Clay Mass Impacting a Beam

Prof. Raul G. Longoria Fall 2011

ME 144L Prof. R.G. Longoria Dynamic Systems and Controls Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin

Objectives
Dropping a clay mass from a height, h, onto a beam sensor provides an opportunity to study at least two different problems. Find the mass, m, and drop height, h. Determine the energy dissipated in the impact.

ME 144L Prof. R.G. Longoria Dynamic Systems and Controls Laboratory

Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin

Use an energy-based analysis

An energy analysis assumes the mass released from rest and considers energy dissipated during impact, Ed.
U h = mgh
2 U x = 1 kbeam xmax 2

mg (h + xmax ) = mgxmax + Ed
ME 144L Prof. R.G. Longoria Dynamic Systems and Controls Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin

Estimating the drop height

Assume the steady-state value from the beam sensor allows determining the mass Beam stiffness presumed measured from static measurements
1 1 2 2 kbeam xmax mgxmax + Ed hest = mg

Energy dissipation term is not known.

ME 144L Prof. R.G. Longoria Dynamic Systems and Controls Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin

Estimating the impact energy

An energy analysis can be used to find Ed.

Ed = mg (h + xmax ) k

1 2

2 beam max

Does this make sense?

ME 144L Prof. R.G. Longoria Dynamic Systems and Controls Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin

To be clear: Any model for the energy dissipated has to be informed by experiments.

ME 144L Prof. R.G. Longoria Dynamic Systems and Controls Laboratory

Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin

Dissipated energy
The loss or dissipation of energy is the difference in kinetic coenergy,

Ed = Initial KE Final KE = mV + m V mV + m V
1 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 1a 1 2 2 2 2a

Can we estimate these terms?

ME 144L Prof. R.G. Longoria Dynamic Systems and Controls Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin

For starters
If a mass, m1, is dropped on a fixed beam, we know,

V1 = 2 gh V2 = 0

But what is the mass after impact?

ME 144L Prof. R.G. Longoria Dynamic Systems and Controls Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin

Assume we have inelastic impact

For an inelastic impact, the velocity after impact is found from,
initial momentum = m1V1 + m2V2 post-impact = (m1 + m2 )Va
m1V1 + m2V2 Va = (m1 + m2 )

How does this help?

ME 144L Prof. R.G. Longoria Dynamic Systems and Controls Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin

What is the mass after impact?

With a lumped mass attached on a flexible beam, the entire system can be modeled as a mass-spring-damper system. Subtle: what is the mass? One approximation suggests one-third of the beam mass gives a good estimate of the natural frequency. kbeam n = m + 1 mbeam 3
ME 144L Prof. R.G. Longoria Dynamic Systems and Controls Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin

So what do we have?

ME 144L Prof. R.G. Longoria Dynamic Systems and Controls Laboratory

Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin

With all the pieces given

You should be able to show that,

m2 Ed m1 gh m1 + m2
Or,

Ed h

So test this model in the laboratory.

ME 144L Prof. R.G. Longoria Dynamic Systems and Controls Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin

Wrap up
Once you have the energy dissipation model, you should be able to build a beam sensor instrument that can estimate the mass and drop height. There are a lot of assumptions required and approximations made, but for a reasonable range of model-clay masses, weve been able to estimate mass and height to within 5%.
ME 144L Prof. R.G. Longoria Dynamic Systems and Controls Laboratory Department of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin