6ME10A

9 Vibration engineering
EXPERIMENT

Dos & Don’ts

EXPERIMENT OBJECTIVES
To determine the moment of inertia an
irregular body by means of the trailer
suspension method

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 Apparatus Required

1) Trifler suspension system

2) Body whose moment of inertia to be determined (connecting rod)
3) Stop watch
4) Linear measuring scale

Pig 9.1

Theory

For small oscillations of the platform of the trifler suspension it can be shown that the
period of oscillation

IPI
t p=2 π
√ mgr 2

Where ip is the moment of inertia of the platform about an axis perpendicular to the
plane of the platform

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Procedure

With nothing no the platform of the trailer suspension induce small axial oscillation of
the platform measure the number of oscillation s performed over a reasonable of time
and caudle the period of oscillation top repeat the above procedure many times and
obtain an average value for top

Find the centre of gravity of the connecting rod and place the for and place the rod on
the platform so that its center of gravity coincides with the axis of the platform

Repeat the procedure described above to obtain a new value for the period of
oscillation tp

Observation & Calculation

Length of wires i=………………………………

Radius r=……………………

Mass of platform mp=……………………..

Mass of connecting

Rod me……………………………….

Period tp (s) Moment of inertia (kgm2)

Platform

Platform +connecting rod

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Analysis

Moment of inertia of moment of inertia of moment of inertia

Connecting rod = platform + connecting -of platform alone

Conclusions

 Comment on the sources of error

 Comment the value of the moment of inertia obtained experimental with the
value obtained analytically

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Results

Discussions

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