University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 10-5-2017 Development of an adaptive cutting device for improved crashworthiness performance Peter Shery University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd Recommended Citation Shery, Peter, "Development of an adaptive cutting device for improved crashworthiness performance" (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 7298. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/7298 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. These documents are made available for personal study and research purposes only, in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act and the Creative Commons license—CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works). 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Development of an adaptive cutting device for improved crashworthiness performance By Peter Shery A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies through the Department of Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Applied Science at the University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario, Canada 2017 © 2017 Peter Shery Development of an adaptive cutting device for improved crashworthiness performance by Peter Shery APPROVED BY: ______________________________________________ V. Stoilov Department of Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering ______________________________________________ D. Green Department of Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering ______________________________________________ W. Altenhof, Advisor Department of Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering July 7, 2017 DECLARATION OF CO-AUTHORSHIP / PREVIOUS PUBLICATION I. Co-Authorship Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis incorporates material that is result of joint research, as follows: Chapter 2 contains material published in an SAE conference paper that I developed in a collaborative effort. Experiments were performed with Ryan Smith, Thomas Gruenheid and Professor William Altenhof. Specimens for testing were supplied by Elmar Beeh and Phillip Strassburger. I certify that I analyzed and interpreted all the data, and had the role of lead author in preparing and writing the SAE conference paper. I am aware of the University of Windsor Senate Policy on Authorship and I certify that I have properly acknowledged the contribution of other researchers to my thesis, and have obtained written permission from each of the co-author(s) to include the above material(s) in my thesis. I certify that, with the above qualification, this thesis, and the research to which it refers, is the product of my own work. II. Declaration of Previous Publication This thesis includes 1 original paper that has been submitted for a conference publication, as follows: Thesis Chapter Publication title/full citation Publication status* P. Shery, W. Altenhof, R. Smith, E. Beeh, P. Strassburger, and T. Gruenheid, "Experimental observations on the mechanical response of Chapter 2 AZ31B magnesium and AA6061-T6 aluminum Published extrusions subjected to compression and cutting modes of deformation," SAE Technical Paper 2017-01-0377, 2017. I certify that I have obtained a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to include the above published material(s) in my thesis. I certify that the above material iii describes work completed during my registration as graduate student at the University of Windsor. I declare that, to the best of my knowledge, my thesis does not infringe upon anyone’s copyright nor violate any proprietary rights and that any ideas, techniques, quotations, or any other material from the work of other people included in my thesis, published or otherwise, are fully acknowledged in accordance with the standard referencing practices. Furthermore, to the extent that I have included copyrighted material that surpasses the bounds of fair dealing within the meaning of the Canada Copyright Act, I certify that I have obtained a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to include such material(s) in my thesis. I declare that this is a true copy of my thesis, including any final revisions, as approved by my thesis committee and the Graduate Studies office, and that this thesis has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution. iv ABSTRACT A circular cutting device, referred to as the quadrotor, that adaptively changes configuration to either 4, 6, or 8 equally spaced blades and endures axially cutting through a 3.175 mm thick AA6061-T6 aluminum extrusion under impact has been developed to a manufacture-ready stage. The device comprises a pair of uniquely shaped 3-bladed cutters and 4-bladed cutters. Finite element simulations of both cutters during deployment as well as during dynamic axial cutting were generated to evaluate the device performance. Virtually, all the parts during the deployment stage of either cutter have negligible stresses. During cutting, the device was found to endure 36,000 cycles, which should equate to decades of testing. A simplified apparatus which replicates each cutter deployment was also constructed to validate the numerical models of each cutter’s deployment dynamics. As was assumed in the simulations, the neodymium magnet was necessary to catch the blade upon impact with the end stop. Also, compared to the simulations, the angular rotation of the 3-bladed cutter and 4-bladed cutter geometries with respect to time had acceptable validation metrics of 0.78 and 0.70, respectively. Friction associated with the experimental setup was more significant than expected and caused both cutters to deploy slightly slower than predicted. Nonetheless, the apparatus demonstrated a successful deployment of both cutters. The slower cutter had a total response time of 47 ms, allowing the electronic system that controls the device configuration to trigger when the impacting entity is still within close range, which is desirable. Overall, based on the findings of this thesis, the complete quadrotor is worth constructing to perform dynamic axial cutting experiments in the future. v DEDICATION To my parents Robert Shery and Carol Ann Burton, and to my sister Nicole Ann Shery: for their love and encouragement vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my advisor Dr. Altenhof for his moral and financial support throughout my two years at the University of Windsor. At each stage of this project, he was devoted to guiding me in the best possible direction. His guidance has not only improved my engineering design skills, but also my redesign skills. Whether designing a geometric model or a numerical model, I have learned to better recognize the challenges in every design approach considered, and to devise multiple approaches. I must also thank him for his excellent tips and teaching of finite element analysis, which I have discovered through this project to be an interesting and valuable tool that will greatly benefit my mechanical engineering career. The technicians at the University of Windsor have also assisted in this project: I thank Patrick Seguin for constructing the solenoid driver module as well as advising me on the most economic options for the control system of the adaptive cutting device. Andrew Jenner, Dean Poublon, and Matt St. Louis also deserve my thanks for machining the parts for the cutter deployment apparatus as well as providing their insights on the manufacturing of the device. Finally, I want to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS), and the top up scholarship by the University of Windsor. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF CO-AUTHORSHIP / PREVIOUS PUBLICATION ..................... iii ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................v DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. vii NOTE ON UNITS ............................................................................................................. xi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ xii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... xiii LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................................. xxi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................... xxii NOMENCLATURE ...................................................................................................... xxiii 1.0 INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1