| Welcome to the laboratory course web page! | Print this page |
Welcome to the website of the laboratory courses, serving MAE171a, MAE175a and MAE126a. The aim of the laboratory oriented courses is to analyze experiments in the area of mechanical engineering (MAE171a), aerospace engineering (MAE175a) and environmental engineering (MAE126a). The experiments in this laboratory course are tailored towards a specific engineering discipline and include fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, vibration, control systems, linear circuits, heat transfer and polution experiments. For the fluid and solid mechanics experiments large facilities such as a wind tunnel, a water channel and a load frame testing machine are used to analyze the behavior of both fluid and solid mechanical systems. The vibration and control experiments are configured around the modeling and experimental verification of the vibrations of a flexible structure, the high-speed and high-accuracy position control of a flexible lumped-mass mechanical system and a moment gyroscope. The heat transfer and smoke plume experiments involve high precision temperature and density measurements in laboratory scale facilities tailored towards environmental engineering aspects.
The Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Laboratory course consists of lectures and 9 weeks of laboratory
experiments. During those 9 weeks, students have to complete 3
different experiments that each take 3 laboratory sections (3 weeks) to
complete. The lab course is accompanied with lectures to explain the
experiments and discuss error analysis and engineering ethics. The
lecture discuss the general outline and
underlying theory of the experiments, which will be similar for both
the
Mechanical and Environmental Engineering students and slightly
different for the Aerospace Engineering sudents. As a
result, the lectures are given in separate lecture rooms (PCYNH 109 and
CENTER 212) but will be taught by different
lecturers. For more information on the course or download laboratory
handouts, please consult the menu displayed on the left.
Please press the reload button on your
browser to make sure you see the
latest version of this web page.
| Prerequisites | goto top |
In order to enroll in the MAE laboratory
courses
one needs a grade of C– or better in MAE101C or CENG103C or CENG101C;
MAE160,
MAE141A or MAE143B, MAE170 and senior standing in engineering major. In
general, no exceptions can be made to the listing of these
prerequisites,
as the basic background knowledge of these courses is required to
complete
the laboratory experiments safely and succesfully.
| Course Organisation | goto top |
The course consists of
lectures and laboratory
work. The laboratory work takes place in the UnderGraduate
Laboratory (UGL) located
at Room 107, EBUII, in the UnderGraduate
Control Laboratory (UGCL) at
Room 121, EBUII, and the Environmental
Engineering Laboratory, Room 119, EBUII. Lectures are given in PCYNH 109 and CENTER 212 on mondays, wednesdays and fridays
from 5:00pm
to 6:50pm.
During the laboratory
hours, 3 out of 9 of the following different experiments must be
completed:
List of 9
Possible Experiments
|
|
|
WT |
Wind Tunnel Experiment
(171a/175a) |
|
WC |
Water Channel Experiment
(171a/175a/126a) |
|
MT |
Material Testing
Experiment (171a/175a) |
|
PC |
Position Control
Experiment (171a) |
|
VA |
Vibration Analysis
Experiment (171a/175a) |
|
HT |
Heat Transfer Experiment
(171a/126a) |
|
SP |
Smoke Plume Experiment
(171a/126a) |
|
GC |
Gyroscope Control
Experiment (175a) |
|
LC |
Linear Circuit Experiment
(171a) |
The lectures are used to explain the laboratory work to be done and the different experiments that have to be addressed. Additionally lectures are given that cover the topics of laboratory report writing, statistics and error analysis and engineering ethics. The course material consists of Laboratory and Lecture Notes available via this webpage. Office hours are during laboratory hours and by appointment.
| Course Staff | goto top |
The course staff consists of Course Instructors, Tutors and Laboratory staff. The Course Instructors for Winter 2009 are Prof. R.A. de Callafon, Prof. V. Nesterenko, Prof. K. Seshadri and Dr. Shevchenko and they can be contacted as follows:
The laboratory staff
consists of
For most of the
experiments, Tutors or
Teaching
Assistants (TA's) are available for additional help and guidance during
the laboratory hours. The information on the TA's will be updated on
this website as soon as this is available:
| Writing Lectures | goto top |
Objectives
Some of the lectures given in this course
are specifically designed to assist students in acquiring the technical
writing skills necessary to develop a clearly written, coherent
laboratory
research report. Instruction will focus on the rhetorical
structure
and linguistic features of laboratory research reports. Using the
tool of text analysis, students will learn to analyze the features
(content,
organization, language and format) of the genre and apply this
knowledge
to the writing of the laboratory reports. Please check the class
schedule below for the exact time and location of the writing
lectures.
Course Texts
Writing
handouts
are available on this website. Students are expected to print out
and read handouts for relevant lectures and tutorials prior to
class.
Please bring handouts to lectures for your convenience.
| Lecture on Statistics and Error Analysis | goto top |
Objectives
During the laboratory work of this class,
experimental data is gathered to verify specific phenomena from an
experimental
point of view. These phenomena may include fluid, flow or material
properties
and vibration analysis. To analyse the consistency and reliability of
the
data, some basic statistic analysis is mandatory during the
experiments
and the analysis of the results in the laboratory reports. In
addition,
propagation and sources of errors during the experiments has to be
analyzed
to predict the behavior of the error made during the experiments on the
final modeling and validation results. For this purpose, a lecture is
given
that reviews the basic sources of errors in indirect measurements
during
the laboratory experiments. Please check the class
schedule below for the exact time and location of the statistics
and
error analysis lecture. Basic statistical analysis based on Normal and
t-distributions will be reviewed to enable the construction of
confidence
intervals for your measurements.
Course Texts
The lecture notes for the statistics and
error analysis is available in the form of a handout.
Students are expected to print out and read the handout before the
error
analysis lectures prior to class. Please bring handouts to lectures for
your convenience.
| Ethics Lectures | goto top |
As part of this course course, three lectures on engineering ethics will be given. Attendance during these lectures is mandatory and attendance during the ethics lectures will be verified. You are also required to fill out the Ethics Lecture Handout. Please check the class schedule below for the exact time and location of the ethics lectures. The lectures consist of a video program discussing the Challenger disaster followed by a open discussion and question session on the engineer ethics and managment decision processes taken place during the Challenger disaster.
Remember: without the ethics lectures
or without filling out the ethics lecture handout you will receive an
incomplete
grade. An attendance list will be maintained to see
if you have missed any of the ethics lectures. If you did miss one of
the ethics lectures, contact Nick
Busan, tel (858) 534-9585, email: nbusan@ucsd.edu to set up a time to attend the make-up
lectures
during finals week.
| Class Schedule | goto top |
The lectures are used
to give an introduction
to and explanation of the laboratory experiments and the accompanying
theory
to analyse your work in the form of a laboratory report. Lectures are given
in PCYNH 109 and CENTER 212
on mondays, wednesdays and friday from 5pm- 6:50pm.
It should be noted that not all days are used for lectures whereas
experiments start only in the 2nd week of the Winter quarter. To speed
up
the laboratory work, most lectures
are concentrated in the first three
weeks. Additional lectures on error analysis and report writing
are done
in the subsequent weeks. Half way during the course, the mandatory
engineering ethics
lectures are offered, while in one of the last weeks a special lecture
is reserved
for the Mechanical Engineering students via a presentation of MAE171b,
MAE175b and MAE126b
projects.
During the Winter
Quarter of 2009, lectures
will be given on the following dates only. Please observe the location PCYNH 109 or CENTER 212 of the lecture, as lecture are given in
parallel.
| Week 1 | |
| 01/05 Monday | Organization
Lecture for 171a/126a students in
PCYNH 109 (Nesterenko/Seshadri/Shevchenko) and for 175a students in Center 212 (de Callafon) |
| 01/07 Wednesday | Position
Control
Experiment for 171a students in PCYNH 109 (de Callafon) Water Channel Experiment for 175a students in Center 212 (Seshadri) |
| 01/09 Friday | Water
Channel Experiment
for 171a/126a students in PCYNH 109 (Seshadri) Gyroscope Control Experiment for 175a students in Center 212 (de Callafon) |
| Week 2 - start of 1st experiment & laboratory safety training | |
| 01/12 Monday | Smoke Plume Experiment
for 171a/126a students in
PCYNH 109 (Shevchenko) Vibration Analysis Experiment for 175a students in Center 212 (de Callafon) |
| 01/14 Wednesday | Material Testing Experiment for 171a/175a students in PCYNH 109 (Nesterenko) |
| 01/16 Friday | Vibration Analysis
Experiment for 171a students in PCYNH 109 (de Callafon) Wind Tunnel Experiment for 175a students in Center 212 (Seshadri) |
| Week 3 | |
| 01/19 Monday |
Holiday (M.L. King Jr.) |
| 01/21 Wednesday | Heat Transfer Experiment for 171a/126a students in PCYNH 109 (Shevchenko) |
| 01/23 Friday | Wind Tunnel Experiment for 171a students in PCYNH 109 (Seshadri) |
| Week 4 | |
| 01/26 Monday |
Linear Circuit Experiment for 171a students in PCYNH 109 (de Callafon) |
| 01/28 Wednesday | Report Writing for
171a/126a students in PCYNH
109 (Nesterenko) Error Analysis and Statistics for 175a students in Center 212 (de Callafon) |
| 01/30 Friday | Error Analysis and
Statistics for 171a/126a
students in PCYNH 109 (de Callafon) Report Writing for 175a students in Center 212 (Nesterenko) |
| Week 5 - start of 2nd experiment and due date of 1st laboratory report | |
| no lectures | |
| Week 6 | |
| 02/09 Monday |
Engineering Ethics for
171a/126a students in
PCYNH 109 (Nesterenko/Seshadri) |
| 02/11 Wednesday | Engineering Ethics for
171a/126a students in
PCYNH 109 (Nesterenko/Seshadri) Engineering Ethics for 175a students in Center 212 (Shevchenko) |
| 02/13 Friday | Engineering Ethics for
171a/126a students in
PCYNH 109 (Nesterenko/Seshadri) Engineering Ethics for 175a students in Center 212 (de Callafon/Shevchenko) |
| Week 7 | |
| 02/16 Monday | Holiday
(Presidents)
|
| no lectures, students work on reports due next week | |
| Week 8 - start of 3rd experiment and due date of 2nd laboratory report | |
| no lectures | |
| Week 9 | |
| no lectures | |
| Week 10 | |
| 03/09 Monday | Project Descriptions for
MAE171b, MAE126b (and
elective MAE175b) in PCYNH 109 This class is mandatory for MAE171a and MAE126a students, and optional for MAE175a students that take MAE175b as an elective. |
| Week 11 - final and due date of 3rd laboratory report | |
| Hand in your final report
with the TA at the same day/time at which your lab section started |
|
| Reports & Final | goto top |
Reports
The grading is done on the basis of three
written laboratory reports and a final examination. The laboratory work
will be done in groups of 4 students. Therefore, only one
laboratory
report per group per experiment needs to be handed in. The final
examination,
however, is done individually. The total grade will be determined as
follows:
Every laboratory report completes the work
on one specific experiments and is due at the usual laboratory time
prior
to starting a new experiment. The reports have the following size limitation:
Final
The final examination will be a closed
book and closed notes written exam held during finals week. For MAE171a and MAE126a students, the final
will be held on Monday March 16, 2009 from 7pm-10pm in PCYNH 109. For
MAE175a
students, the final will be held on Monday March 16, 2009 from 7pm -
10pm in CENTER 212.
| Laboratory Schedule | goto top |
For the laboratory work
of the course,
you will have to work in a group of 4 students in the
UnderGraduate
Laboratory (UGL), Room
107,
EBUII, the UnderGraduate Control
Laboratory (UGCL), Room
121,
EBUII, or the Environmental
Engineering Laboratory, Room 119, EBUII. Each group has to complete 3 out of the 9
available
laboratory
experiments:
List of 9
Possible Experiments
|
|
|
WT |
Wind Tunnel Experiment
(171a/175a) |
|
WC |
Water Channel Experiment
(171a/175a/126a) |
|
MT |
Material Testing
Experiment (171a/175a) |
|
PC |
Position Control
Experiment (171a) |
|
VA |
Vibration Analysis
Experiment (171a/175a) |
|
HT |
Heat Transfer Experiment
(171a/126a) |
|
SP |
Smoke Plume Experiment
(171a/126a) |
|
GC |
Gyroscope Control
Experiment (175a) |
|
LC |
Linear Circuit Experiment
(171a) |
Which 3 out of 9 experiments you need to do, depends on your group number assignment. The experimental work for
each experiment must be
completed
during 3 laboratory sections over the span of 3 weeks and the following
time schedule will be followed:
Before you come to
the lab
Due Dates for Report Writing
Each laboratory report is due prior to starting a new experiment. The report can be handed in during laboratory hours, when you start your new experiment. For the third (and last) experiment, please consult with the Course Instructors, Tutors or Laboratory staff supervising the experiment, but basically the laboratory report is due in the laboratory (room 107, room 121 or room 119, EBUII) or at the TA's office during finals week on the day and at the time of your laboratory. Reports will be accepted during the first 1/2 hour of the lab time. Reports accepted after the assigned time will receive a significant reduction in grade.
The laboratory sections do not start until the second week of the course. During the first lecture on Monday, January 5, 2009, students have to organized themselves in groups of 4 within the specific Laboratory Section you signed up for. For completing the laboratory work, the following 8 Laboratory Sections (morning and afternoon) are available:
| Group Number Assignment | goto top |
During the first
lecture on Monday, January 5th, 2009, students will be organized in groups of 4
within the specific Laboratory
Section they have signed up for. The laboratory work and the
report writing must be done in groups of 4 students. Each
group is assigned a Group Number
and
depending on your
Group Number and whether you are a Mechanical (MAE171A)
or a Aerospace (MAE175A) Engineering or a Environmental (MAE126a)
Engineering student, the following sequence
of 3 out of 9 experiments will have to completed during the last
9 weeks of
this course:
|
Group # |
01/13/09 -
01/30/09 |
02/03/09 -
02/20/09 |
02/24/09 -
03/13/09 |
|
1 |
WC |
SP |
VA |
|
2 |
MT |
PC |
HT |
|
3 |
HT |
MT |
LC |
|
4 |
PC |
LC |
SP |
|
5 |
LC |
WT |
PC |
|
6 |
WT |
VA |
MT |
|
7 |
VA |
WC |
WT |
|
8 |
SP |
HT |
WC |
|
Group # |
01/13/09 -
01/30/09 |
02/03/09 -
02/20/09 |
02/24/09 -
03/13/09 |
|
9 |
WT |
GC |
MT |
|
10 |
VA |
WC |
GC |
|
11 |
GC |
VA |
WT |
|
Group # |
01/13/09 -
01/30/09 |
02/03/09 -
02/20/09 |
02/24/09 -
03/13/09 |
|
12 |
SP |
HT |
WC |
List of 9
Possible Experiments
|
|
|
WT |
Wind Tunnel Experiment
(171a/175a) |
|
WC |
Water Channel Experiment
(171a/175a/126a) |
|
MT |
Material Testing
Experiment (171a/175a) |
|
PC |
Position Control
Experiment (171a) |
|
VA |
Vibration Analysis
Experiment (171a/175a) |
|
HT |
Heat Transfer Experiment
(171a/126a) |
|
SP |
Smoke Plume Experiment
(171a/126a) |
|
GC |
Gyroscope Control
Experiment (175a) |
|
LC |
Linear Circuit Experiment
(171a) |
Please carefully check
the
Laboratory
Schedule and Group Number Assignment to see in what
group
you will be working. The laboratory schedule and group number
assignment will
be made available in the form of a downloadable
PDF
file.
In order to check your group number,
you'll need Adobe
Acrobat reader. You can
use CTRL-F (or any search function of your Acrobar PDF viewer) to find
your name in the listing of the Laboratory Schedule and Group Number
Assignment.
A hard copy of the Laboratory Schedule and Group Number Assignment will
also be posted on the bulletin board in UnderGraduate Control
Laboratory (UGCL), Room 121, EBUII. Before emailing the course
instructors with questions on the Laboratory
schedule and group number assignment, please see answers to the
following questions below.
What if your name is NOT on the Laboratory Schedule and Group Number Assignment?
| Handouts | goto top |
Laboratory
Handouts
Please refresh your browser to
upload the lastest
version of this webpage. The laboratory handouts contain background
information and a laboratory procedure and will help you plan your
experiment over the course of the 3 weeks in which you do a specific
experiment. Hence, print and read the
laboratory handout before you start your experiment and come to the lab.
Some of the
laboratory handouts are separated in a
laboratory procedure for each week separately. Note that the contents of the laboratory handout is
part of the final exam in case you are assigned to perform this
experiment with your group. The links to the laboratory
handouts will be updated regularly as soon as handouts become available.
Lecture Notes
Please refresh your browser to upload the lastest version of this
webpage. The lecture notes will provide background information on your
experiment and note that the
contents of the lecture notes is part of the final exam in case you
were assigned to perform this experiment with your group. The lecture notes on Statistics and Error
Analysis is part of the final exam for everyone taking the
MAE171a, MAE175a, MAE126a laboratory course. The links to the lecture notes will be updated
regularly as soon as the lecture notes become available.
| Maintained by Prof.
R.A. de Callafon, last revision: 15:39 PM 03/11/2009 Department of MAE (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) at UCSD |