SIMCenter Provides Vibration Isolation Study for OSU Med Center Research Project

It's difficult to think of a more complicated task than performing a science experiment in space. Every step of the process requires coordination between various disciplines, even those that would initially seem to have little in common. It was this interdisciplinary breadth that brought Dr. Scott Noll, OSU Assistant Research

Professor in Mechanical Engineering, to be involved with the recent Blue Origin New Shepard suborbital rocket project that launched on December 11th, 2019.

            Conducted by a team headed by OSU Assistant Professor of Surgery Dr. Peter Lee, the NASA-funded research project involved studying muscle atrophy in space. Dr. Lee's team included engineering, biology, and pharmaceutical students, all of whom contributed their invaluable expertise to the project. Yet there was still a gap in their capability. The team needed assistance in testing the durability of the payload containing the tissue-engineered muscle central to their experiment before the launch date, so they turned to Dr. Noll and the SIMCenter.

            As a researcher whose expertise lies in structural dynamics and vibration, Dr. Noll not only has the knowledge they needed, but also, as a SIMCenter-affiliated faculty member, the means to test it. He did so by hard-mounting the team's payload

container to a vibration test fixture in three different positions - on its base, side, and back, respectively - and recording with accelerometers the structure's reaction to the machine's vibrations. The purpose of this test, which simulated the intense and erratic environment of a rocket launch, was to ensure that the payload's structure would be able to withstand those turbulent forces without sustaining damage, while also protecting the material and instruments within.

            Dr. Noll's efforts proved fruitful. "As I went through vibration testing," he reported, "we found a number of items that failed, along with nuts backing off under vibratory loading conditions. This knowledge allowed Dr. Lee’s team to redesign fixtures and supports." Despite his contribution to the project's success, Dr. Noll is

modest in describing his involvement: "It was really about supporting their research team. They didn't have the resources or the technical capability to conduct such experiments, so that's where I came in to support the project."