Lab Report:

Subject:

Lecturer:

SHEAR FORCE

Structure 1

IR Pan

Table of Contents
The Abstract.......................................................................................................... 3

The Introduction.................................................................................................... 3
Materials Used....................................................................................................... 4
Experimental Procedure......................................................................................... 4
Results................................................................................................................... 5
Conclusion............................................................................................................. 7

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The Abstract
Different weights of loads were used in this experiment to see how the
shear force varies. All the data was recorded and the shear force
calculated. A bar chart for the shear force for the theoretical and
experimental case for each load case is plotted below.

The Introduction
The shear force at any section of a beam represents the tendency for the
portion of the beam on one side of the section to shear laterally relative to
the other portion.

Loads

The diagram shows a beam carrying loads. It is simply supported at two

points where the reactions the resultant of the loads and reaction (RA)
acting on the beam is vertically upwards and since the whole beam is in
equilibrium, the resultant force to the right downwards. Shear force may
be defined as follows:The shearing force at any section of a beam is the algebraic sum of the
lateral components of the forces acting on either side of the section.
Where forces are neither in the lateral or axial direction they must be
resolved in the usual way and only the lateral components used to
calculate the shear force.
Shear Force at section X-X is;
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S.F X-X = W2 + W3 - RA
S.F X-X = RB

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Materials Used

A pair of simple supports was used

A special beam with a cut section
A set of weights with several load hangers
An electronic stopwatch
A 1m ruler

Experimental Procedure

The load cell was connected to the digital indictor

The indicator was switched on around 10 minutes before the
readings were taken as it was left to stabilise.
The 2 simple supports were fixed to the aluminium base at a
distance equal to the span of the beam to be tested. The supports
were screwed tightly to the base.
The load hangers were hung to the beam
The beam was placed on the support
The load hanger was placed at the desired location
The indicator reading was noted (was it not zero, the tare button has
to be pressed)
The load was placed on the load hanger and each time was replaced
by a different set of loading and at different locations
The steps was repeated for at least 5 sets of reading

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Results
Beam Span =

1000mm

Distance of the shear section from the left support =

Load
cause

Case
1
Case
2
Case
3
Case
4
Case
5

Load And Its Distance From The Left

Support

675mm

Shea
r
Force
Theo
ry
N

She
ar
Forc
e
Exp.
N

W1
N
0.5

L1
mm
180

W2
N
0.5

L2
mm
350

W3
N
0.5

L3
mm
510

0.52

0.10

80.8

0.5

145

1.0

330

0.5

535

0.91

0.26

71.4

0.5

150

1.0

340

1.0

510

0.93

0.38

58.6

1.0

180

1.0

370

1.0

540

1.09

0.62

43.1

1.5

260

1.5

410

1.5

530

1.8

1.30

27.8

Sum of moment = 0
Taking moment at A
(W1 * L1) + (W2 * L2) + (W3 * L3) = RB

Theoretical Shear force at

x x = RB

% Error = Shear force (Theory) Shear Force (Experiment)

*100

Shear Force (Theory)

Overall % Error = 80.8 + 71.4 +58.4 + 43.1 + 27.8

5
= 56.3 %

Bar Chart for Shear Force for the theoretical and experimental case 1 to case 5
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%
Error

Case 5

Case 4

Case 3
Theoretical Shear Force
Expt. Shear Force
Case 2

Case 1

0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

N

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1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8

Discussion
From the bar chart, we can deduce that in some cases there is a huge difference among the
actual shear force and the theoretical shear force.
From the results above it can be deduced that the load and shear force are inversely
proportional. This means when the load is increased, the shear force decreases. It can also be
noted that the theoretical shear force does not go hand to hand with the experimental shear
force. It shows that a laboratory experiment was carried out with some errors. The experiment
was carried out 5 times so that errors (such as systematic and random errors) can be avoided.
We also calculated the overall percentage error which is 56.3%.

Conclusion
We can therefore conclude that the results are not really accountable since the percentage
error for this experiment was calculated to be 56.3% and that more tests should be done so as
to conclude if the shear force at a cut section of a beam is equal to the algebraic sum of the
forces acting to the left or right of the section.

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Conclusion
The experiment above proves that the shear force is inversely proportional to the load. As the
load increases, the shear force decreases. The test manages to prove the thesis for which this
test was carried out that the shear force at the cut section of the beam is equal to the
algebraic sum of the forces acting to the left or right of the section

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