ME 85 - Vibration Test Stand

Fall 2004

Project Team Members:  Ryan Palmer, Matthew Weldon, Daniel Scheerer, Wade Alger

Faculty Coaches:  Dr. John Lamancusa and Dr. Martin Trethewey

Project Sponsor:  Dr. Martin Trethewey, Mechanical Engineering Department

Current Test Stand

SWAP TECH Solution

Executive Summary: 

        Currently ME 85 (Vibrations Laboratory) uses a test stand that requires constant maintenance and is difficult to set up.  The current stand resembles a two story building and is used to replicate single degree of freedom free and forced vibration.  Linear potentiometers are used to measure the displacement of “each floor”, but they create a large amount of friction and sometimes hinder the vibration.

 SWAP tech has been recruited to design a new test stand that will:

·        Fit into the current storage locker in the Vibrations Laboratory.

·        Have a resonance frequency of 5 – 10 Hz.

·        Represent something from every day life.

·        Have a sinusoidal output.

        After conferring with the Sponsor it was decided that SWAP Tech would model a car suspension.  This was chosen because of its basis on real life, robustness, and simplicity.  A D/C motor and cam were used to excite the mechanism and cable position transducers were used to measure the amplitude of the vibration.