September 30, 2020

The team has been trying to research the various components of water slide design as well as determine which software would be the best for modelling the structure. Giovanna attempted to make two preliminary fundamental models of typical slides in both Inventor 2019 and SolidWorks 2020 to evaluate the ease of use of the programs. The inventor model can be seen below on the left and the SolidWorks model can be seen below on the right. These two models are not representative of what the final slide design will look like.

Inventor Model SolidWorks Model

It was determined that SolidWorks would be the most efficient modelling tool due to ease of use and industry advice. Giovanna interviewed Brodie Pakalnis, a structural engineer for the company Whitewater, an engineering company that works in the design of water parks. Pakalnis has 7 years of experience in structural design of water slides and he confirmed that Whitewater also utilizes SolidWorks for their initial models. Pakalnis gave a variety of insights and suggested that the team focus on designing an Aquatube Water Slide, which is a type of Body Slide.  The team will be discussing the information gained from the conversation with Brodie Pakalnis as we proceed with our alternatives analysis.