Laboratories &
Capacities
Jonas Laboratory
Key Contact: Rob Barthorpe
The Jonas Laboratory is a central component in many of the activities of the Dynamics Research Group. The laboratory is equipped with a wide range of testing and measurement equipment to enable members of the DRG to pursue research in areas ranging from structural health monitoring and uncertainty analysis through to acoustics and nonlinear dynamics.
The laboratory is suited to testing of small to medium scale materials, systems and structures. Several sensor modalities are available, including both scanning and fixed point Laser Doppler Vibrometers (LDVs); a suite of uniaxial and triaxial piezoelectric accelerometers (PZTs); microphone arrays for acoustic acquisition; and PZT patches for high-frequency studies. Electrodynamic shakers and impact hammers offer a broad spectrum of excitation options, and a range of high quality data acquisition and signal processing equipment is available for data recording and analysis.
Associated Equipment
Jonas Laboratory
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LMS machines (8-channel and 16-channel)
The LMS DAQs and associated Test.Lab software are central to the low-frequency vibration work undertaken within the DRG.
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Enviromental test chamber
The environmental test chamber allows dynamic testing of small structures across a broad temperature range (-45 to 120 C) with prorammable control.
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Drop test rig
The drop test rig enables impacts of known magnitude to be introduced into test specimens.
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Polytec Scanning Laser Vibrometer
Laser Doppler Vibrometry is a technique which employs the Doppler effect to study the movement of a point on a structure at high frequency and...
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Low pressure test chamber
1000 x 40 x 30 mm cabinet containing a 100 N electrodynamic shaker and sensor connections to allow specimen testing to be carried out at pressures as low as 0.9...
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Impedance tubes
2 impedance tubes to measure the acoustical properties of materials.
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Flow resistivity rig
Flow resistivity apparatus to measure the flow resistivity of porous materials to ISO 9053. It works with 100 mm diameter samples.
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Porosimeter
Porosimeter equipment to measure the porosity of porous materials. Works on the principle of Boyles law.
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Piper Tomahawk trainer aircraft wing (aluminium)
The Piper Tomahawk wing is used as a testbed for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) activities. It features removable inspection panels which allow simulation of the...read more
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Piper Tomahawk trainer aircraft wing (composite)
This is another full aircraft wing that is used for structural health monitoring. Unlike its metallic counterpart, it does not have removable inspection panels. However,...
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Skystream turbine blades
These are small (just under 2m) composite turbine blades that are used for SHM experiments. Initially, 9 nominally identical blades were purchased. Up to now, the...read more
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3-Storey shear structure
The 3-Storey shear structure was built in 2014 at The University of Sheffield using a model of a 3-storey rig used in the Los Alamos Laboratories....
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5-Storey shear structure
The 5-Storey shear structure is used for SHM research and has the ability to simulate repeatable damage scenarios (by the inclusion of masses) allowing for...
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Condition Monitoring rig
The rig is used for research on dynamics of rotating machines and condition monitoring. It consists of two motors, a gearbox, bearings and finally, discs...
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Piper Cherokee Tailplanes
Two complete aircraft tailplanes have been seperated to give two pairs of single tailplanes, which are independently analysed using Scanning Laser Doppler Vibrometry (SLDV). By...
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Anechoic chamber
This is a semi-anechoic chamber which is used to measure the frequency response and sensitivity of audio equipment. This chamber is a shared resource which...
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