Engineering Design

(Perspective of a Mechanical Engineer working in Vibration

related problems)


Abhijit Gupta, Ph.D, P.E.
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, IL 60115

My research interests

Measurement of Dynamic Modulus (Including Damping) of
Viscoelastic Materials (related to make cars and trucks quieter)

Accelerated Life Testing (how can you give warranty for
7year/100000 miles while testing for few hours)

Damage Detection (How do we know it is damaged and how much)

Passive and Active Vibration and Noise Control (Minimize vibration
and Sound)

Electromagnetic Shock Absorber (makes more sense with high
gasoline prices)


First some thoughts on engineering in general
Engineers are tinkerers and problem solvers

NASA has more engineers than scientists
Mechanical Engineering is one of the important
Engineering Discipline

Mechanical Engineering encompasses many aspects:
Aerospace
Automotive
Manufacturing
Utility Industries
Biotech
Impossible to name an industry that does not employ mechanical
engineers
Mechanical Engineers are involved with

Conversion of energy (engine, turbine, motor, fuel
cell, etc.)

Conversion of motion (gears, piston-cylinder, etc.)

Design and Analysis

Choosing the correct material

Manufacturing the product

Steps in Engineering Design
1. Identify the need
2. Define the problem
3. Search for information
4. Set Design Criteria and Constraints
5. Consider a number of solutions
6. Analyze the design
7. Make a decision
8. Develop specifications
9. Communicate the design solution


However sometimes it helps to
first reverse engineer and then design


what is reverse engineering?


Dissecting a product
Understanding how it functions
Learn basic principles
Designing/building a new product
with the knowledge from dissection


Examples
Before we get serious let us see some examples of
Mechanical Engineering in the field of Vibration
and Acoustics and have some fun

We will look at human body vibration, machinery vibration,
structural vibration, and vibration issues in sports

It may be added that when excitation frequency equals to
natural frequency, it is called resonance (and usually
should be avoided)


Linear vs. Oscillatory Motion
Detroit
35 Miles
Speed
limit
65 MPH
TEST
0-60 MPH
in 8.6
second
D
Time
Displacement
Time
Time
Velocity
Acceleration
V
A
F = c v
Mechanical Parameters and Components
Velocity Displacement Acceleration
d
v a
k
c
m
m
F = k d
F = m a
Undamped free vibration
D
d = D sin
n
t
m
k
T
Time
Displacement
Frequency
1
T
Period, T
n
in [sec]
Frequency, f
n
= in [Hz =
1
/sec]
1
T
n

Displacement
k
m

n
= 2 f
n
=
Natural frequency of a simple single degree of freedom
undamped system is given by the equation

N
= square root of (stiffness / mass)

Usually we do not want structures to vibrate in resonance
(though there are some special cases where resonance is
desirable)
Effect of Change in Mass
time
m
1
m
Increasing mass
reduces frequency
1
n
m m
k
2

n
f
Mass, Spring and Damper
Increasing damping
reduces the amplitude
time
m
k c
1
+ c
2

Human Vibration
Resonance Frequency Ranges of
Human body sections
Eyeball, Intraocular Structure (20-90 Hz)
Head (axial mode) (20-30 Hz)
Shoulder Girdle (4-5 Hz)
Chest wall (50-100 Hz)
Arm (5-10 Hz)
Hand (30-50 Hz)
Abdominal Mass (4-8 Hz)
Spinal column (axial mode) (10-12 Hz)
It may be noted that the abdominal mass mode (around 5 Hz)
makes us nauseating and is avoided in automotive design.
Top gun pilots had problem with a particular maneuver when the eyeball
socket went into resonance.
Machines and Vibration
Forces and Vibration
891875
Vibration
+ =
Input
Forces
System
Response
(Mobility)
Forces caused by
Imbalance
Shock
Friction
Acoustic
Structural
Parameters:
Mass
Stiffness
Damping
+ =
Vibration
Parameters:
Acceleration
Velocity
Displacement
Frequency Frequency Frequency
Machine condition monitored by vibration
Structural Applications
Now let us look as some structural vibration
applications
1) vibration of an windmill
2) Tacoma Narrows bridge failure
3) Vibration of a car



Windmill Vibration
8
Rotating Wind Turbine
35
9
Testing of a small object
38
Testing of a large object (bridge)
Tacoma Narrows Bridge Failure
Causes of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Failure
The bridge survived only 4 months (July 1 Nov 7,
1940)

Possible causes of Failure mentioned:

Resonance (it was not a case of steady-state excitation, so
resonance was not the cause)

Vortex Shedding (Again not a cause because the frequency observed
(0.2 Hz) and frequency calculated (1 Hz) were not same

Aerodynamic Flutter (due to restricted wind flow when the architect
changed the design suggested by the engineer). New design
addressed that issue.

Damage Detection
Minnesota Bridge Collapse : The I-35W Mississippi River
bridge was an eight-lane, 1,907 feet steel bridge across the Mississippi
river in Minneapolis collapsed at 6:05 pm on Aug 1, 2007. Thirteen
people died and approximately one hundred more were injured.
This raised the whether vibration can be used to detect damage in
bridges before they collapse.

In the past vibration signature has been used for damage detection of
aerospace applications and military applications.

Automobile Vibration
20
Points where the car is excited
Components of a car
For comfortable ride in a car requires analysis of car frame
and many other components, e.g. exhaust systems
(bellows), shock absorber, tire etc.

We will look into a shock absorber in more detail


How about Shock absorber
We know what a typical shock absorber does

Saves us from unpleasant vibration
(recall that 5 Hz abdominal mode)
by dissipating energy
But why not try to recover the energy?
Electromagnetic Shock Absorber
Need for Improved Vehicle Fuel Efficiency
In traditional Shock Absorber Energy is wasted as heat (In
a semi-tractor trailer shocks are hot within fifteen minutes
of driving)
Information about car/truck available. Also information
about road profiles are available
Design criteria is that it should behave similar to a
conventional shock. There may be space and weight
constraints

m
s
x
s
k
s
c
s
x
u
m
u
k
t
u
Let us look at a quarter bus/truck/car model
u = road profile input
kt = tire spring constant
mu = unsprung mass
xu = displacement of unsprung mass
ks = suspension spring constant
cs = suspension damping constant
ms = sprung mass
xs = displacement of sprung mass
Force on a coil moving inside an electromagnetic field is
proportional to velocity same as that for conventional
damper for shock absorber.
This leads to Electromagnetic shock absorber

We worked on this concept with Argonne National Lab.

Bose corp also worked on this concept and plan to use for
a high end Lexus model.
Lab Testing of EM Shock 1 at
NIU Vibration Lab
Lab Testing of EM Shock 2 at NIU Vibration Lab
Mark2 EM shock test across 1 ohm
0.00
0.20
0.40
0.60
0.80
0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00
Velocity in in/s
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

a
c
r
o
s
s

1

o
h
m

i
n

V
Series1


Vehicle Testing
(ATV and close up view)
18
Aerospace Applications (Truss of Space Station)
61
63
Vibration in sports
Golf Clubs, Tennis Racquets, Spring Board
diving, Baseball - all has vibration applications.

Even a traditional sport like Baseball has been
studied for vibration related issues.

Solid bats have only bending modes whereas
aluminum bats or composite bats also have hoop
modes with desirable trampoline effect.

Acoustics
Sound is caused by vibration, so the science of studying
sound (acoustics) and vibration are related
If you are into music (and especially so called audiophile),
you may already have looked at vibration response of
speakers and decided what kind of speakers you want
Quite often it is the low frequency response that drives up the
price. Last year two Mechanical Engineering students
made a pair of concrete enclosure speakers in their final
design project and the speakers were almost as good as
thousand dollar worth speakers
Sound and Human Being
(some are music, some are noise,
and some in between)

Designing a product
Sometimes products are designed so that vibration is
minimum and sometimes products are designed so that
sound is minimum ( or maximum). Eventual goal is to
either make human being more comfortable or make a
machine or building last longer
Now may be the time to take apart a product and think all
engineering aspects of it. Vibration and acoustics may be
one concern, material and manufacturing issues are also of
concern and sometime there may be interdisciplinary i.e.
electrical or industrial engineering issues need to be
addressed.

The Future
Of course there are more
challenging problems
which are beyond the
scope of this class but
later in your career
someday you may want to
be involved with those.
For the time being you may
start with a small project
like designing a flashlight
which would not depend
on battery.
Acknowledgement
CEET Associate Deans office
Bruel & Kjaer
Argonne National Laboratory
NASA
Sandia National Laboratory