Abstract
It is well known that mechanical engineering students often find mechanics a difficult area to grasp. This article describes a system of equations describing the motion of a balanced and an unbalanced roller constrained by a pivot arm. A wide range of dynamics can be simulated with the model. The equations of motion are embedded in a graphical user interface for its numerical solution in MATLAB. This allows a student's focus to be on the influence of different parameters on the system dynamics. The simulation tool can be used as a dynamics demonstrator in a lecture or as an educational tool driven by the imagination of the student. By way of demonstration the simulation tool has been applied to a range of roller–pivot arm configurations. In addition, approximations to the equations of motion are explored and a second-order model is shown to be accurate for a limited range of parameters.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-21 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology |
| Early online date | 2 Nov 2016 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 2 Nov 2016 |
Keywords
- animation
- approximations to dynamic systems
- GUI
- Mechanics
- unbalanced systems
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Mathematics (miscellaneous)
- Education
- Applied Mathematics