Portable sensor to measure the mechanical compliance transfer function of a material

A device that can measure the dynamic compliance of a material has applications for research, health sciences and for use as a pedagogical tool. A device was created which stochastically perturbs a material while measuring the resulting forces and displacements. A software program then creates a non-parameterized impulse response function in addition to a fit second order model for the material. The device was tested on a compliant sponge sample which exhibited highly nonlinear dynamic behavior. The low frequency compliance of the sponge was measured with the device with 16% to 31% error. Improvements for further dynamic testing on the sponge are presented as well as future improvements to the design of the device.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Post, Ethan A. (Ethan Adam)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ian W. Hunter.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36714

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/36714