Giant Drop Brakes

[mickey_079]

How exactly do the breaks work on the tower of terror and what makes them fail-safe? How are they fail-safe?

[dreamworld_rulz]

And what makes the woosh noise when it slows down.

[Dylaan]

I know I'm one of the people that knows hardly anything about this topic, however I have a slight understanding of them. Anyway, I think TOT has two sets of brakes. The electro-magnetic ones, and the 'earth magnets' situated in the 'bog area' behind the station. If the power goes out during the ride, obviously the electro-magnets aren't going to work. That's what the earth magents which are located behind the station are for. Being completely unreliant on anything else, they still will work during a power outage, thus making them 'fail-safe'. Mind you, I bet the deceleration would be fairly uncomfortable during a power failure as I think you make a rather abrupt stop as opposed to regular operation. Like I said, I'm not the guy to ask about this kind of stuff. If you need any more information try Richard, Adam or Gazza.

[mickey_079]

lol thanks for your help WnW, but I already have a full understanding about the brakes on TOT, I was asking about the fail safe brakes on the Giant Drop. Thanks for your help but. As for the woosh noise dreamworld, I think its just the air whipping past and through the gondolas, because if you listen carefully, the woosh noise occurs before the brakes, and you can hear when it hits the brakes, like when you move a stick fast through the air you can hear the air rush past it. The Space Probe use to make that noise as well.

Edited October 19, 2006 by mickey_079

[djsupersleuth]

The Space Probe use to make that noise as well.

Funny that, add 2 and 2 what do you get? The GD brakes the same way the Probe did (does) Obviously there are more magnets on GD because of its higher carrying capacity but the principle remains the same.

[Dylaan]

How exactly do the breaks work on the tower of terror and what makes them fail-safe? How are they fail-safe?

Sorry, I was merely replying to your actual post. I read the title once, and that was on the home page. I have no idea how they work on GD. I'm guessing they're just earth magnets but when am I actualy right about something these days? Like I said before, ask one of the 'senior' community members.

[Spotty]

It would be basically the same system as Supeman: Escape's breaking system where there would be a Copper or some metal plate on the rear of the Gondola, that reacts with the magnetic strips on the Tower causing the gondola to Decelerate.

[Gazza]

I thought i did a big post on how failsafe magnetic brakes work, anyway, here it is again, the reason they are fail safe is because they dont rely on an external power source, the only way they could fail is if they fell apart, but anyway for the second time....

For starters, you have two paralel magnets placed a little bit apart, with the north side of one magnet facing the south side of the other. That makes a magnetic field exist between them. Now, when you move a length of conductor (Eg a wire, or in this case the copper brake fin on the freefall car) through a magnetic field a current is created in the conductor. (Generators actually work by this principle, since coils of wire spin around in a magnetic field, since the coils are rotating, they are moving, and thats why you get current from a generator) So in this case, because the copper brake fin goes in between the pair of magnets you get a current in the fin. NOTE THAT BECAUSE THE BRAKE FIN IS MADE OF COPPER IT IS NOT ATTRACTED TO THE MAGNETS (since only very few metals can be attracted to magnets, like iron for example) Since the copper fin has a current flowing through it (yes current does flow) the copper fin acts like an electromagnet. (It is like when you wind coils of wire around a nail, and then let current flow through the coils by hooking it up to a battery, you make an electromagnet) Because of the direction of the current in the fin, the electromagnetic field created actually opposes the magnetic field from the pair of magnets mentioned at the start. Because these fields are opposing each other the freefall car is forced to slow down. And for those of you that already know this stuff, im sorry that I used "Current" instead of EMF, but i wanted to keep it simple.

Edited October 19, 2006 by Gazza

[Adam]

Magnetic Braking The Giant Drop uses fixed magnets to turn the extremely fast downward kinetic energy into heat or electrical current through a reactionary process with special metals/magnets. The fundamentals of this system are very simple and can be easily demonstrated using smaller magnets (like those you'd find in a science class). This style of braking is very smooth as the deceleration is directly proportional to the speed of the object (a model for the deceleration would be similar to exponential decay). Redundancy Engineering The term 'fail safe' means that if the device was to fail—in this instance, the braking component of the ride—it would fail in a safe state, causing minimal harm to anyone on the attraction. This word is very common among many electrical/mechanical systems where safety is important. Some security systems also promote a 'fail secure', which—as the name would suggest—fail in a secure state. For example; if an electronic door was fail secure, it would remain locked and secure if the door failed. There are various design protocols and statutory regulations that make it unlawful for a bigger device (such as an aeroplane) to stop working from the failure of a single component (such as a single pipe coming undone). Similar protocols are applied to the theme park industry so that if a single component dies, such as the brakes on the Giant Drop, the ride will continue to operate and function in a safe manner. Scooby-Doo is another example of a ride with fail safe brakes. While they're not as exciting as those on the Giant Drop they will stop the carriage even if there is a loss of electricity or air pressure. It is very bad practise to design a critical ride component that is not fail safe. I remember an accident at a Six Flags theme park that was due to the brakes requiring air pressure to close. I think it was Intamin who designed the brakes. It's a prime example of something that isn't fail safe.

[mickey_079]

Thanks very much for all that. Know I know. THANK YOU

[Richard]

The "whoosh" sound you hear as you slow down on Giant Drop is a byproduct from the electrical engergy that is created by the braking process. It's the same noise that an electric motor will make. I could look up what causes it if you'd like, but it'd most likely be at the molecular level of the metal in response to the intense magnetic field. The sets of magnets on Superman Escape, Giant Drop, Tower of Terror are attached to the cars. The alloy fins are bolted to the track. It's done this way for no less than three logical reasons - it's cheaper and also more maintenance-friendly to have one set of magnets and lots of fins than it is to have one set of fins and lots of magnets. It's also maintenance friendly seeing as the magnets are made up of several different parts bolted together than need regular inspection while the fins are far more simple. Finally is the issue of grounding the electricity which is created in the fins. I'm not totally sure how the older Intamin coasters with train-mounted fins (Such as the Superman - Ride of Steels) dissipated this current safely but I'm assuming they had some kind of ground connection sorted out.

[Gazza]

Stop me if im wrong, but dont the B&Ms with magnetic brakes have the magnets on the track? Also, with the way to ground the current produced in the fins, could it be some sort of flexible metal spring (think like a bigger version of the one in a pen) that would brush along the track in some inconspicous spot.

[Richard]

Yep, the B&Ms which feature magnetic brakes (alongside traditional friction brakes) have the magnets mounted on the track. My guess is it was done this way because of space limitations. With the thick central beam which the friction brakes use and the lowness of the trains to the track I'm guessing there isn't adequate space underneath for magnets mounted to the trains.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

im not sure this is accurate, but im sure I remember someone talking about an accident on probe involving the magnets. As far as I recall, the way it was talked about, the magnets on probe were mounted to the tower, not the gondola. Im sure Supersleuth could enlighten us.....

[mickey_079]

Yeah i remember someone telling me that too, it was in one of these forums, was it about that dude getting his hands stuck in the brakes? Yeah I was also told the brakes were on the tower and the copper fins were on the gondolas.

[Swanny]

It was in a Wonderland thread. A mechanic was doing something with the magnets, and then 'CLUNK' and his thumbs were gone .

Edited October 21, 2006 by Swanny

[Richard]

All Intamin Giant Drops feature the fins on the tower and the magnets on the gondola. I know this to be the case, but if anyone has any close-up shots of the lower section of Space Probe's tower they can post to show these fins - the pics in our Space Probe gallery are a bit dark to show it clearly.

[Bussy]

The GD brakes the same way the Probe did (does)

Is there something you're not telling us Dj? From memory the magnets were on the Space Probe gondolas and the fins were on the tower. Every so often you could see where the black paint was coming off the fins exposing the copper under it. "The Bus is now leaving for Painted Point, Victoria"

[voobi]

Hey guys, whats the breaking time of the giant drop?

[saberon]

Giant drop takes aproximately 2 seconds to slow from full speed to a safe return to station speed. Nb about Tower of terror fail safe brake system. Behind the tower of terror station there is a segment which contains large perminent magnets. These are used when the ride loses sync with itself and the LSM is unable to stop the train. Once the train passes through the station it passes over the perminent magnets which quickly but very smoothly stop the car which is made from steel. The ride operator then manually releases the restraints and the passengers procede along a short walkway running parallel to the track and walk about 10 - 15 metres back to the station. As the magnets cannot be disabled, the train is hooked to a winch which slowly drags the train off the magnetic section (takes about 4 minutes) and returns it to the station and the load unload friction brakes are engaged again and LSM is reset.

[stardust]

Hey guys, whats the breaking time of the giant drop?

Hey we actually did this for physics, the time is: 2.92 seconds Could be slightly over though lol Need angles as well?

[T-bone]

Nb about Tower of terror fail safe brake system. Behind the tower of terror station there is a segment which contains large perminent magnets. These are used when the ride loses sync with itself and the LSM is unable to stop the train. Once the train passes through the station it passes over the perminent magnets which quickly but very smoothly stop the car which is made from steel. The ride operator then manually releases the restraints and the passengers procede along a short walkway running parallel to the track and walk about 10 - 15 metres back to the station. As the magnets cannot be disabled, the train is hooked to a winch which slowly drags the train off the magnetic section (takes about 4 minutes) and returns it to the station and the load unload friction brakes are engaged again and LSM is reset.

That is actually some very interesting information there Saberon. Have you experienced this before, or are you just "in the know"?

[saberon]

Both. BTW you don't really notice that it's lost LSM sync really till you have stopped because you are travelling so fast and then you notice that you're way past the station hehe.

[Swanny]

Giant drop takes aproximately 2 seconds to slow from full speed to a safe return to station speed. Nb about Tower of terror fail safe brake system. Behind the tower of terror station there is a segment which contains large perminent magnets. These are used when the ride loses sync with itself and the LSM is unable to stop the train. Once the train passes through the station it passes over the perminent magnets which quickly but very smoothly stop the car which is made from steel. The ride operator then manually releases the restraints and the passengers procede along a short walkway running parallel to the track and walk about 10 - 15 metres back to the station. As the magnets cannot be disabled, the train is hooked to a winch which slowly drags the train off the magnetic section (takes about 4 minutes) and returns it to the station and the load unload friction brakes are engaged again and LSM is reset.

Are these 'large permanent magnets' the earth magnets? There's been alot of talk lately about GD's braking and how the whole system works. I have a few question: Does the GD have earth magnets like the TOT? If so, are they the magnets that everyone has been talking about as the 'fail-safe' magnets on GD, or are they back-up magnets to another set of magnets?

[djsupersleuth]

Same as GD magnetic brakes. Probably different in size, mounting, number of etc but same technology. Rare Earth permanent magnets.