MECHANICAL SYSTEMS LABORATORY

PETER ROGERS
AL FERRI

FALL SEMESTER 2008

3
ME 4053 MECHANICAL SYSTEMS LABORATORY

DEAR STUDENT:

REPRODUCTION OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL, WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION OF THE

COPYRIGHT OWNER, PARTICULARLY IN AN EDUCATIONAL SETTING, IS AN ISSUE OF
CONCERN FOR THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY. UNFORTUNATELY, THE IMPROPRIETY
OF MUCH UNAUTHORIZED COPYING IS ALL TOO OFTEN OVERLOOKED BY USERS IN
AN EDUCATIONAL SETTING.

ALTHOUGH COPYING ALL OR PART OF A WORK WITHOUT OBTAINING PERMISSION

MAY APPEAR TO BE AN EASY AND CONVENIENT SOLUTION TO AN IMMEDIATE
PROBLEM, SUCH UNAUTHORIZED COPYING CAN FREQUENTLY VIOLATE THE RIGHTS
OF THE AUTHOR OR PUBLISHER OF THE COPYRIGHTED WORK, AND BE DIRECTLY
CONTRARY TO THE ACADEMIC MISSION TO TEACH RESPECT FOR IDEAS AND FOR
THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THAT EXPRESSES THOSE IDEAS.

WITH THAT IN MIND, GEORGIA TECH HAS SOUGHT PERMISSION AND PAID
ROYALTIES WHERE APPLICABLE FOR ALL MATERIALS ENCLOSED. THE PRICE OF
YOUR CLASS NOTES REFLECTS THOSE NECESSARY COSTS.

Note: This material comes from Questions and Answers on Copyright for the Campus Community,
Copyright 1991 National Association of College Stores, Inc. and the Association of American
Publishers.

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ME 4053 MECHANICAL SYSTEMS LABORATORY

CONTENTS

Topic Page
Note to Students 4
Oral Presentation Guidelines 5
Comments on Laboratory Notebook 6
General Purpose Equipment 8
Function Generator 9
Digital Oscilloscope 10
Quanser 110 Board 15
Basic MATLAB Commands 17
Orientation and Equipment Familiarization Session 20
Acoustics Lab 21
Vibrations Lab 1 (Dynamic Vibration Absorber) 29
Vibrations Lab 2 (Free-Free beam) 37
Controls Lab Week 1 47
Controls Lab Homework 51
Controls Lab Week 2 - 62
Tribology Lab 74

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 July 30, 2003

Note to Students

This manual is intended to provide useful guidance and background information for the
Mechanical Systems portion of ME4053. The manual is continually updated but should
always be regarded as a work in progress. In particular, specific tasks and instructions for
the individual labs are apt to be modified. Where information presented in class or in the
lab, contained in a class or lab handout, sent to you by e-mail or posted on the web site
disagrees or conflicts with anything contained in this manual, disregard the manual and
use the alternative information. If you are unsure about anything, ask me or one of the
TAs.

Your comments or suggestions on this manual or any other aspect of this course are most
welcome.

Peter Rogers
Frank H. Neely Professor