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INTRODUCTION

A compressive member can fail in two ways. The first is via rupture due to the direct stress
and the second is by an elastic mode of failure called buckling. Short wide compressive
member tends to fail by material crushing.
When buckling occurs the strut will no longer carry any more loads and it will simply
continue to buckle and its stiffness then becomes zero and it is useless as a structural member.
In this laboratory activity students will be exposed to the apparatus and the Procedures to
carry out experiment on buckling of struts.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the buckling load for struts.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
To determine the buckling load for a one pinned and one fixed ended struts.
APPARATUS
Flexural test apparatus
Beam specimen
Ruler and vernier caliper
PROCEDURES
1) The digital indicator was switch on and warm it up for at least 10 minutes.
2) Choose a specimen and its length, width and thickness was measured.
3) Calculate the theoretical buckling load for a strut with the end conditions . This is to ensure
that the load applied to the strut does not exceed the buckling load.
4) The grooved support placed into the slot of the attachment for the end condition and
tightened the side screws. The help of technician is needed for proper installation.
5) The top platen was moved upwards or downwards to bring the distance between the two
supports closer to the length of the strut.
6) The tare button was pressed on the digital indicator to set the reading to zero.
7) The specimen was placed in the groove of the top support.
8) While holding the specimen, The jack is adjusted so that the lower end of the specimen
just in the groove of the bottom support. If the distance between the two supports is slightly
less than the length of the strut, turn the screw jack handle counter clockwise. If the distance

between the two supports is greater than the length of the strut, turn the screw jack handle
clockwise.
9) The reading was noted on the digital indicator. If the load is greater than 10N turn the jack
handle counter clockwise to bring it to less than 10N.
10) Check the position of the dial gauge to ensure that it is at the middle length of the
specimen. Set the dial gauge reading to zero.
11) Press the tare button to set the load indicator to zero.
12) The specimen was loaded in small increments by turning the screw jack handle slowly in
the clockwise direction.
13) For each load increment record the load and the corresponding mid-span deflection.
(Important: please ensure that the applied load is always less than 80% of the buckling load).
14) The specimen was unloaded by turning the jack handle in the counter clockwise direction.

3.3 Results
The group is required to perform the data acquisition process and complete the information
required and Table 1 below.
Length of member = 599 mm
Width of member = 25.23 mm
Thickness of member = 3.02 mm
Moment of inertia of member = 225.32 mm4
Dial gauge reading, 1 div = 0.01 mm

DATA TABLE
Load(N)
18
34
59
91
119
133
145
159
167
170
174

Deflection(Div)
0
0
0
15
28
47
79
108
148
200
249

mm
0
0
0
0.15
0.28
0.47
0.79
1.08
1.48
2.00
2.49

d/p (mm/N)
0
0
0
0.001648
0.002353
0.003533
0.005448
0.00667
0.008862
0.012
0.014

DISCUSSION
Human errors are inescapable whenever an experiment is carried out. Tackling this
however, would be best done by tasking individuals to certain tasks and repeating those tasks
three or more times. Hysteresis error is visible on the strut machine which was slow to react
to initial inputs of force. There is a 22.78% error between the theoretical critical buckling
load and the experimental value, reduction of this error would be achieved by repeating the
experiment three or more times also using a more sensitive dial . Error was obtained for the
critical loading . Again such errors are acceptable, but however, it is important to note that for
the struts the elastic modulus was assumed to be 69GPa and not calculated. From all the
errors that are obtained the results are overall with reason and solidify that the experimental
methods used are a good way in obtaining the critical loading.
CONCLUSION
Upon starting this experiment the demonstrator had mentioned that the elastic
modulus of struts was 200GPa, and the experiment and theoretical value give 22.78% in
result. All the measurement errors from instrument calibrations were in cooperated in the
calculations. Ideal conditions were assumed for the columns although this is not possible in
reality, from these calculations however the small percentage errors between the theoretical
and experimental values were still very reasonable. Improvements can be definitely made to
the experiment starting by using more modern instrument that have no hysteresis errors due
to over use, or maybe even laser dials can be used to measure the deflection in that way the
possibility of the dial falling off will be eliminated.

Y-Values
3
2.5
2

Y-Values
Linear (Y-Values)

1.5
1
0.5
0
0

0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02

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