AOE3054 - Introduction - 1. Course Organization

AOE 3054 is a three-credit laboratory/classroom course designed to give students some of the experimental skills and experience they will need as practicing engineers. It also gives them the opportunity to observe first hand some of the phenomena they have studied theoretically in other courses. AOE 3054 has two components; lectures and labs. Labs are further split into group experiments and instrumentation laboratory. These are described separately below.

Theoretical courses, in general, begin with fundamental equations or concepts and then progress, step by step to their solution and application. They emphasize depth rather than breadth. The converse is true for most practical courses, including this one. Practical courses, in general, are made up of a series of connected but independent pieces. The course structure of AOE 3054 reflects this organization.

During this course you will learn about some of the foundations of all experimental work, about experimental error and how it is estimated, about recording and reporting experimental work, about computer based measurements and data analysis, as well has about a range of experimental hardware and techniques of relevance to aerospace and ocean engineering. Most of this material is taught in classes (usually in person). The remainder is available in online lectures that you can take whenever it is convenient for you. The online lectures are used, primarily, for material that relates to specific experiments and which different students will need at different times, and for material that many students may want to revisit several times throughout the semester.  Online lectures may be found under the 'classes' link on the course home page.

You will have signed up for a lab section. Together with the rest of the students in your section you will perform 7 experiments over the course of the semester. They are:

1.   Flow Visualization

2.   Static Response of a Beam

3.   Flow Past a Circular Cylinder

4.   Particle Shadow Velocimetry

5.   Materials Testing

6.   Dynamic Response of a Beam

7.Aero/Hydrodynamic testing (this experiment changes each semester, and lab manuals are provided through CANVAS).

Labs are not held in the first week of semester. In the second week you will have an introductory lab period from Goodwin 140 (the lab containing the open-jet tunnel) in which you will meet your lab instructor, receive an individualized schedule for the experiments, and hear more about the format of the experiments. You will also have an opportunity to try out some of the equipment used in experiments 1 to 4. Over the following 8 weeks you will perform experiments 1-4, one every two weeks, according to your individual schedule. After that the group labs move to Randolph 15A for experiment 5 and the Stability Wind Tunnel (adjacent to Randolph 25) for experiment 7.  Experiment 6 is incorporated into instrumentation lab and is discussed separately below.

Experiments are performed in groups of 2 or 3 students, and so working as a team will be an important part of each experiment. For the most part, the experiments you are to perform do not have set procedures. It is up to you (as a team) to choose what you do and how, given a particular goal. This kind of choice (which can be unnerving to an individual) is easily made in a team where there is some free exchange of ideas. Consensus amongst the team also gives individuals confidence in their own observations and ideas, especially when they diverge with expectations. Having the confidence to state what you see in an experiment as it is, rather than as you feel it should be, is a critical skill of an effective test engineer.

Your homework assignment before each experiment will be to prepare for that experiment. Suggestions for preparation are given in the experiment overview section and include, for example, meeting with the students who you will be working with, developing as task list for your team, choosing goals and preparing a spreadsheet for results. You record your preparation in an Excel logbook (see appendix 1) that you submit to your instructor before your experiment. During the experiment you complete this logbook with a detailed record of all activities that take place during the lab period, as well as summary analysis and conclusions.

For three of the experiments you do (your first, third and fifth), you will be expected to write a full technical report (also see appendix 1). You will receive help in learning to write technical reports. In addition to a class, there are suggestions throughout the manual on what material to include in your report on each experiment and how to format it.

Instrumentation Lab is performed every two weeks in the Mechatronics teaching studio and electronics laboratory (Surge 118A) during the lab periods when you are not doing the above group experiments. It takes a total of 5 lab periods. The purpose of Instrumentation Lab is for you to learn about some of the basic instrumentation used to operate modern test and measurement systems used in aerospace and ocean engineering applications. Such systems comprise a mixture of analog electronic devices, like sensors and actuators, with digital data acquisition and control.

The Instrumentation Lab sequence is divided into 5 periods, supported by a series of lectures, and 5 manual chapters. Instrumentation lab periods are held once every two weeks. Most of your work during labs will be done in teams of 2 or 3.   During the first period you learn how to use analog instrumentation. In the second period you get to use this knowledge to perform an experiment to determine the dynamic response of a simple structure (experiment 6). In the third period you are introduced to A/D converters, and the programming of digital measurements using the Matlab programming environment. MATLAB is widely used for digitally based measurement and control in engineering and science. The fourth period introduces you to spectral analysis and its programming in MATLAB. Period 5 is where you get a chance to use these new digital measurement and analysis capabilities to further study the structural dynamics experiment of period 2.

Your work is assessed through homework assignments and the electronic logbooks you generate from your experimental work in periods 2 and 5.

AOE 3054 is a course that we are continually developing and improving. A lot of modification have been incorporated this year, and your feedback will be extremely valuable. You will have opportunities throughout the course to comment on the material and teaching. Please use these opportunities. We will take your suggestions and criticisms seriously - you have the power to affect the teaching of the remainder of the course this semester, as well as its development in future years. You may be interested to know that substantial parts of the present course have grown out of the suggestions of students who took AOE 3054 in previous years.

Laboratory safety is taken very seriously in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, and even more so in post-pandemic times. For each experiment your instructor will make clear any specific safety rules that pertain to that particular experiment. Ultimately, however, you bear the primary responsibility for your own safety and the safety of others around you. The following set of rules gives examples how this responsibility translates into practice.

1. There must always be at least two people in the laboratory during the operation of an experiment.
2. While working in the laboratory, it is your responsibility to know
• the location of first aid and emergency equipment
• the locations of fire extinguishers and emergency exits
• how to call the fire fighters, police or rescue squad (dial 911 from any campus or non-campus telephone). If you don't know, ASK before beginning the experiment.
3. If in doubt about the safety of performing any operation or of any component of an experiment (e.g. turning on a piece of equipment with a suspected fault, adjusting something in the wind tunnel, manipulating a laser beam) DO NOT proceed. No experimental result or setup is worth an injury.
4. Do not operate any machinery unless all persons in the lab are well clear of any moving parts. In the present course this refers particularly to materials testing machines, and wind tunnels, which should NEVER be operated if anyone is in or close to the test section.
5. Before operating machinery it is your responsibility to be aware of its emergency shutdown procedure. If you don't know, ASK.
6. If a piece of apparatus or instrumentation appears faulty, it is your responsibilty to report it immediately to the TA. Breakages of glassware should also be reported.
7. Wash your hands after working with any chemical substance (e.g. kerosine, titanium dioxide).
8. Do not dispose of any chemical substance (down the sink, in the trash can or anywhere else). Disposal of such materials will be handled by the TA. Any chemical spills (however small, e.g. mercury from a thermometer) must be reported immediately to the TA.
9. It is your responsibility to report all injuries, accidents and "near-misses" that you are aware of to the laboratory director (Aurelien Borgoltz, 660D McBryde Hall, Tel. 231-1959)

Virginia Tech is committed to protecting the health and safety of all members of its community. By participating in this class, all students agree to abide by the Virginia Tech Wellness principles.

To uphold these principles, in this class you must do the following:

• If you are exhibiting even the slightest sign of illness, you must not attend an in-person class. Notify me by email and follow the instructions posted at https://vt.edu/ready/health.html#tips.
• All class participants to communicate respectfully with others using language that conveys tolerance, empathy, and compassion.

The safety of everyone in the laboratory depends upon everyone taking their responsibility seriously. Irresponsible behavior will not be tolerated.