Simulating the transition between two media in the Shive wave machine

Bachelor thesis (2019)

Authors

R.A. Aulbers Applied Sciences

Contributors

M.D. Verweij ImPhys/Medical Imaging - AS (mentor)
A. Sabbadini Human-Robot Interaction - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering (mentor)
N. de Jong ImPhys/Medical Imaging - AS (graduation committee member)
Faculty
Applied Sciences, Applied Sciences
Copyright: © 2019 Rik Aulbers
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

18-03-2019

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Applied Sciences

Abstract

In this research, a Shive wave machine is used to study (a) the velocity of waves throughout different media and (b) the transition of waves between two different media. The Shive wave machine used in this research consists of 32 parallel aluminum bars attached perpendicularly to three parallel central wires. When a perturbation is applied to one of the bars, a torsional wave is initiated in the Shive wave machine, which is mapped to a transverse wave at the extremities of the bars. The velocity of a wave in the Shive wave machine is theoretically determined by four variables: (i) The distance between the two outside wires and the central wire; (ii) the tension in the two outside wires; (iii) the distance between the bars; (iv) the moment of inertia of the bars. The transition of waves between two different media is theoretically determined by the wave velocities in the two media. The theory states that a part of the wave is reflected and a part is transmitted at the intersection between the two media. The results for (a) show that the measured velocity is higher than theoretically expected, which may be caused by an incorrect measurement of (ii). The results for (b) show that a change in (i) throughout the system does not comply with the theoretically expected ratios for reflection and transmission, whereas a change in (iv) does comply with the theoretically expected ratios.