it is necessary to measure these forces. Currently, it is deemed sufficient
to measure only the accelerations, providing a limited view of the whole.
This article presents a method to measure the actual forces and moments that
act on a wheel. Since the diameters of roller coaster wheels are
comparatively small (approx. 200 mm) and the loads high (approx. 30 kN),
industrially available multi-axis transducers cannot be used. Therefore, a
transducer design based on strain gauges was developed and successfully
implemented in a roller coaster vehicle. Due to its scalability, its
application is not limited to just roller coaster wheels: it can be used for
all types of non-driven wheels as well.
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