MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 224

Experimental Engineering

Professor Malcolm MacIver (Fall 2008)
 Email: maciver@northwestern.edu
Tel: 1-3540
Office: Tech D157



This course covers instrumentation and the use of experiments to evaluate real-world systems. Basic, practical electronics, computer data acquisition, programming and signal conditioning are taught and then applied in experiments that investigate heat transfer, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and structural dynamics. Lab sessions will be held in the Mechatronics Design Lab in the Ford Design Center room B100.

SunRayce N'Energy Car Suspension Analysis



What will you learn in this class?
  • Modern electronics
  • Analog and digital circuit construction and conversion
  • Modern data acquisition
    • temperature measurements
    • control of stepper motors
    • transient heat transfer
    • fluid mechanics
    • deformation of beams

Closed-Loop Rotational Speed Control of Cooling Fan



Lab Projects
  1. Lab Instruments: Multimeters, Oscilloscopes and Function Generators
  2. Data Acquisition and LabVIEW programming
  3. Signal Conditioning with OP-Amps
  4. Temperature Measurement and Control
  5. Thermal Diffusion in a Copper Rod
  6. Viscosity Measurement of an Unknown Fluid
  7. Enthalpy of a Heated Jet
  8. Group Project
    9.

The Manipulation of a Robotic Joint to Mimic Human Motion