Classroom Card #3061
"You are about to enter another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind."[1] Next stop, the Entrepreneurial Mindset in Vibration!
Summary
Do more than just teach Physics and Mathematics in Vibration. Enhance students' interest and understanding with EM imbedded project!
Course
Fundamentals of Vibrations is a junior-level course, mainly taught to mechanical and aerospace engineering students with a few exceptions to other engineering principles.
Time
Three weeks
Materials
The project is given after completing the study of single-degree-of-freedom systems. For the students to experience the entrepreneurial-mindset the project giving them, all homework on single-degree-of-freedom system should be done before the project is assigned.
Prerequisites
Differential Equations and Engineering Dynamics
Description
This is a problem-based learning (PBL) design project with the entrepreneurially minded learning (EML) experience embedded. A class of 60-80 students is divided into three-member teams to complete the project. Teammates are assigned randomly, and project grade is subject to peer evaluation (Peer Review in Delivery folder).
The students are to design a suspension system for an airplane landing gear using frequency spectrum as the primary guidance. An unforeseen encounter with an uncommon road surface requires the students to validate their designs by applying harmonics decomposition.
Similar to homework, the project is done out-of-class; however, it takes three weeks and is worth equivalently to eight homework sets . "Disclosure" is given in-class "progressively" each week, usually the first fifteen minutes of a class meeting. In the first week, the purpose of the project is described to the student (Project Description in Delivery folder), and the foundation for the design is revealed: model, free-body diagram, derivation of the steady-state motion (Writing Template / Grading Rubric in Instructor Notes folder). In the second week, the design strategy is revealed: logarithmic decrement, frequency spectrum creation, observation of stiffness and damping control (Writing Template / Grading Rubric in Instructor Notes folder). In the third week, the adaptation of the design to an unexpected event is verified: the Fourier series expansion of a square-tooth function, the response of the system to each harmonic (Writing Template / Grading Rubric in Instructor Notes folder).
The performance on the project can be found in ASEE SE 2023 paper [2].
Curiosity
- Demonstrate constant curiosity about our changing world
The students learn the history of airplane starting from the first flight in Kitty Hawk, NC to the present. They find that the design of aircraft landing gear is a non-stop journey while searching for a design having the desired properties.
Connections
- Integrate information from many sources to gain insight
The students find that spring is not always coil spring.
* A carefully designed strut composed of elastic elements & actuators
can provide the needed spring action (Solid Mechanics connection).
* An actuator with a proper orifice can provide an adequate dissipation of energy (Fluid Mechanics connection).
* "Jigsaw" is the natural activity for teams that often come to the instructor's office hours. The MATLAB coding members from different teams share their findings during trouble shooting, and the suspension system designers share the knowledge of stiffness and damping control without actually showing their designs.
* A carefully designed strut composed of elastic elements & actuators
can provide the needed spring action (Solid Mechanics connection).
* An actuator with a proper orifice can provide an adequate dissipation of energy (Fluid Mechanics connection).
* "Jigsaw" is the natural activity for teams that often come to the instructor's office hours. The MATLAB coding members from different teams share their findings during trouble shooting, and the suspension system designers share the knowledge of stiffness and damping control without actually showing their designs.
- Assess and manage risk
In a team, the students present three individual designs to one another, then propose one as the solution to the problem.
Creating Value
- Identify unexpected opportunities to create extraordinary value
The students propose a solution to the problem based on the viability of the components, the assessment of performance and customer value.
- Persist through and learn from failure
The students go through rigorous computer coding to obtain frequency response.
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