Design and Development of Electric Passenger Train Alarm System - Coursework Example

A PROJECT PROPOSAL ON DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRIC PASSENGER TRAIN ALARM SYSTEM. Name: Class: Course: Professor: Date: Table of contents Contents Table of contents 2 Executive Summary. 3 Problem statement. 4 Objectives 5 BACKGROUND INFORMATION 6 Research Schedule 6 Questionnaires 7 Table 1: Questionnaire sample 7 Interviews. 9 Observation. 9 Problems with the current system. 10 Disadvantages 10 Advantages 11 Proposed system. 12 Advantages. 12 Disadvantages. 12 Analysis. 13 Design 13 Design Requirements. 14 Smoke detection sub system. 14 Door sensor subsystem. 17 Speed detectors. 20 Logical Unit. 20 The General Alarm System Design 23 Budget. 24 References 25 Executive Summary. Fire is one of the major cause for accidents in the world. It is projected that fire contributes to more than 10 % of all causes of accidents. The reason can be attributed to lack of proper mechanisms and preparedness to handle such disasters. There are many ways of preventing fire breakouts but the saddest thing is that the society have not invested in any of them. The most common one is the installation of fire alarm system which automatically detect the presents of fire at the advanced stage. This will help to prevent it from spreading and also in mitigating the consequences. In most of the circumstances you will realize that the society will rise up in many numbers to put out fire but they fail to think of such simple ways of solving the problem. It is true as usual that the cost of fire detection and alarm systems can be expensive but the cost of negligence is always higher than preparedness Much of the previous studies in fire handling has revealed that for every four out of five accidents that occur in various places such as in residential areas, in the vehicles, in commercial buildings and in trains occur due to lack of fire alarms. In this project, we seek to develop an alarm system which will incorporate the part of smoke detection and provide a signal for the same in an electric train. The project will also address the issue of accidents that can be caused in the train when the doors are open. Many accidents in train are also caused when there is pressure imbalance because of open doors. In a moving train, it is usually mandatory to close doors to enable proper balancing of the train. Problem statement. The train is one mode of transport which is used almost everywhere in the world. It is used to carry passengers as well as goods. Though accidents relating to trains have been reduced by designing and development of good railways, there are still considerable cases of accidents resulting from fire outbreak in the train and also those related to open doors in the moving train yet there have been no proper system developed to handle this issues at once. The systems which already exist are the mechanical ones which commonly deal with fire alarms. Some open door detection systems have also been developed but they are not connected with the fire alarm system. They also operate in isolation from other alarm systems which brings in the issue of cost. By having the two systems separate increases the overhead cost of installation and later installation. Maintenance is also a big problem in the existing system because one will have to employ more personnel to maintain and operate the systems. In the proposed system, the fire alarm is connected with the door alarm. The system also operates under some conditions. That is; the alarm is only triggered when there is smoke in a moving train or when the door is open in a moving train. The other problem with the current systems is the time of relaying signals. The sensitivity of sensors is also a course for worry. It takes a lot of time for the alarm to be triggered and this is another issue that must be solved. Employing system with fast mechanisms of relaying signals is our top priority. Objectives The system is meant to meet the following preset objectives: To prevent fire accidents and mitigate their effects in a working train by detecting and producing a warning sound in case of fire outbreak. To reduce accidents which always occur when the train is working and the doors are open buy detecting and producing warning sound in case the doors are open. To provide a very simple fire safety prevention plan to the train users. To reduce time taken for alarms to be triggered. To reduce development and installation costs incurred by companies in trying to mitigate disaster consequences. To provide proper mechanisms for handling emergencies in the train. BACKGROUND INFORMATION The various ways we used to obtain our data include questionnaires, interviews and observation. The data we were looking for was meant to determine the viability of the project and the possible gaps that the previous systems left. The main areas we found our respondents area in the train companies in the country. The respondents gave all the answers that they were conversant with giving us a humble time in our fact finding mission. The group of respondents included the passengers, managers and staff of train companies Research Schedule The timing of our research was on time where when we were able to find many number of passages. The season was a favorable one to get us enough time in collecting our data. Time Activity. 12th August, 2017 to 13th August,2017 Administering questionnaires 13th August 2017 to 17th August 2017 Collecting filled questionnaires 17th August ,2017 to 18th August, 2017 Conducting interviews 18th August ,2017 to 19th August ,2017 Interview and questionnaires analysis 19th August ,2017 to 20th August,2017 Observation study 20th August,2017 to 21st August,2017 Project design Questionnaires Our team travelled to various train companies and terminals in the country to look for information. Questionnaires was the first method .Most of the respondents were objective in their answering attitude. This gave us a very simple way to get our data. The following is a structure of a questionnaire we used. ALARM SYSTEMS IN A TRAIN RESEARCH QUESTIONNARE. DATE……………………NAME………………………………… 1. How often do you travel in a train? Never Often Rarely 2. Has there been any fire incident in any of the trains you have ever used? Yes No 3. Have you ever witnessed any accident resulting from open doors in a train? Yes No 4. In case you have witnessed a fire accident in a train, were there any fire alarm systems to signal the accident? Yes No 5. In case you have witnessed a train accident involving open doors, were there any door alarm systems in the train? Yes No Table 1: Questionnaire sample The following are the analysis of two hundred questionnaires that were administered. Question one. The question was meant to find the exact number of the people who uses train and their frequency in using it. The following are the responses. The number of respondents--------------------…200 Those who have never………………………..30 Those who often use train…………………..100 Those who rarely use train………………….70 In the above question it is apparent that most people in Australia use train to travel from one location to another. It is also clear that a few (15%) have never used train and a considerable number of those who have used are on rare basis.50% of the passengers therefore use train. This number qualifies the need to take their subsequent responses seriously. Question two. Of the total number of respondents,2% responded to “yes” and 98% responded to “no”. This means that there at least a number of train fire accidents that have occurred in the country. Question three. Question three was administered to establish the number of passengers who have witnessed train accidents resulting from open doors.1% agreed that they have ever witnessed this kind of an accident while 99% have never been involved in it. Question four. This question was meant to find out whether indeed fire alarms have been installed in the trains.4% agreed that they have seen a fire alarm in a train.96% have not. This shows that there are less trains with fire alarm installation in them. Question five. The question sought to find out whether there were door alarms in the trains they have ever used.1% responded to yes and the rest no. This also shows that there are very less number of trains with door alarms in them. Interviews. The team also contacted some interview. The interview questions were administered to train company staff. They include the following: How many trains have fire alarm installation in them? How many have door alarm systems? How do the alarms systems work? Is the systems synchronized or not? How many number of fire accidents have been reported in the last one year? How many number of open door accidents have been reported? Most of the questions were answered and this is the analysis. For every 500 trains 5 have fire alarms representing only 0.01 % For every 500 trains 1 has door alarm representing 0.0002% 20% accidents involved fire accidents. 10% of accidents involve open doors accidents. Many respondents were also objective in their answering techniques. Though some small problems of unanswered questions were encountered, it gave us good content to enable us know what exactly we were to develop. Observation. Using this method, our team travelled to various stations to observe the operations of trains and their safety measures. The outcome was that many companies have installed fire and door alarms in their trains. It was also observed that many companies have slow response to alarms in case of an accident. The other observation is that the passengers don’t have proper preliminary training on the response mechanisms in case of accidents. It is usually a requirement that some basic disaster response lessons be given to passengers before the train moves. This requirement has not been implemented in most of the trains jeopardizing the lives of passengers. Another observation we made is the tracking of the performance of the alarm systems for the trains which have alarm systems installed in them. Most of the companies after installation of the alarm system keep of from following it to check on the performance. It is a great order of negligence not to be checking a system which has been installed with a lot of capital. Lastly, our team also made an observation on the regular safety research done by the companies. Our main concern was to check whether the train companies have taken their own initiative to find out various ways of making their clients safe. The findings were that only one % of the companies have taken that root to safety. Problems with the current system. The current alarm system involves the use of manual detection of fire and temperatures. The system sends the signals to the alarm in case the temperatures in the train increases. This means that the current system can only send signals when the fire is already up. The current system also have different separate components and they are not synchronized. The door alarm system is on its own and can work independently. The following are the disadvantages of the current system. Disadvantages They are slow in that the sensor systems depend much in the temperatures as opposed to the smoke. It takes a lot of time for the temperatures of a place to increase to a level that can be detected. The consequences will be tragic because by the time of detection some parts of the train will be already consumed by fire. They are installed only in a specific place in a train. The fact that the alarm systems are installed at the specific locations in the train possess a major danger. The train is always a very long locomotive which has many parts. By having one or few locations installed with the fire alarm systems is a great pose for danger. Some parts of the train will be consumed by the inferno. Therefore, the design of this system was a flaw and needs a solution. Slow to relay signals. The relay components of the current system are very slow.it takes a very long time to move signals from one part to another and hence to the alarm trigger. This is also a great undoing in the current system. The reason for being slow is because of the technology that was used in the development. The original cables were designed with no much consideration on the speed. With the current technological advancement such issues are to be addressed. The cost is also a great disadvantage in the current train systems. It takes a lot of money to develop the system because the system included many unnecessary parts and because they have different parts. They are not centralized. The cost of installation is also high as compared to the proposed system. To install more than three systems adversely increases the overhead cost of the system. The cost of maintenance is also another shortcoming in the currents system. It takes a lot of labor to maintain it. Lastly, the current system was not fault tolerant. The system lacked an automated way to recover from faults. It takes a lot of time for the system to detect the error and can only be described as error prone system. Advantages One of the advantages is that the system is easy to install. The system is not very complex and can easily be installed by less skilled officers. The system is comparatively cheaper to install. Proposed system. The proposed system is called Train Alarm system. This is an automated system which seeks to detect and automatically respond by triggering the alarm siren in case of fire breakout or open door. The system comes with a lot of benefits because of the technology employed and the automated nature of the system. The following are the advantages and the disadvantages of the system. Advantages. The system is fault tolerant. The system can automatically recover from error with ease. The system is faster. This is because it utilizes vey advance d relay systems and cables to transfer signals. It takes a very small fraction of time to respond to an emergency by triggering the alarm. The system is also cheaper to run. This is because various sub systems are synchronized to work together in the response unit. The system is to be installed in various parts of the train to be able to cover any emergency. The use of smoke detection technology also makes it faster thus preventing unnecessary losses in the train. Disadvantages. The system is generally expensive to develop. This include the cost of the technology employed and the equipment in use. The system also is very complex. This means that the installation process as well as development needs very skilled personnel who are rarely found. This will hike the cost of looking for these people. Analysis. From the research above, it is evident that most companies don’t have proper plans for safety precautions. Generally, our study revealed that 1% of trains in the country have alarms in them.0.9% have fire alarms and only 0.1% have door alarms. It is clear that the probability of getting an accident in the train with alarm systems is 0.01 while that of getting an accident in the alarm free trains is 0.99.This findings will enable us to develop a system which is both cheap and admissible by the companies .The system will solve much of the problems in the existing system. The problems such as cost problems will be solved by developing this hybrid system which combines both the door alarm system and the smoke detection system. This is because of the economies of scale. Developing and installing a larger system is always cheaper than developing and installing its parts. The problem of inefficiency will also be solved by having a system which responds to emergencies in time. In our proposed system the time taken in relaying the signals is tremendously reduced a factor of four. Our system will also seek to solve the issues we found in the lack of proper user manuals and safety precautions lessons to passengers. After development of the system we shall provide a full description of how to install, maintain and advice users and passengers on safety measures to mitigate any arising problem. Design The design of this system presents three different parts of system .They include the smoke detection system, the open door detection system and lastly, the speed detection system. We also have the logic unit which tries to check the conditions of alarm trigger. The alarm can be triggered if the train is moving and the doors are open or when the train is moving and there is smoke particles. If any of these conditions are met, the alarm is triggered. The door sensors are placed closer to the door. The smoke detection systems are placed one meter from the cabin. The design will show the technical operation mechanism of the system.In the design, we start with the various necessary components or subsystems which will make up the final system. Design Requirements. The requirements for the alarm system development include: Smoke detection sensor chambers. Door sensor unit box. Electric circuit. Logic components for design: And and Or gates. Siren Switches. Cables. Speedometer Smoke detection sub system. The smoke detection system uses the principal of ionization. Smoke particles are known to be heavier than the air particles. The particulate nature of matter theory reveals that there is constant random motion of particles of nature. In the smoke detection chamber, we have two plates and a radioactive element between the plates. The radiation from the radioactive element is used to ionize the air in between the plates. The particles from the radioactive elements bombards the air molecules dislodging their electrons. As the air molecules lose electrons, the other particles from the source elements gain the positive charges. This process result with development of equal number of both positive and negative ions. The positive ions are attracted to one plate while the negative ions will stick to the other part of the plate. The figure below shows the ionization effect in a chamber. In the normal situation, such a process produce a small current which is a product of ionization and can be measured normally within a system. When the particles of combustion enter the ionization chamber, they combine with the charged air particles which are lighter than them. The effect is that there will be reduced charges in the ionization chamber. The situation; which is abnormal will cause the signal processors to detect the abnormality. The final abnormal signal from the chamber will then be sent to digital logic system to be processed before getting to trigger the alarm. This is because the alarm cannot only be triggered by the smoke presence. Well, there may be other atmospheric conditions which can give the same effect as the smoke particles in the air. The solution to the confusion that can be caused by this particles is by developing another system which can be able to neutralize these effects. The effects though are not so much adverse and the system can still work as expected Door sensor subsystem. The door sensor sub system in this project will use the idea of magnetism. One end of the door is fitted with a magnet. The Other part of the door will have electric circuit which can only be complete when the door is closed as shown in the diagrams bellow. Figure 6: Block diagram of door magnetic sensor unit. Figure 7: Magnet responsible for switching. When in normal circumstances there is some current flowing through the sub systems. Inside the signal process, the presence of the current is treated as normal occurrence. If the door is open, there will be no more flow of current in the circuit and this will be detected as an abnormal condition. When the train is ready to move, always the doors are checked to ensure that they are properly closed to prevent any accident from occurring. Accidents relating to the door openings can include some people falling off the train and the imbalance that can be cause by pressure difference .This means that for every moving train, always the doors are closed. That is the normal condition. From the signal processors, this signal is send to the digital logical system to check whether the train is moving. If the train is moving the alarm siren will be triggered. Figure 8: The circuit diagram of the door sensor sub-system. Speed detectors. For the alarm siren to be triggered, one mandatory condition is that the train must be moving. In this system, sensors are attached to speedometer of the train which is an inbuilt subsystem. The operation of speedometer depends on where the speed detectors have been placed. The speedometer which is a digital component can then be programmed to send a signal if the speed is above 0.1 Km/hr. If the speed of the train is more than 0.1 Km/Hr., then it shows that the train is moving. At a resting position the speed of a train is 0Km/Hr. When the train accelerates, the speed increases and at least at the starting point it must hit 0.1Km/Hr. At this point a signal is send through the set circuitry to the signal processing stage. The same signal is relayed to the signal processors which will then determine the condition. The final signal will be relayed to the digital system to check whether the other conditions for alarm triggers are in place. Logical Unit. Inside the system is logical unit which checks the three conditions for alarm trigger. The logic system automatically checks various conditions to cause put alarm siren on. The system is designed in such a way that the signals from the subsystems cannot get directly to the alarm. They must be checked in combination with others in a programmed logic system The alarm system have three states namely: Smoke present: signal represented by S Train working: signal representation by T Door open: signal representation by D DTS is the total signal combinations. That means we can have 23 combinations=8. The conditions are depicted well in the truth table below. T S D A 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 Table 2: Truth table Logical equations A=TṠ’D+TSD’+TSD =TS(D’+D) +TS’D =TS+TS’D =T(S+S’D) =T(S+D) Figure 9: Digital logic circuit. Figure 10. Electronic digital circuit. Figure 11:Digital circuit Figure 12: Digital Circuit Figure 13: Digital Circuit. The General Alarm System Design Looking at the inputs from various sources that is whether the train is working, the door is open or the smoke is detected, the logic unit will then determine whether the signal to trigger the alarm can be send as shown below. The general system has some coordination mechanisms provided by the logic system to determine under which conditions the alarm can be triggered. Budget. The cost of any project is one thing that must be established earlier to avoid doing it halfway. This proposed system is relatively expensive in development because of the equipment’s that will be used. The budget for development can be broken down as follows. Item / project part. Cost Fact finding $4000 Purchasing of necessary materials and equipment’s. $6000 Personnel cost $5000 Staff training $400 Installation cost $600 Total $16000 The total approximated cost for the entire system is $16000.From the look of the things the cost is really high but the benefit is immense. References Ostrowski, L.J., 1918. Train-alarm system. U.S. Patent 1,286,743. Ishikawa, S., Urano, T., Ikami, K., Hibino, Y., Yasuda, M., Funahashi, Y., Moriguchi, N., Matsuhashi, H., Matsuda, T. and Fujii, K., Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, 1997. Fire alarm system. U.S. Patent 5,654,690. Jagiela, W.J., Mercury Enterprises, Inc., 1996. Door security system. U.S. Patent 5,566,995. Read More

They also operate in isolation from other alarm systems which brings in the issue of cost. By having the two systems separate increases the overhead cost of installation and later installation. Maintenance is also a big problem in the existing system because one will have to employ more personnel to maintain and operate the systems. In the proposed system, the fire alarm is connected with the door alarm. The system also operates under some conditions. That is; the alarm is only triggered when there is smoke in a moving train or when the door is open in a moving train.

The other problem with the current systems is the time of relaying signals. The sensitivity of sensors is also a course for worry. It takes a lot of time for the alarm to be triggered and this is another issue that must be solved. Employing system with fast mechanisms of relaying signals is our top priority. Objectives The system is meant to meet the following preset objectives: To prevent fire accidents and mitigate their effects in a working train by detecting and producing a warning sound in case of fire outbreak.

To reduce accidents which always occur when the train is working and the doors are open buy detecting and producing warning sound in case the doors are open. To provide a very simple fire safety prevention plan to the train users. To reduce time taken for alarms to be triggered. To reduce development and installation costs incurred by companies in trying to mitigate disaster consequences. To provide proper mechanisms for handling emergencies in the train. BACKGROUND INFORMATION The various ways we used to obtain our data include questionnaires, interviews and observation.

The data we were looking for was meant to determine the viability of the project and the possible gaps that the previous systems left. The main areas we found our respondents area in the train companies in the country. The respondents gave all the answers that they were conversant with giving us a humble time in our fact finding mission. The group of respondents included the passengers, managers and staff of train companies Research Schedule The timing of our research was on time where when we were able to find many number of passages.

The season was a favorable one to get us enough time in collecting our data. Time Activity. 12th August, 2017 to 13th August,2017 Administering questionnaires 13th August 2017 to 17th August 2017 Collecting filled questionnaires 17th August ,2017 to 18th August, 2017 Conducting interviews 18th August ,2017 to 19th August ,2017 Interview and questionnaires analysis 19th August ,2017 to 20th August,2017 Observation study 20th August,2017 to 21st August,2017 Project design Questionnaires Our team travelled to various train companies and terminals in the country to look for information.

Questionnaires was the first method .Most of the respondents were objective in their answering attitude. This gave us a very simple way to get our data. The following is a structure of a questionnaire we used. ALARM SYSTEMS IN A TRAIN RESEARCH QUESTIONNARE. DATE……………………NAME………………………………… 1. How often do you travel in a train? Never Often Rarely 2. Has there been any fire incident in any of the trains you have ever used? Yes No 3. Have you ever witnessed any accident resulting from open doors in a train? Yes No 4. In case you have witnessed a fire accident in a train, were there any fire alarm systems to signal the accident? Yes No 5. In case you have witnessed a train accident involving open doors, were there any door alarm systems in the train?

Yes No Table 1: Questionnaire sample The following are the analysis of two hundred questionnaires that were administered. Question one. The question was meant to find the exact number of the people who uses train and their frequency in using it. The following are the responses. The number of respondents--------------------…200 Those who have never………………………..30 Those who often use train…………………..

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