SSA 5: Chain

4GA10: Design of a modern Trebuchet

Name: Aron
Handed in on: 03-12-17

1. Summary
1.1. Goals and Targets
Calculate how much material the chain would take for it to be strong enough to not break.

1.2. Problems and Debatable Points

Is the 3D printer accurate enough to print tiny moving parts?

I couldn’t calculate how Strong our chain has to be to sustain the force from the dropped
counterweight so I had to estimate the time it would take to decelerate the counterweight.

1.3. Conclusion
I made a pretty flimsy calculation, because we can’t really draw any conclusions from it, but I
don’t think we will be able to do a proper calculation any time soon. This problem simply has
to many variables to get an accurate result without testing prototypes. Perhaps we can
simulate the forces on the chain in CAD so we can still design a chain that is as tiny as
possible but wont’t break.
2. Complete SSA
After looking around on the internet for a bit, I came to the conclusion that how much force
will be applied to the chain depends on the time it takes to decelerate the counterweight.
Which made makes me think there will be a maximum force, determined by the arm and the
counterweight, that must by delivered by the Trebuchet itself. I think this conclusion is a bit
counterintuitive, because the length of the trebuchet arm could decide whether our chain will
break or not.

For the maximum force the chain would be able to hold I looked in my book: ‘Roloff / Matek
machineonderdelen’ Which has a chapter dedicated to ‘kettingoverbrengingen’. But the
chains depicted in this chapter seem only to represent bicycle like chains. A bicycle like chain
has a few disadvantages over the more traditional chain type I had originally in mind for our
trebuchet.

- It is harder to draw in CAD

- I’m not sure wither the 3D printer is capable of printing it in one piece, because the
chain would be really small and I don’t think the laser will be accurate enough. (We
might have to ask this at the presentation off shapeways.)
- In a bicycle like chain a lot of material is used in the joints and for our trebuchet I think
we are going to need more material between the joints because the force needed to
stop the counterweight will be vertical.
To calculate how Strong our chain has to be to sustain the force from the dropped
counterweight I considered a few different methods:

- Newtons 2e law, F=ma, with the deceleration off the counterweight. This approach
didn’t work because you need the know time in which the counterweight decelerates.
- Impulse: , but again the time the counterweight needs to decelerate was
missing.
- Modeling the chain as an ideal spring. For this method the material properties
available were insufficient; I needed a spring constant and the flex of the rest of the
trebuchet is also needed for an accurate result.
After looking around on the internet for a bit, I found that mountain climbers also wanted to
do calculations on how much weight their rope could support. But the capabilities of the
ropes used in the mountain climbing sport is determined by testing so no forum actually had
a formula or method we could use to determine the dimensions of our final chain.

At this point I contacted Aris, because I thought I was missing something. After a quick
discussion we decided that it would probably be best to estimate the time needed for the
counterweight to decelerate, and later try to do a more precise simulation with CAD.
Temporary calculation:

I assumed the counterweight starts with just potential energy and all the potential energy is
converted to kinetic energy at the end of the drop. I neglected air resistance and the friction
in the chain and in the trebuchet.

0.5mv²=mgH 0.5v²=gH  v²=2gH  √2gH

The acceleration needed to slow the counterweight in a specific time is calculated next:

𝑣 √2𝑔𝐻
𝑎= =
𝑡 𝑡
Next I determine The force the chain will have to deliver to achieve this deceleration using
the second law of Newton:

√2𝑔𝐻
F = ma = m ∗
𝑡

I estimate that it would take somewhere between 0.05 to 0.5 seconds to stop our
counterweight.

The mass of the counterweight is 0.224 grams

For the height of the drop I take 0.6 meters

√2𝑔𝐻 √2 ∗ 9.81 ∗ 0.6

F =m∗ = 0.224 ∗ = 68.62 𝑁
𝑡 0.05

√2𝑔𝐻 √2 ∗ 9.81 ∗ 0.6

F =m∗ = 0.224 ∗ = 6.862 𝑁
𝑡 0.5
The tensile strength of the material is 48 MPa.

At the looking at the middle of a link this would mean:

𝐹 𝐹 2∗𝐹
σ= = π =
𝐴 2 ∗ ∗ D² π ∗ D²
4
Freeing D from the equation:

2∗𝐹 2∗𝐹 2∗𝐹

π ∗ D2 = → 𝐷2 = →𝐷=√
σ σ∗π σ∗π

σ is the tensile strength, 48 MPa

F is the Force needed to decelerate the counterweight.

D is the diameter of a single cylinder in a chain link.

2∗𝐹 2 ∗ 68.62
𝐷=√ = √ = 9.54 ∗ 10−4 𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠
σ∗π 48 ∗ 106 ∗ π

~1 millimeter which seems a bit tiny…

 √2𝑔𝐻
2∗m∗
𝐷=√ 𝑡
The entire formula
σ∗π