EMM3812

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
LABORATORY (IV)
Semester 1, 2019/2020

Title: Moment of Inertia

Group: 2A

No. Matric No. Name

1 191160 PARUVINTHA RAJ A/L SHANMUGAM
2 WAN MUHAMMAD FARID BIN WAN
192106
DAUD
3 192396 LUQMAN HAKIM BIN DZULKARNAIN
4 193498 NUR AFIQAH BINTI ADNAN
5 193769 MUHAMMAD NUR AFIQ BIN TUNAN
 [LAB EXPERIMENT: MOMENT OF INERTIA] OCTOBER 24, 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENT PAGE

1.0 INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………...…… 3

2.0 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ………………………………………… 3

3.0 EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS …………………………………………… 5

4.0 PROCEDURE ………………………………………………………………… 6

5.0 RESULT AND DISCUSSION ………………………………………………… 7

6.0 CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………… 9

7.0 REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………… 9

8.0 APPENDIX …………………………………………………………………….. 10

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 [LAB EXPERIMENT: MOMENT OF INERTIA] OCTOBER 24, 2019

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The moment of inertia, otherwise known as the angular mass or rotational inertia, of a rigid body is a
quantity that determines the torque needed for a desired angular acceleration about a rotational axis;
similar to how mass determines the force needed for a desired acceleration. It depends on the body's
mass distribution and the axis chosen, with larger moments requiring more torque to change the body's
rotation rate. It is an extensive (additive) property: for a point mass the moment of inertia is just the
mass times the square of the perpendicular distance to the rotation axis. The moment of inertia of a rigid
composite system is the sum of the moments of inertia of its component subsystems (all taken about the
same axis). Its simplest definition is the second moment of mass with respect to distance from an axis.
For bodies constrained to rotate in a plane, only their moment of inertia about an axis perpendicular to
the plane, a scalar value, matters. For bodies free to rotate in three dimensions, their moments can be
described by a symmetric 3 × 3 matrix, with a set of mutually perpendicular principal axes for which
this matrix is diagonal and torques around the axes act independently of each other. When a body is
free to rotate around an axis, torque must be applied to change its angular momentum. The amount of
torque needed to cause any given angular acceleration (the rate of change in angular velocity) is
proportional to the moment of inertia of the body.

2.0 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Newton’s second law relates the acceleration that an object of a certain mass experiences when subject
to a given force. There is an analogous relation between torque and angular acceleration, which
introduces the concept of moment of inertia:
τ = Iα.
Newton's second law and is sometimes called Newton's second law for rotation. It is not as general a
relationship as the linear one because the moment of inertia is not strictly a scalar quantity. The
rotational equation is limited to rotation about a single principle axis, which in simple cases is an axis
of symmetry.
Angular displacement is the time rate at which an object rotates, or revolves, about an axis or at which
the angular displacement between two bodies changes. Angular displacement can be measured in
radians or degrees. Using radians provides a very simple relationship between distance travelled around
the circle and the distance R from the centre. The angular displacement θ is defined by:
θ=S/R
where S is arc length. For example, if an object rotates 360° around a circle of radius R, the angular
displacement is given by the distance travelled around the circumference, which is 2πR divided by the
radius: θ = 2πr / R which easily simplifies to θ = 2π. Therefore, 1 revolution is 2π radians.
For a circular path it follows that the angular velocity ω is defined by:
ω=v/R
where v is angular velocity. Then, the angular acceleration α is defined by:
α=a/R
where a is tangential acceleration.

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 [LAB EXPERIMENT: MOMENT OF INERTIA] OCTOBER 24, 2019

A mass m is placed on a rod of length R and negligible mass and constrained to rotate about a fixed
axis. If the mass is released from a horizontal orientation, it can be described either in terms of force
and acceleration with Newton's second law for linear motion, or as a pure rotation about the axis with
Newton's second law for rotation. This provides a setting for comparing linear and rotational quantities
for the same system. This process leads to the expression for the moment for the moment of inertia of
a point mass.
In linear motion, where gravity causes the mass to rotate downward, the descriptions must be equivalent.
Thus, the angular quantities in terms of the linear quantities can be expressed by using torque τ = FR =
maR and angular acceleration of Equation (4) to be substituted in Equation (1). This reinforces the basic
definition of the moment of inertia of a point of mass:
τ = I ⋅α ⇒ maR = I ⋅(a / R) ⇒ I = mR2
The moments of inertia of several bodies of simple geometric shapes are given in Figure 2. The moment
of inertia is a useful and important concept in the study of the strength of materials, for it figures
prominently in formulas for the strength of such members as angles and I beam.

Figure 2.1 shows the moments of inertia of several bodies of simple geometrical shapes.

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 [LAB EXPERIMENT: MOMENT OF INERTIA] OCTOBER 24, 2019

3.0 EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS

Basic equipment for this experiment is the TM610 moment of inertia apparatus as shown in Figure 2.
It can be used to study mass moments of inertia of rotating bodies (hollow cylinder or solid cylinder).
This apparatus is clamped to a table-top plate via two support rods. A support rod supports the rotary
axis with the studied body. The rotary axis is accelerated by a weight, pulley and cable with a drum.
This results in a uniformly accelerated rotational motion. Using the measured time, mass and
acceleration distance, we can calculate the mass moment of inertia. Systems with different masses and
mass distributions can be studied in various geometries. Using a rotating bar with masses, it is possible
to study the mass moment of inertia as a function of the radius.

Pulley
String

Load

Figure 3.1 shows TM610 moment of inertia apparatus setup

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 [LAB EXPERIMENT: MOMENT OF INERTIA] OCTOBER 24, 2019

4.0 PROCEDURE
1. Experiment 1: Mass Weight
• The thin-walled pipe was centered in the rotation axle.
• The two weights of the same mass were fastened to the pipe.
• The effective radius R is constant (R=245mm) for all measurements as shown in
Figure 3.
• The drive weight of mass 100g was used.
• The lapsed time t was measured for the travelled height h.
• The experiments were carried out sequentially with the weight of 100g, 200g and
400g.
• The drive radius (r=20mm) of the pulley drum was used for all experiments.
• In order to limit the error in measurement, three runs for each weight selection were
made.

2. Experiment 2: Rotation Radius

• The thin-walled pipe was centered in the rotation axle.
• The two weights, each of 400g mass were fastened to the pipe.
• The effective radius R was set sequentially at 55mm, 95mm, 155mm and 245mm as
shown in Figure 3.
• For all experiments the drive weight of mass 100g is used.
• The lapsed time t for traversing the travelled height h was measured.
• The drive radius (r=20mm) of the pulley drum was used for all experiments.
• In order to limit the error in measurement, three runs for each weight selection were
made.

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 [LAB EXPERIMENT: MOMENT OF INERTIA] OCTOBER 24, 2019

5.0 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

1.RESULT
a) Mass Weight
Height = 44cm

Weight, Time travelled, (𝑠) 𝐼𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 , 𝐼𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 ,

(𝑔) 1 2 3 Average (𝑘𝑔𝑚2 ) (𝑘𝑔𝑚2 )

100 6.34 6.35 6.56 6.52 2.846 2.843

200 8.84 8.90 8.67 8.80 10.364 10.361
400 13.3 12.87 13.10 13.09 45.862 45.859
Table 1 shows the data about time and inertia experiment.

Mass weight against moment of inertia

50
45
40
moment of inertia, I

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
mass weight

Figure 1 shows the Mass weight against moment of inertia

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 [LAB EXPERIMENT: MOMENT OF INERTIA] OCTOBER 24, 2019

b) Rotation Radius
Mass = 400g
Table 2 shows the data about time and inertia experiment.

Radius, (𝑚𝑚) Time travelled, (𝑠) 𝐼𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 , 𝐼𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑 ,

1 2 3 Average (𝑘𝑔𝑚2 ) (𝑘𝑔𝑚2 )
55 4.97 4.93 4.98 4.96 0.332 0.329
95 6.28 6.47 6.20 6.32 1.607 1.604
155 8.71 8.84 8.8 8.78 8.258 8.255
245 13.3 12.87 13.10 13.09 45.862 45.859

Rotation radius against moment of inertia

50
45
40
moment of inertia, I

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
rotation radius

Figure 2 shows the rotation radius against moment of inertia

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 [LAB EXPERIMENT: MOMENT OF INERTIA] OCTOBER 24, 2019

2.DISCUSSION
Based on the experiment 1 on mass weight, time travelled of driven weight is increase as the
weight that fastened to the pipe increase. This shows the moment of inertia is increasing when the mass
of weight is increased. The higher weight requires more torque needed for a desired angular acceleration
about a rotational axis. So, the time travelled is longer because the driven weight was only provided
particular torque against increasing weight on the pipe. The experimental value of moment of inertia is
almost similar to the corrected of moment of inertia. Therefore, inherent moment of inertia for rotation
axle and pipe are not affected the experimental value very much .
Based on the experiment 2 on rotation radius, time travelled of driven weight is increase as the
rotation radius increase. The higher rotation radius needed higher torque for a desired angular
acceleration about a rotational axis. This is because of the moment of inertia has increase as the rotation
radius increased. So, the time travelled is also longer because the driven weight was only provided
particular torque against increasing rotation radius of weight on pipe. In this experiment, the
experimental value of moment of inertia is also almost similar to the corrected of moment of inertia.
This show that inherent moment of inertia for rotation axle and pipe has small value affected the
experimental moment of inertia.
In this experiment, the reading of time travelled by driven weight is taken by average of three
reading. This is happened to avoid the errors made by human. The time started taken might no same as
the driven weight is released. So, this can helped the data obtained more accurate.

6.0 CONCLUSION
We can conclude that the time travelled of driven weight increases directly with the weight.
This is because heavier object required greater amount of torque so the longer the time taken recorded.
Next, the time travel of driven weight increases directly with the increase of radius of rotation. This is
because higher rotation radius required higher torque therefore the moment of inertia increases.

7.0 REFERENCES
[1] Cleghorn, W., Dechev, N. (2014). Mechanics of Machine. Oxford University Press.

[2] GUNT. (2018). TM610 Apparatus for Investigating Inertia in Rotational Motion. GUNT.

[3] Hibbeler, R.C. (2014). Engineering Mechanics Dynamics. Prentice Hall.

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8.0 APPENDIX

Figure 8.1 shows the equipment set for moment of inertia

Figure 8.2 shows the experimental setup

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