Roller Coaster Engineering

In Roller Coaster Industry, you will learn about the business models of theme parks and amusment parks. You will learn how to analyse the financial situation of a park and how the investment in a roller coaster will affect this via changes in visitor numbers, ticket prices and in-park spending. You will also learn how to analyse the operation situation a park by looking at the average length of stay, the theoretical hourly ride capacity and how this varies among different target groups. Based on this, you will be able to formulate the design requirements for the roller coaster investment.

In Roller Coaster Design, you will learn how to develop a track layout that satisfies the requirements. For this, we will use the software programme NoLimits 2. You will need to analyse the placement of the roller coaster in the park and make logical decisions about the location of the station building, maintenance bay and queue area. You will learn about the block logic of a roller coaster and how this influences the vehicle selection and the station configuration. Finally, you will need to include immersive elements that support the storytelling of your roller coaster and present this convincingly to a jury of industry professionals. 

In Roller Coaster Dynamimcs you will learn how to compute the g-forces acting on the passengers during a roller coaster ride. For simple two-dimensional ride elements, such as straight drops, hills, loopings and horizontally placed banked curves, you will be able to perform hand calculations. For the more complex three-dimensional track geomery of your own roller coaster, you will programme a Matlab code that can perform those calculations numerically. Using this code, you will be able to verify that the g-force profile of your design statisfies international safety standards for passenger acceleration limits. 

In Roller Coaster Structures, you will learn how to design a track and support structure that is able to withstand the loads exerted by the roller coaster vehicle. You will be taught about 3D beam theory that can be used to analyse the elastic deformations and internal stresses of slender members. You will develop at Matlab code that can be used to design a structure that complies with international safety standards related to the structure's static strength, fatigue strengh and maximum deflections. You can use this to design an structure that uses the least amount of material, while still being safe.

In Roller Coaster Systems, you will gain knowledge about the different systems that are integrated in the roller coaster track, such as launch systems, brake systems, chain lifts, booster wheels and sensors. You will learn about the different systems on board of a vehicle, with a particular focus on the restraint systems and the related passenger containment. In this phase, you will also have some elective space to investigate a roller coaster related topic of your own interest in more detail.