SCHOOL OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

ENGINEERING CAMPUS, USM,

14300 NIBONG TEBAL, PULAU PINANG
EXPERIMENTAL NO.

EML 211/2 ENGINEERING LAB 1

2
SEMESTER II

TITLE : BEAM DEFLECTION TEST

NAME : ATHIFAH FAKHIRAH BINTI MUHAMMAD

GROUP :5
MATRIKS NO. : 133699
DEMONSTRATOR : EN. ISMAIL MOHAMED SHORHAMI
LECTURER : EN. MOHAMMAD ZIHAD BIN MAHMUD
DATE OF EXPERIMENT : 13 APRIL 2017
DATE OF SUBMISSION : 19 APRIL 2017
SIGNATURE : ……………………….
Grader’s comments : Score ( Refer to the Rubric )
Structure/
Figure/ ……/20
………………………………………………………………………
Table
……………………………………………………………………… Intro/ ……/10
……………………………………………………………………… Methodology
……………………………………………………………………… Results ……/20
……………………………………………………………………… Discussion/ ……/40
……………………………………………………………………… Conclusion
……………………………………………………………………… Presentation ……/10
………………………………………………………………………
Total ……/100
TITLE : BEAM DEFLECTION TEST
OBJECTIVE :

 The aim of the experiment is to measure the deflection of the beam and
determine the elastic modulus based on beam deflection theory.
APPARATUS :

 Apparatus SM 104 MK III beam ( Figure 1)

 Dial gauge, hanger, the load
 Specimen - beam ( steel, brass and aluminium )

Figure 1 : Beam apparatus SM 104 MK III

INTRODUCTION :

 Beams are structural and mechanical elements that are important in engineering,
where it carries load horizontally on the length of the structure. It is widely used in
engineering design such as machinery, automobiles, airplanes, bridges and buildings.
In this laboratory experiment, student will learn the deflection and the stiffness of the
beam specimen.
THEORY :

 Simply supported beam is applied with a load W at the center position will cause a
deflection given by,
𝑾𝒍𝟑
𝜹=
𝟒𝟖𝑬𝑰
Where, E - elastic modulus ( Young's modulus )
I - second moment of area
l - length of the beam
 For a rectangular cross-section surface, the second moment of area is,

𝒃𝒉𝟑
𝑰=
𝟏𝟐
Where, b - width of the cross-section surface
h - height of the cross-section surface
 From equation ( 1 ) and ( 2 ), if the load-deflection relationship is known , then the
value of the elastic modulus E can be calculated.

PROCEDURE :
 The height , width and length of the steel, brass and aluminium were measured and
recorded.
 The beam supports were set to 0.8 m apart from each other.
 The steel beam was placed on the beam support with the center of the coinciding with
the midpoint of the distance between the two beam supports.A dial gauge was used to
make sure the beam was horizontally leveled.
 The dial gauge was first placed on one end of the steel beam, then its scale was
calibrated to zero.
 The dial gauge the was pushed slowly to the other end of the steel beam to get the 0
reading so that the beam was in straight line. The height of the support on this side
was adjusted until the dial gauge showed zero reading.
 A hanger then placed at the center of the beam.
 The dial gauge was moved to the center of the beam and zero reading was set there.A
load of 5 N was added on the dial gauge and the deflection of the beam was measured
by taking reading on the dial gauge.
 This step was repeated for loads of 10 N, 15 N, 20 N and 25 N. The readings were
recorded.Step 2 - 5 were repeated for the span length of 0.6 m and 0.4 m.
 Step 1 - 8 were repeated for brass and aluminium beams.
 All the results were recorded and tabulated.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION

 The width and height of aluminium, brass and steel were measured and it were
recorded into the table 1 for width and 2 for height. The width and height were
calculated several times to be taken it average to prevent error.

Table 1 : The Width of The Beam Specimens.

Beam Width, b / mm
Specimens
1 2 3 Average

Aluminium 19.50 19.50 19.50 19.50

Brass 19.65 19.65 19.65 19.65

Steel 19.60 19.30 20.50 19.80

Table 2 : The Width of The Beam Specimens.

Beam Height, h / mm
Specimens
1 2 3 Average

Aluminium 6.70 6.70 6.70 6.70

Brass 7.15 7.15 7.15 7.15

Steel 10.50 10.5 10.00 10.50

 The analytic value measurement for beam deflection produced from the experiment
was shown in Table 3 for specimen with span length 40cm , Table 4 for specimen
with span length 60cm and Table 5 for specimen with span length 80cm
 The information for the beam deflection then were projected into the graph.
 Table 3 : Beam deflection with span length 40cm.

Beam Deflection, 𝜹 (mm)

Load, W (N) Steel Aluminium Brass

5 0.10 0.20 0.20

10 0.20 0.40 0.40

15 0.30 0.60 0.50

20 0.40 0.80 0.70

25 0.50 1.0 0.90

Graph Beam Deflection-Load for Span Length 40 cm

0.9

0.8

0.7
Beam Deflection, 𝜹 (mm)

0.6

0.5 Steel

0.4 Aluminium
Brass
0.3

0.2

0.1

0 Load,W (N)
5 10 15 20

Graph 1 : Beam Deflection-Load for span length 40 cm

 Table 4 : Beam deflection with span length 60cm.

Beam Deflection, 𝜹 (mm)

Load, W Steel Aluminium Brass

(N)

5 0.30 0.70 0.60

10 0.55 1.40 1.20

15 0.80 2.10 1.80

20 1.10 2.80 2.40

25 1.35 3.50 2.90

Graph Deflection-Load of Span Length 60 cm

4

3.5

3
Beam Deflection (mm)

2.5
Steel
2
Aluminium
1.5 Brass

0.5

0 Load,W (N)
5 10 15 20 25

Graph 2 : Deflection-Load of Span Length 60cm.

 Table 5 : Beam deflection with span length 80cm.

Beam Deflection, 𝜹 (mm)

Load, W Steel Aluminium Brass

(N)

5 0.90 1.60 1.35

10 1.60 3.30 2.70

15 2.25 5.00 4.10

20 2.90 6.65 5.50

25 7.70 8.30 6.97

Graph Deflection-Load of Spin Length 80cm

9

7
Beam Deflection (mm)

5 Steel

4 Aluminium
Brass
3

0 Load,W (N)
5 10 15 20 25

Graph 3 : Deflection-Load of Spin Length 80cm.

CALCULATIONS

Second moment

bh 3
Using I  the second moment of each specimen can be calculated:
12
For aluminium,

19.50 × 6.703
𝐼𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑢𝑛 =
12
𝐼𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑢𝑚 = 488.74 𝑚𝑚4
Applying to the other specimens,

𝐼𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑠 = 598.55 𝑚𝑚4

𝐼𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑙 = 1910.08 𝑚𝑚4

Young’s Modulus
To calculate the Young’s Modulus, rearranging (2)
𝑊𝑙 3
𝐸=
48𝛿𝐼
For aluminium,

5 × 4003
𝐸𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑢𝑚 =
48 × 0.2 × 488.74

𝐸𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑢𝑚 = 68.20259 𝑘𝑃𝑎

Similarly,

𝐸𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑠 = 55.69014 𝑘𝑃𝑎

𝐸𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑙 = 17.45127 𝑘𝑃𝑎
Percentage error
|Theoretical Value – Experimental Value|
Percentage Error = x 100%
The𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒

For aluminium beam,

|6.90 x 1010 – 68.20259x 103 |
Percentage Error = x 100%
6.90 x 1010

Percentage Error = 99.99%

Similarly,
For brass beam, percentage error = 99.99%
For steel beam, percentage error = 99.99%

DISCUSSION :
Comparing these values with theoretical values in table form:
Theoretical Experimental Percentage of
error
Aluminium 6.90×1010 68.20259×103 99.99%
Brass 1.02×1010 55.69014×103 99.99%
Steel 2.00×1010 17.45127×103 99.99%

It could be seen that the theoretical values differs greatly from the experimental values. This
is due to the some errors that occurred during the experiment such as
1. The condition of the machine is not good due to the corrosion.
2. Parallax error due to limited space when taking the reading and the eyes is not
perpendicular to the scale reading .
3. Poor handling of data without taking the average reading of the data.
4. Uneven distribution of the load, i.e. due to the instability of the load applied, the
weight of the load might not entirely be at the centre.
5. Calibration error of the instruments.

Several precaution step can be taken as shown :

1. Use properly maintained or new apparatuses and clean the apparatus before we use it
to carry out the experiment.
2. Make sure the eyes is perpendicular to the scalar reading.
3. Take the average reading of the experiment in order to get an accurate result.
4. Make sure that the load is not shaking and located at the middle of the Aluminium
specimens.
5. Calibrate the instrument to get an accurate result and data.
CONCLUSION :
From this experiment, it is found that the elastic modulus of Aluminium is the highest
with Brass and Steel following respectively. In reality these experimental values differ
slightly from the theoretical values but steel is the stiffest material with brass and aluminium
following respectively.
The beam deflection test is vital for a number of engineering applications but due to the ease
of the specimen preparation and testing. The results obtained are sensitive to the specimen’s
loading geometry and strain rate.
Therefore, the results obtained are not 100% accurate and cannot be used entirely in any
structural analysis.
REFERENCES :
- Engineering Lab Manual Textbook, USM for EML211/2.
- Materials Science and Engineering. Ninth Edition. W.D. Callister
- Donald R. Askeland, Pradeep P. Fulay, Wendelin J. Wright-The Science and
Engineering of Materials, Sixth Edition -CL-Engineering (2010)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/strength_of_materials.