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Contemporary Tools
Whether it is a ‘sudden stop' on an escalator or the whipping effect on a theme park ride, the science needed to understand injury causation are acceleration and resulting force. As you may recall from your high school science class, force equals mass multiplied by acceleration (F=ma). An accident scenario can be recreated (safely) by engineering experts, and with the right tools, acceleration can be measured and force calculated. One such tool is an accelerometer.
In the industry of forensic engineering experts, there should be no surprise that engineers love new gadgets. In a recent case, data acquisition was required during testing and it had to be waterproof. CED searched out a new tool, the HOBO Pendant G Data Logger (accelerometer). This accelerometer is different in that not only is it waterproof, it is also small in size, robust, and facilitates faster data capture and transfer to computer software for engineering analysis. In addition, this contemporary tool costs significantly less and is more portable than the traditional accelerometers. The application of this waterproof accelerometer is consistent with CED's continual effort to provide the best service and minimize costs. In the execution of forensic engineering, there should always be an attempt to balance requirement for science with the best tools with costs associated to work the case. In the search for tools to accommodate balance in this case, the engineer was able to deliver the client good news.
Now, back to the engineering and accident recreation. Consider a case of an accident involving a rider on a theme park ride. Rides are designed to operate within a threshold of acceleration. There are standards that call out such thresholds. It is the engineering expert's job to address the applicable standard and use an accelerometer to measure data during the ride and confirm compliance with the threshold. Additionally, a biomechanical engineering expert can then use this data to conduct a force and motion analysis to qualify injury causation.
In this case, good things did come in small packages and the G Data Logger It fits in the palm of your hand.
At CED, we maintain a quiver of many tools for our inspection tool kit. Contact us to find out some of our latest acquisitions and what sets us apart from the competition.
Featured Engineer: Garry Brock, Jr., Ph.D. Biomechanical / Mechanical Engineer
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