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Independent
Study Pictures
Mechanical
Engineering Instructional Laboratory Improvement
- Summer 2006
Nathan Heitzinger '07
This
lab is very MacGyver-esque. The students
measure strain and deflection on a beam with their
own setups (making the beams, bonding strain gages,
soldering wires, breadboarding a Whetstone bridge
circuit and taking measurements with a multimeter
and a dial indicator). Nathan make the rigid boundary
fixtures and professional looking peripheral setup.
The experimental value should be within 5% of Euler-Bernoulli
beam theory and error propagation is required.
CAD
model of the rigid boundary fixture
Nathan then machined the pieces |
Setup
seen fully assembled. With a very inexpensive
setup, the measurement was less than 3% from
beam theory |
Nathan
posing with his work, before taking three weeks
off, relaxing at home in Arizona. |
"Hmm..
Who's this MacGyver?" |
Additional
instructional lab projects include setting up an USB
data acquisition system (hardware and software) for
a laptop computer, a large curved beam for MEGR 371
lab, 5 kN load cell fixture, and building a 2-axis
tilting stage for the metallurgical microscope.
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