AL-Farahidi University
College of Technical Eng.
4th Year / Aeronautical Eng./A/C Structure
Experiment - SHEAR FORCE IN A BEAM
Objective
1. Able to calculate the shear force at any distance along a simply
supported beam.
2. This experiment examines how the shear force varies at the cut
position of the beam for various loading conditions.
3. To calculate a shear force and compare it to the experimental value.
Theory of Shear force
Beams are one of the most common element founds in structures when a
horizontal member of structure (beam) is loaded with loads in the vertical
direction, it will bend due to the induced reactions of such loads. The
amount of bending of the beam will depend on the amount and type of
loads, length of the beam, elasticity of the beam.
Shearing forces are unaligned forces pushing one part of a body in one
specific direction and another part of the body in the opposite direction.
Fig.(1) Shear force in beam
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Experiment work
This experiment is about understanding the effect of change in force
magnitude on shear stresses produce in beam due to that force. To
perform this experiment structural hardware is used, as shown in Fig.(2). A
simply supported beam apparatus to demonstrate and investigate the shear
forces within a structure by use of a loaded beam designed to move in shear
only.
Fig.(2) STR3 shear force in a beam
According to the image shown above, apparatus consist of a beam which is
being supported at two points called pivot point of beam. The apparatus has
a mechanism which is used to apply force on the beam and it is this
mechanism which also prevents the overloading on beam which can
collapse the beam.
2
During this experiment a series of forces with increasing magnitude will be
applied on beam, as shown in Fig.(3), and for each beam shear stress value
will be calculated.
Fig.(3) Force diagram for beam
The formula to calculate the shear force variation with an increasing
point load in the beam (Experimental.1) is represented by;
Shear force= W a/L
Where;
W- is the applied load on beam
a - is the distance between the pivot point and point of force application
L- is the total length of the beam
General note;
The shear force at the cut is equal to the algebraic sum of the forces
acting to the left or right of cut
Check the digital force display meter reads zero with no load
Carefully load the beam with the hangers in the positions.
Calculate the support reaction and calculate the theoretical shear force
at the cut in three cases as shown in Fig.(4) below.
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Shear force variation for various loading conditions (Experimental. 2)
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Fig.(4 ) Shear force variation for various loading conditions
Procedure
It is very important to following the sequence of these steps as this
experiment involve electronic system which is integrated with software for
shear force application and calculation.
1. Setup equipment as illustrated in Fig.(2) such that the cut will be
140mm from right support.
2. Zero the force gauge before hanging any weight.
3. Measure the total distance between two supports.
4. Place a mass hanger with 100g mass at 50mm from the left side of the
cut and measure the force
5. Repeat the procedure with 100g mass increment until 500g, and for
each load software record data automatically in its memory
6. Measure the distance from the left support to the mass hanger
7. Data generated as the result of force application is recorded by the
software automatically, Tabulate your results.
8. Graphs were prepared using the data obtain from the experiment
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Results
The typical result of shear force is represented in Tables and Figure below.
Table 2. Typical result for experimental. 2.
Discussion
From this experiment, we were able to determine how shear force varies
with an increasing point load. It was also seen how shear force varies at the
cut position of the beam for various loading conditions.
