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Diamondback Construction Thread (Updated 3-19-09)


BoddaH1994
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^

That little bend in the support is supposed to be there. That little "bent" portion is plum (true vertical) as opposed to the rest of the left half of that support which is angled. The support becomes purely vertical to align with the center line of the lift track.
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The lift supports are angled to provide lateral stability for the structure. They also combat against lateral loads, which in this area consists primarily of lateral wind loads (which was important about a month ago when we had the strong windstorm remnants of the hurricane blow through, knocking out power to 90% of the Cincinnati area.) And lets admit it, B&M`s support structures for their coasters just look awesome to, the way they engineer their supports so elegantly.

In other areas of the ride, like in the helixs, the diagonal supports are to resist the lateral gravity loads caused by the train. Depending where the diagonal support is placed, the support would be acting in either compression or tension. Steel is great in tension but lousy with compression. (You have to be concerned with buckling with steel.) As an aside, while steel is great in tension and terrible with compression, concrete is the exact opposite. It is great in compression and has little or no tensile strength on its own. Both concrete and steel have the same thermal properties, which is why steel reinforcing bars are used in concrete; they compliment each other.

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Ugh not the Hammerhead turn vs. Overbank Turn argument again. I believe the last time it was settled somewhat like this:

B&M Likes to mimic plane manouvers. They design some of their elements after certain moves in aironautics (See also, Immelmann Manouver first preformed by a Mr. Immelmann in his plane).

Hammerhead turns are technically Overbanks, but are designed after the Hammerhead air manouver where it goes up and makes most of the turn high in the air so it looses very little speed.

It's footers vs. footings almost. Either one works but the term B&M uses is Hammerhead turn.

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