Conference Session

Mechanics and the Internet

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shahnam Navaee, Georgia Southern University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

Academic Development through Prescribed Undergraduate ProjectsAbstractIn this paper a methodology for enhancing the academic development of sophomore-levelengineering and engineering technology students using undergraduate projects is outlined anddiscussed. The specific sample project presented in the paper involves the development ofMATLAB script files and LabVIEW Virtual Instruments (VIs) for solving several EngineeringMechanics problems. The development of the solution for these problems involves theutilization of a number of valuable programming tools and powerful techniques. The selectedstudents will be guided to write a proposal to seek funding for the project through the CollegeOffice of Undergraduate Research (COUR

Conference Session

Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cliff Lissenden, Pennsylvania State University; Nicholas Salamon, Pennsylvania State University; Andrew Miller, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

AC 2008-1350: DESIGN PROJECT DESIGN FOR AN ELEMENTARY STRENGTHOF MATERIALS COURSECliff Lissenden, Pennsylvania State UniversityNicholas Salamon, Pennsylvania State UniversityAndrew Miller, Pennsylvania State University Page 13.374.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Design Project Design for an Elementary Strength of Materials CourseAbstractOur goal is to enable deeper learning by undergraduate engineering students via experience withan open-ended design project. In addition to knowledge, comprehension, and application,engineering design requires students to analyze and synthesize. Furthermore, students

Conference Session

Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bridget Wadzuk, Villanova University; David Dinehart, Villanova University; Edward Glynn, Villanova University; Shawn Gross, Villanova University; Frank Hampton, Villanova University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

within the civil engineering curriculum and some schools mayopt out of requiring these courses for all civil engineering students to add flexibility to thecurriculum and reduce required credits.There is a trend that programs are moving to a track system. Sixteen of the surveyed schoolshave track systems; schools without a formal track system do tend to let students specialize in an Page 13.1124.7area with senior level electives and design projects. The most common two tracks areenvironmental and structural, although other common tracks are in transportation, waterresources and construction management. Fourteen of the sixteen schools that offer

Conference Session

Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sridhar Condoor, Saint Louis University, Parks College of Eng.; Sanjay Jayaram, Saint Louis University, Parks College of Eng.; Lawrence Boyer, Saint Louis University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

rotates the wheel in the direction of motion. To create the couple,the pivot and the reaction at the ground are offset in the caster design. Figure 7. Caster design3.3. Intelligent Formulation ProblemsThese problems are designed to nurture the ability to identify alternative approaches to formulatethe problem. This enables them to get out of stuck-in-a-rut as well as verify the result in analternative method.3.3.1. Problem 1Let us look at the problem of a boom supporting a 2000 lb weight at its end. The projection of itsend A on the xy plane is shown in fig. 8. The boom is supported by two cables, AB and AC. Thecables can only exert tensile load, whereas the boom can take loads along its axis in both

Conference Session

Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christopher Papadopoulos

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

needed to intuit theelegant solution directly, but it was not until I embraced the use of procedure that I reallydeveloped what I now consider to be my expertise in mechanics. I suspect that forreasons ranging from laziness to sincere sense of requirement and curiosity, studentscircumvent the application of procedure and attempt to identify a simple concept (whichoften corresponds to a simple formula) to solve a problem. Page 13.226.7I also remember very clearly a poignant incident that further illustrates the distinctionbetween procedure and concept22. Two former students once asked me about the designof a crane hook for a project in another course

Conference Session

Mechanics Education Programs and Projects

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Hennessey, University of St. Thomas

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

AC 2008-565: STATICS AND DYNAMICS PROJECTS EMPHASIZINGINTRODUCTORY DESIGN AND MANUFACTURINGMichael Hennessey, University of St. Thomas DR. MICHAEL P. HENNESSEY is a tenured Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering within the School of Engineering. He has taught over 15 different courses in mechanical engineering at the undergraduate and graduate level and has written 33 papers in research (kinematics, dynamics and control of mechanical systems and related areas of applied mathematics) and mechanical engineering education, including the presentation of 10 papers at ASEE conferences (National (3), along with North Midwest (6) and St. Lawrence (1) sections

Conference Session

Anything New in Dynamics?

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Byron Newberry, Oklahoma Christian University of Science and Arts

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

Investigating Impulse Loading using Model Rocketr yAbstractA project is presented that uses experimentally determined thrust data for a commercial modelrocket engine to investigate impulse loading relations. Certain model rocket engines approachimpulse loading; completely burning in a fraction of a second. Using a fixture instrumented withstrain gages and a high-speed National Instruments data acquisition system, the studentsexperimentally collect the thrust verses time response of several Estes model rocket engines. Thestudents formulate two flight models for a rocket of known mass loaded with the specific enginebeing investigated. The first model uses the measured thrust data directly as input to the governingdifferential equation for the rocket. The

Conference Session

Anything New in Dynamics?

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brian Self, California Polytechnic State University; Charles Birdsong, California Polytechnic State University; Eileen Rossman, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

AC 2008-1437: A NEW SPIN ON TEACHING 3D KINEMATICS ANDGYROSCOPIC MOTIONBrian Self, California Polytechnic State University Brian Self has been an Associate Professor at Cal Poly for the last two years. Before that, he taught at the Air Force Academy for seven years. He is the ASEE Campus Rep and the Zone IV Chair-Elect. Besides his pedagogical research, Dr Self is actively involved in aerospace physiology and biomechanics research. He has worked extensively to involve undergraduates in his research, taking students to present at national and international conferences. By involving students in solving ill-defined projects and problems that don’t have a “correct answer”, Dr Self

Conference Session

Enhancing Mechanics Instruction

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Phillip Cornwell, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

Instrumented hammer Figure 2. Vibrations kits used in lab Page 13.1382.4Brief descriptions of the current laboratories are shown in Table 1. From Table 1 it can be seenthat these laboratories can be grouped into four different categories: Introductory lab, ECP labs,PHOTON and DIAMOND labs, and project work time. Table 1 – Description of laboratory activities in Mechanical Vibrations Week Brief description of lab activities ‚ Load RT Pro software on laptops (for data acquisition and signal processing) ‚ Load DIAMOND12-13 (for curve fitting and mode shape animation) 1

Conference Session

Mechanics and the Internet

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Calvin Ashmore, Georgia Institute of Technology; Bo Yeon Lee, Georgia Institute of Technology; Geoff Thomas, Georgia Institute of Technology; Daniel Upton, Georgia Institute of Technology; Sneha Harrell, UC Berkeley; Christine Valle, Georgia Institute of Technology; Wendy Newstetter, Georgia Institute of Technology; Janet Murray, Georgia Institute of Technology; Laurence Jacobs, Georgia Institute of Technology; Sue Rosser, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

solving has not been understood orembraced. As a foundational course, difficulties here can impact student academic confidenceresulting in a diminished sense of self-efficacy that is particularly problematic when amplified bygender and under-represented (URM) minorities issues. And such faltering so early in the majorcan cause a student to leave engineering.While difficulties in the course arise for several reasons, our project seeks to address the problemof context. Our hypothesis is that women and minorities particularly, and students generally, aremore likely to do well in statics when the problems are placed in the context of real worldusefulness. An approach to teaching that effectively scaffolds students' efforts at model buildingand

Conference Session

Anything New in the Mechanics of Materials?

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rani Sullivan, Mississippi State University; Masoud Rais-Rohani, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

conducting experiments using the BTS whereas those in the control group only performed theanalysis part. Based on the performance of the two student groups on a common exam problem,the experiential learning is found to have a positive impact. Moreover, the students’ responses toan anonymous survey indicate that the students in the experimental group generally showed ahigher degree of satisfaction with the class projects than those in the control group.IntroductionEngineering education in the early to mid twentieth century relied heavily on the use of physicalmodels and experiments to enforce the topics covered in an engineering course. However, overthe years, this important practice was deemphasized as hands-on activities were reduced andrelegated

Conference Session

Enhancing Mechanics Instruction

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gangbing Song, University of Houston; Mithun Singla, University of Houston; Christy Chang, University of Houston; Richard Bannerot, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

ability ofpiezo materials to both deform under an electrical stimulus and to generate a voltage under amechanical stimulus allows them to act as both a solid state actuator and sensor. Further, thinsheets of PZT can be surface bonded or otherwise structurally integrated into a system, allowingfor easy implementation in a dynamic system, and the nearly linear proportionality between themechanical strain and the applied/sensed voltage allows for easy control of PZT behavior.The Flexible Beam SystemA horizontal and a vertical flexible beam have been developed as educational tools. The verticalbeam presented here is based on the horizontal beam system developed in previous work 9, 10 andwas developed as a senior capstone design project. The vertical

Conference Session

Mechanics and the Internet

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Siamak Faridani, University of Oklahoma; Kurt Gramoll, University of Oklahoma

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

space in their curriculum for a full MEMS course. To help solve this issue,this project proposed to use the traditional mechanics course and lab to introduce MEMS. Inother words, use a simple MEMS experiment to demonstrate both mechanics (i.e. beam bending)and MEMS concepts electrical induced force on beam).To enable other institutions to benefit from the actual experimental process done at theUniversity of Oklahoma, a website with information and a virtual lab was developed. A typicalpage of the website is shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 The Layout of the MEMS Website Page 13.948.4One of the goals of the NSF grant was to make

Conference Session

Anything New in the Mechanics of Materials?

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arturo Fuentes, University of Texas-Pan American; Stephen Crown, University of Texas-Pan American; Bob Freeman, University of Texas-Pan American

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

introduced to motivate the student to do well. The stage of go public corresponds to the final project and report in the engineering design process.Challenge N: The following progressively more ambitious challenges enable the student toprogressively deepen their knowledge to the topic being explored.According to the authors, the different stages of the Legacy learning cycle focus to differingextents on student motivation, discovery, knowledge, and self-efficacy (key desirable studentoutcomes). Even though all stages of the Legacy learning cycle have a combination of them,there is usually one or two that dominate in each stage. For example, while the stages of“challenge”, “generate ideas”, and “go public” may all contain a

Conference Session

Anything New in Dynamics?

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Thomas Nordenholz, California Maritime Academy

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

LaboratoryAbstractThis paper describes a relatively simple method in which planar rigid body motion can bemeasured and analyzed in the context of an upper division mechanical engineering laboratorycourse. The overall intention of this work is to help facilitate upper division level laboratoryprojects in dynamics. Such projects are intended to provide students with the opportunity to i)apply and reinforce their knowledge of dynamics, ii) learn and practice modern experimentalmethods used to make and assess motion measurements, and iii) if possible, compare theoreticaland measured results.The instrumentation involves the use of two inexpensive sensors – a dual axis accelerometer anda rate gyro – and a data acquisition system (such as LABVIEW). The accelerometer

Conference Session

Mechanics and the Internet

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark Holdhusen, University of Wisconsin - Marathon County; Christa James-Byrnes, University of Wisconsin - Barboo/Sauk County; Luis Rodriguez, University of Wisconsin - Waukesha

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

. & Yoshida, M., Lesson study: A Japanese approach to improving mathematics teaching andlearning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 2004.2. Lewis, C., Lesson study: A handbook of teacher-led instructional improvement. Philadelphia: Research forBetter Schools, 2002.3. Cerbin, Bill and Kopp, Bryan, “University of Wisconsin – La Crosse Lesson Study Project,”http://www.uwlax.edu/sotl/lsp/ (Accessed January 2008) Page 13.847.9

Conference Session

Anything New in the Mechanics of Materials?

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Daniel Magda, Weber State University

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

into the material the grains take on a spherical shape withtheir upper ends bending parallel with the surface. The grain of the metal situated in the path ofthe cutting edge is captured by the tool, and the projecting part of the grain is being carried awayin the chip while still in connection with the remaining part of the grain. The middle section of Page 13.1313.3the grain is pulled out to a thin string and is finally torn off. Part of the grain is carried off by thechip while the remaining part adheres to the work surface. The top part of the portion remainingFigure 1. Micrograph of grains showing the distortion of plastically

Conference Session

Anything New in Dynamics?

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Geoff Rideout, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Tagged Divisions

Mechanics

; numerical stiffness, and implicit vs. explicit vs. differential-algebraic equations ‚ use of parasitic elements to express constraint forces in terms of state variables ‚ the general formalism and example applicationsForward dynamics simulation is incorporated into a student project in which the response of aspring-loaded catapult must be simulated. The catapult is then subjected to an inverse-dynamicsanalysis to determine the required motor torque to reset the mechanism.Summary and ConclusionsA simple, physically-intuitive multi-body dynamics formulation has been presented for use inundergraduate engineering curricula where students have not been exposed to forward dynamicssimulation of the types of mechanisms studied in mechanism