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                                            ADAPTIVE TORSION TEST DEVICE                                    

OVERVIEW

    In the department of material science at the University of California San Diego. Professors and PHD students are working  hard to uncover the secret of nature's design. Nature has taken billions of years to perfect material design and often times desired mechanical properties. From the light, highly tensile properties of a bird's feathers, to the toughness properties a narwhal's horn ,nature offers the most efficient forms of material orientation. In  laboratories, these individuals  are working hard  to mimic natures design in hopes of achieving similar results. Once materials have been created in the laboratory that mimic physical traits  of natural materials, tests need to be conducted to validate mechanical property improvements. One machine that is used commonly is a stress test machine.This machine applies a compressive or a tensile force to the sample. This machine helps researchers find  a very common material property,  the young's Modulus.But what if they need to experimentally calculate torsional rigidity, shear modulus? Currently, they do not have lab equipment to conduct these type of tests, since the instrumentation would have to be capable of applying a torque. This equipment is available but unfortunately it is very expensive. The solution is to try and create a fitting or mechanism to convert the compressive or tensile force  of current equipment and convert this lateral motion into a torque.

The Problem: Currently there is no equipment available to apply a torque on test samples in the laboratories at UCSD.

The Mission:  Create a adaptive device, that will utilize the lateral forces created by the Instron  tester, and apply a uniform torque on the test samples of interest.

Proof of Concept

Risk Reduction Presentation