Modular Vibration Lab Apparatus for Dynamic Systems Education

Abstract

In undergraduate engineering vibration courses, students lack intuition for how changing mass-spring-damper parameters affect system responses. Currently, the University of Michigan Aerospace Engineering Department has no physical, cost-effective solution that demonstrates a mass-spring-damper system with varying parameters and degrees of freedom in a free response and a base excitation configuration. Our project sponsor, Professor Abhishek Kumar, approached our group with a desire for a physical device that helps demonstrate vibration theory to undergraduate students in the Aerospace Engineering department through lecture and lab settings. Our objective was to create a device that helps students predict changes in system response solely based on intuition, without involving mathematical calculations. The device should be portable in a standard lab cart, low-cost, safe, easy to operate, and increase student intuition of how changes in mass-spring-damper parameters impact system response.