COMPARATIVE STUDY ON HONEYCOMB STRUCTURE FOR WEIGHT REDUCTION OF GANGWAY MONORAIL

Lightweight materials nowadays usually applied in transportation industry. The transportation industry is continuously searching for methods to increase efficiency and decrease fuel consumption. Weight reduction in gangway monorail is a systematic approach that needs to be thoroughly planned, implemented, and maintained in order to coordinate efficient and cost effective. The monorail industry takes into account regarding weight ratio seriously plus added with the weight of passengers. This is where weight reduction plays an important role to increase the efficiency and ensure the integrity of monorail industry.
This project is aimed to study the comparison of weight reduction of gangway monorail by comparing existing and new result using NX Nastran but maintains the performance specifications as the weight of gangway is too heavy and must be reduced from 615kg to 510kg. Only part of gangway which is main frame will be analyzed since this is the most critical area where passengers standing. Furthermore, the criteria of Kuala Lumpur Monorail Fleet Expansion (KLMFEP) will be evaluated into this project and aluminium honeycomb sandwich panel is to replace as the new material. In addition, the first stage of the project is by designing the gangway main frame following the original shape and continued by analysis by NX Nastran to see the difference results.
The final outcome of this project is a demonstration of aluminium honeycomb sandwich panel in gangway monorail with safety factor and its behavior that is illustrated by a simple practicality of graphical visual engineering interface. In which, the manufacturer can utilized this study as improvement in monorail industry and monitor the performance of the material to make important economic and safety decision. It is hoped that this project will benefit engineers and manufacturers that is currently working on reducing weight of gangway monorail.