1

Laboratory Exercise 6: Using Strain Measurements to

Measure the Pressure Inside of a Full Soda Can
STUDENT NAME: _______________Austin Stott__________________
SECTION/Team Name: _Tuesday 7:30-9:20 Team: Do the Dew
Lab Objective: Perform Pressure Vessel Stress Measurements
Introduction:
This week, we are going to use a backdoor method to determine the pressure inside of a full soda
can. When we open the can, the pressure will fall to atmospheric, and the can will shrink. You
can use the above formulas to relate the change in strain to the change in pressure. We can
measure , t, and D to get p. Follow the analysis procedure outlined in the Lab 6 lecture notes.
You may turn in this completed document as the laboratory report.
Executive Summary: Describe what you did, and what you learned in this lab.
MAE 3340 INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEMS
The purpose of this lab was to explore the use of a wheatstone bridge to measure the pressure inside an
unopened can of Diet Mt Dew. In order to do this 6 cans of soda were taken and fitted with strain gagues.
The strain gagues were connected through LabView plotted to a graph showing the microstrain and a
different graph showing the voltage. Once the wires werew verified to be functioning correctly the cans of
soda were opened and the strain and voltage change were noted. Using the strain and voltage measured the
calculations could then be made to determine the pressure. Determining the uncertainty we found that the
measurements we made were within the 95% confidence interval.
Sample Mean of the Pressure in the Can (kPa): 234.51 kPa
Sample Standard Deviation Pressure in the Can (kPa): 16.479 kPa
Degrees of Freedom for the Measured Population: 5 (number of cans - 1)
Using the Student-T distribution for the required degrees of freedom, calculate the uncertainty
range for the sample mean of the pressure in the can use a 95% confidence interval.
Using the t-value for v=5, we get:
x -2.S7
S
x
6
< p < x +2.S7
S
x
6

This yields: 217. 22 hPa < < 251. 8 hPa
Based on Manufacturers specs for the various components of the measurement system (see lab
lecture notes) estimate uncertainty in measured internal pressure in the soda can
________________________________
For (o
2
p
g
) = p
g
2
__
ot
t
]
2
+_
o

]
2
+_
oe
e
]
2
_
= sqrt __
u.uu284
t
mcun
]
2
+_
u.uu284

mcun
]
2
+_
o0
P
0
P
]
2
+_
oR
u
R
u
]
2
+_
1
e
]
2
+_
u.uS
1uu
+
1u
e
]
2
_
= .289 P
MLAN
= 7. 79kPa
6) Compare estimated uncertainty with 95% confidence interval computed above
The estimated uncertainty is within the 95% confidence interval computed. This means that the
data we had was good data and fell within the expected error.







Can A1

Can B1

Can C1


Can A2


Can B2

Can C2