Table of content

Objectives
1. To compare the theoretical internal moment with the measured bending moment for a
beam under various loads.

Introduction and Background
General Description
This equipment is used to determine the internal bending moment at a particular point on a
beam under various concentrated loads. Two parts of the beam are joined by a pair of ball
bearings that behave as plastic hinges. Two underhung arms are attached to both parts of the
beam and a spring balance is attached to both arms. The distance between the ball bearing
joint to the underhung spring is 20 cm. The theoretical internal moment at the bearing joint is
compared to the measured moment from the spring balance tension.
Theory
A beam is a structural element like the truss member but, unlike the latter, it is designed,
fabricated, and assembled to carry a load in bending. Moreover, members that are slender and
support loadings that are applied perpendicular to their longitudinal axis also called beams.
Beams are important structural and mechanical elements in engineering. Beams are in general,
long straight bars having a constant cross-sectional area, often classified as to how they are
supported. They are classified as to how they are supported for example, a simply supported
beam, cantilevered beam and overhanging beam. A simply supported beam is pinned at one
end and roller-supported at the other, a cantilevered beam is fixed at one end and free at the
other, and an overhanging beam has one or both of its ends freely extended over the supports.
When applied loads act along a beam, an internal bending moment that varies from point along
the axis of the beam is developed. To determine the internal moment in the beam, one way is
to express internal moment as a function of the arbitrary position x along the beam axis. This
function can then be plotted and represented by a graph.
Referring to the Figure 1, when the external loads are applied on a beam that tries to bend at
the hinge, the external moment is transferred to tension from the underhung balance multiplied
by 20 cm which is the distance from the hinge to the underhung balance.

Figure 1


Materials and apparatus
- ST011M
- Beams (35 cm for short end, 75 cm for long end)
- Weight hangers
- Applied weights
- Spring balance
- End supports

Procedure
1. The beam is placed on simple the supports
2. The distance between supports is adjusted to be 1 m.
3. Both ends of spring balance are connected to both steel arms and spring is adjusted
until beam is level.
4. Spring reading is recorded and let this reading be the tare reading (T
tare
).
5. Weights are placed on load hangers at the required positions on the beam.
6. The spring balance is adjusted until the beam is level again and tension force (T) is
recorded.
7. The net tension, T
net
= T T
tare
is determined.

8. The above steps are repeated at the same weight positions to get an average value.
9. From these data, the theoretical moment, measured moment and percentage difference
between them are calculated.

References
1. http://web.mit.edu/emech/dontindex-build/full-text/emechbk_3.pdf