Projects:2019s1-142 The Ball Bearing Motor Mystery
Contents
Supervisors
Honours students
General project description
The ball bearing motor is a mystery because to this day as no engineer knows how it works! No one understands the physical principle at all. Your job is to do some experiments to investigate this motor and why it is that it rotates. Understanding the principle is important. It may not be useful for large motors, but it may be interesting for micromotors and micropumps that have numerous applications.
Relationship to possible career path
The project impacts on the areas of micromotors, micropumps, microelectromechanical machines (MEMS), and electromagnetics.
Abstract
Deliverables
Semester 1
- Start Project Work (Week 1)
- Proposal seminar (Week 6)
- Thesis draft (Week 12) - only one report needed in wiki format
Semester 2
- Ball Bearing Motor Mystery YouTube video (Week 3)
- The reactions of metals with Gallium YouTube video (Week 7)
- Final thesis (Week 12) - only one report needed in wiki format
- Final seminar (Week 13)
- Project exhibition 'expo' (Week 13)
- CD or stick containing your whole project directories (Week 13)
Weekly progress and questions
Background
Specific Tasks
- Step 1: Film the construction and operation of the motor.
- Step 2: Use COMSOL to simulate the motor to see if you can investigate what happens in simulation.
- Step 3: Characterize the motor. Using an encoding wheel and a photosensor, plot curves of torque versus angular velocity of the motor.
Method
Results
Conclusion
References and useful resources
If you find any useful external links and resources, list them here:
- Method to measure torque
