FIE- School of Engineering

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Taylors University

Preparing Lab Reports

Name : Sharvind Kumar S/O Sunmuganathen

Student ID : 0330765

Group Members : 1. Presley Chen Shi Ming

2. Moayad Abdelgadir Mustafa Elgassim

Date of Experiment:27th April 2017

Report due date: 11th May 2017
Report submission date: 3rd May 2017
Checked by:

Foundation of Engineering
School of Engineering
Taylors University
Malaysia
Item/marks
Format/10
Abstract and Introduction/10
Figures and Diagrams/15
Materials and Method/10
Results Discussions/45
Conclusion & References/10
Total
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Contents

Abstract...........................................................................................................................................3

1.0 Introduction...............................................................................................................................3

2.0 Experimental Design.................................................................................................................4

2.1 Materials................................................................................................................................4

2.2 Methods..................................................................................................................................4

2.3 Procedure...............................................................................................................................5

3.0 Results and Discussion..............................................................................................................6

4.0 Conclusions and Recommendations..........................................................................................7

References.......................................................................................................................................8
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ABSTRACT

I. 1.0 INTRODUCTION

The introduction section of the laboratory report must clearly state the objective of the
experiment and provide the reader with all the necessary background. It should concisely
provide the scientific theory behind the experiment and equip the reader with the basic
background needed to understand the experiments discussed in the laboratory report. This is
however, only a 10 mark section of the report (shared with abstract too!) so do provide enough
information for readers to understand the experiment but not so long until it takes up a few pages
of your report. Copying from websites verbatim is strictly prohibited.

Care needs to be taken that only formal English is used when writing lab reports. It is advisable
for reports to be written in past tense (as you have already done re experiment) and consistently
in either passive or active form throughout the report.

Additionally, when equations are used, they should always be placed on the next line and
sequentially numbered. One example would be this; Albert Einstein derived the mass-energy
equivalence equation which is described as

E=mc 2 (1)

Equations can be then referred to in sentences by using words such as According to Eq. 1
which would refer to the equation above, naturally.

You may elect to include figures in any section of the report (such as here in introduction). This
will be explained more in the next section.

Another item to note is that when there is very little space left after a section at the end of the
page, do start the new section on the next page. It looks neater and is more pleasing for readers
of your lab report.
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II. 2.0 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

This section will present the experimental setup with appropriate levels of detail (as you can see
from a sample below). While it is definitely recommended that you draw your own
experimental setup diagrams, you may choose to take a photo/photos of your experimental setup
but the labelling must be clear and you will be penalised if your setup diagram is unclear. As you
can see below in Figure 1 (thats how you refer to figures in sentences! Its the same thing really.
Nothing much to it), the caption for figures is below the figure which is different from tables
where the caption is above it.

Figure 1. Student-built drying apparatus.

2.1 Materials

A complete list of materials and apparatus required for the experiment should be listed in this
section. You can choose to either list them in a sentence or in point-form as such:

250mL Beaker
Stopwatch
Water Bath

2.2 Methods

This section would describe the methods used to collect data for the experiment and to talk about
items such as limitations and calibration. Multi-part experiments should have the methods of all
the parts detailed here. Hence, the major objective here is to clearly explain how the data was
collected and understand the limitations of the collected data.
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2.3 Procedure

The process used to obtain the experimental results are detailed here. As noted before, past tense
is required here. Below are the procedures for a two-part experiment, this can be used as an
example.
Determining Optimum Proportional Constant
1. The blower was turned on and set to the maximum speed. The system exit gate and
blower entrance valves were kept at half open.
2. The temperature was allowed to stabilise and proportional action value was set at 15.
After the temperature has stabilised, the set-point temperature was set to 50C and the
temperature is recorded at intervals of 15 seconds until 5 minutes.
3. After 5 minutes, the heater was shut off and the system is allowed to cool back to
baseline temperature.
4. The experiment was repeated with proportional action values of 40 and 67.

Determining Optimum Integral Constant

1. The temperature was allowed to stabilise and proportional action value was set at 15
whereas the integral action value was set at 12. After the temperature has stabilised, the
set-point temperature was set to 50C and the temperature is recorded at intervals of 15
seconds until 5 minutes.
2. After 5 minutes, the heater was shut off and the system is allowed to cool back to
baseline temperature.
3. The experiment was repeated with integral action value of 24.
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III.3.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This section should record all the information collected as a part of the experiment. In addition
to the collected data, it must also contain information read directly from the laboratory
instruments and specifications presented in instrument manuals. Do not attempt to hide faulty
data. Information from suspected erroneous data points helps understand the behaviour of the
system under different conditions and enables a post-lab analysis of problems with the
experiment. It is important to organize the quantitative information into tables and charts, with
appropriate units. The scale of the data should be chosen appropriately and significant figures
should be used for the measurements whenever possible.

Collected data can be presented in a table, whenever one or more columns of the data are in
series. Presenting information in a tabular format allows the reader to quickly access the major
results of the experiment. Prudent judgment of the amount of information to be presented in the
tables is very important. All the tables must be centred and sequentially numbered. The captions
for the tables must be in bold and must be above the table, as shown below. The units of the
variables must be clearly mentioned. Use serial numbers to make reference to any measurements
presented in the table. A typical table might look like Table 1.

Table 1. Tabulated Results for Proportional Action Control.

Time (s) p15 p40 p67
0 33.2 33.7 33.3
15 35 34.6 34.5
30 44.3 36.7 34.9
45 49.7 38.4 35.5
60 47.9 38.7 35.7
75 44.5 39 35.7
90 43.2 38.9 35.7
105 44.4 38.8 35.7
120 45.5 38.9 35.7
135 44.9 38.9 35.7
150 44.2 39 35.7
165 44.4 38.9 35.7
180 44.9 38.9 35.7
195 44.8 39 35.7
210 44.5 39.1 35.7
225 44.5 39 35.7
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Appropriate graphs should be constructed from the data in the tables or any other relevant
experimental data. An example of a graph can be seen below in Figure 2.

60

55

50

45
Temperature (oC)
p15i12
p15i24
40

35

30
0 50 100 150 200 250 300

Time (s)

Figure 2. Graph of Temperature against Time for Proportional - Integral Action Control.

In addition to having graphs and tables in this section, discussions should also be included.
Ideally the discussions should be written under the graph and table that is being discussed.

IV. 4.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The report may be concluded by presenting answers to the problems stated in the introduction.
Conclusions may be based on the analysis presented in the previous section and use this to
reaffirm the stated results in the abstract. Understand that the conclusions from one experiment
form basis to perform future experiments. Show an awareness of the limitations of the
experiment and explain the rationale behind the generalizations from the results. Clearly explain
any ambiguities or complications encountered during the experiment as this is very useful in
modifying the experiments in the future.
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Suggest possible improvements to the experiment and describe these enhancements in detail.
Restate the problem under investigation and conclude with a condensed summary of the solution
obtained from the experimental investigation.

REFERENCES

Reference styles that can be used are IEEE or the Harvard referencing style. The examples
below use the Harvard Referencing Style. You may opt to use Microsoft Words build in
referencing system to achieve this or may type it manually.

Seborg, D. E., 2004. Process Dynamics and Control. John Wiley. New Jersey.

Marwan M. Shamel, 2012. Chemical Engineering Lab Sheet: Response of a Feedback

Temperature Control System. Taylors University. Malaysia.