Design of a drop tower test wagon

- Master Thesis at Gestamp HardTech in Luleå
Department: Research and Development

Background
Gestamp R&D in Luleå is part of the global Gestamp group which develops press hardened components for the automotive industry. Gestamp’s R&D office in Luleå currently employs around 65 engineers.

Product development work is performed in close collaboration with our clients where physical testing, finite element analysis and external customer visits is a part of the daily working routines.

Validation of crash performance is done in our testing facility in Luleå where tests utilizing a crash cart, drop or pendulum tower in speeds up to 50 km/h are used as well as hydraulic equipment for static testing.

Drop tower testing
Component validation testing at high speed is important to confirm that the design fulfills the technical requirements and correlates well with the results from finite element simulation. High speed tests at Gestamp Hardech are performed in a drop tower equipment that have a maximum drop height of 10 m and a test mass up to 850 kg which gives an impact energy about 82 kJ. The impact energy is absorbed by the test object located in bottom of the drop tower.

Two types of wagons are used in the drop tower, a steel wagon, used for higher test mass and an aluminum wagon for lower test mass. The design of the aluminum wagon used today needs to be strengthened to cope with the new available higher loads and hence a redesign is necessary.

Figure 1: Drop tower test equipment at Gestamp HardTech.

Purpose
The main purpose of this thesis is to design a new light weight drop tower test wagon to use in design validations with test masses up to approximate 300 kg. This new test wagon needs to be weight optimized and be able to withstand high external loads generated by the test object during impact. CAD and finite element analysis are the two main parts in this thesis.

Goals

• Design a new light weight test wagon for drop tower tests at Gestamp HardTech.
• Verify the design be finite element simulations.

Execution

• Literature study – Evaluate how other test institutes performs high speed crash testing.

• Implementation – Design a light weight test wagon for drop tower testing.
• Evaluation – Evaluate the design by finite element simulations.
• Documentation – Document your work continuously in a report.

Who are you?
You are probably studying Mechanical Engineering or an equivalent program. Knowledge of CAD and FEM are required. 

Time and duration
30 hp with start in 2025 (ECTS – corresponding roughly 5 months full time).
The scope of this thesis is adopted to one student.

Contact
Kenneth Isaksson
Teamleader, R&D
kisaksson@se.gestamp.com
073 661 46 81

We’re looking forward for your application. If you have any questions regarding a Master’s thesis or Gestamp feel free to contact us.

www.gestamphardtech.se