DESIGN OF CONTROLLER AND DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM FOR A GEAR DYNAMOMETER

摘要

This paper describes the development of a controller and data acquisition system for a gear dynamometer that will monitor and control the motor speed and dynamometer torque. This project work is motivated by the lack of adequate design information describing the low-cycle, mechanical performance of plastic gears, despite the increasing usage of plastic gears. This is in contrast to the abundant amount of information available for metal gears. The control system for the test apparatus has numerous additional features which facilitate the gathering of information about the performance of plastic gears. This work has been performed by an undergraduate team for the two-semester capstone design course for the Mechanical Engineering Department at Bradley University. This project incorporates many aspects of a mechanical engineer's education such as system design, sensor selection, and software mastery. This project also connects the specialty areas of material science, instrumentation, measurement, data acquisition, and design of experiments.