Studio i mekanik och hållfasthetslära
Typ
Examensarbete på kandidatnivå
Program
Publicerad
2022
Författare
Gustafsson, Filip
Gunnarsson, Erik
Schüler, Tim
Westerlund, Karin
Ansgar, Sofie
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
The studio in Engineering Mechanics and Solid Mechanics is a room in the basement of “Maskinhuset” at Chalmers University of Technology. The studio is used for storing experiments and as a pedagogical workshop where students come during their courses in engineering mechanics, solid mechanics and machine elements. The purpose is to give students further practical aspects of the otherwise difficult theoretical phenomena that are presented in lectures.
Since 2013, when the first bachelor’s thesis in the studio was carried out, new experiments have been developed every year in relevant areas of the courses and old experiments have been further developed for improved usage. After reviewing previous years' bachelor’s theses, it became clear that great focus has been on areas teachers believe are relevant. As a result this year’s focus has been on what students find difficult. To identify challenging areas a questionnaire was sent out to students at selected programs that take the basic courses in engineering mechanics and solid mechanics theory.
After the responses to the questionnaire and previous years' interviews with teachers were analyzed, it became clear what the students experienced as difficult and what areas teachers were happy to see more experiments in. The results of the survey were compiled and the construction of the new experiments and the restructuring and upgrading of old experiments could begin.
During this year's work, many experiments have been updated while three new experiments have been developed. These new experiments cover topics such as forces in cords, throwing parabolas, tensegrity and impulse. The old experiments that have been updated and further developed cover moments of mass inertia, forces in cords and center of gravity.
With respect to the teaching that is conducted today at Chalmers, both the new and old experiments complement the heavy theoretical studies in a good way, but further work will be needed to give the students an even deeper understanding in the future. For example, the survey showed that principal stress is an area that would need an experiment, which the group also feels would have significantly facilitated the concept.