1.

Title Information:

Name
CIV E #302
Lab #2: Wheatstone bridge for Strain Measurement
Date of Activity: Tuesday, February 5, 2019 (or Thurs. the 7th)
Due date: Tuesday, February 19, 2018 (or Thurs. the 21st)

2. Purpose:

The purpose of this experiment is to satisfy the student outcome 3 of the

course which focuses on analyzing and interpreting data to draw conclusions.
In this experiment we have used Wheatstone bridge to measure strains using
strain gages and output of B.L.H strain indicator which is strain values is
interpreted to calculate the actual strains at the gage stations. Strain recorder
box are used to make measurements of loads on the beam.
Strain gage is basically a wire and its resistance is known at different strains
including at zero value. So at different resistance values there is different
strains. Voltage across the circuit is provided using the battery and current
flow through circuit is governed by Ohm’s Law i.e. (V=IR). In order to make
sure constant strain and hence the resistance within the strain gage it is glued
to the member. This experiment also satisfies the outcome 4 because it uses
the two different areas of civil engineering in this experiment. Using basics of
mechanics of materials we draw Shear and moment diagrams to determine
shear force and bending moment values like we do in a beam.

3. Equipment and materials:

Using jumper wires and color coded resistors Wheatstone bridge is set up on
breadboard. Colors of the resistors have their own importance because these
colors represents or tell us about the values of the resistances and different
color combinations gives different resultant resistances.

 Loads
 Cantilever Beam
 Strain Gages
 Strain Recorder Box (B.L.H Strain indicator)
Figure 1: B.L.H. Strain Indicator (Credits: Abdullah) Figure 2: Cantilever Beam

.
Figure 3:- Wheatstone Bridge circuit (Credits:Abdullah)

4. Procedure:

To build or to assemble the breadboard resistors and jumper wires were used.
Wheatstone bridge circuit is shown in the figure 3 below. First of all, B.L.H
Strain indicator box was turned on and switched the bridge selector to two
arms and plugged in the 120 ohms, gage factor 2.08 dummy gage on branch 4
of the Wheatstone bridge. Then we plugged in the tension strain gage on
branch 3 of the Wheatstone bridge and strain measurement wheel to center the
needle. And we recorded the reading from the strain indicator window. This is
the DATUM.
We placed the load onto the beam and centered the needle of the balancing
meter, record the reading and repeat the steps for the compression gage. This
is the reading WITH LOAD.
Three load cases are shown below:

Load Case 1: Load Case 2:

Load Case 3:

5. Data:

Case 1: Point Load at 20”:

Theoretical Strain: 182.07 µ in/in

Tension:
Datum=3106 µ in/in
With Load=3310 µ in/in
Strain=-204 µ in/in
Compression:
Datum=3820 µ in/in
With Load=3605 µ in/in
Strain=215 µ in/in
Case 2: Distributed Load:
Theoretical Strain: 39.415 µ in/in

Tension:
Datum= 3270 µ in/in
With Load=3298 µ in/in
 Strain=-28 µ in/in
Compression:
Datum= 3815 µ in/in
With Load=3710 µ in/in
Strain=105 µ in/in
Case 3: Point Load and distributed load:
Theoretical Strain: 221.48 µ in/in

Tension:
Datum=3240 µ in/in
With Load=3500 µ in/in
Strain=-260 µ in/in
Compression:
Datum=3764 µ in/in
With Load=3530 µ in/in
Strain=234 µ in/in

6. Required Calculation:

Theoretical % %
Compressiv Difference Differnces
Strain
Load/ Tensile Compressiv Tensile e s in in
Load Case No Readings e Readings Strain Strain
(μin/in)
Tensile Compressiv
Load (μin/in) (μin/in) (μin/in) (μin/in) Strains e Strains

Point Load No 3106 3820 -204 215 182.07 12 18

Yes 3310 3605

Distributed No 3270 3815 -28 105 39.415 29 166

Load
Yes 3298 3710

Combined No 3240 3764 -260 234 221.48 17 6

Load
Yes 3500 3350
7. Required Discussion :

After having calculated all the results both theoretical and experimental we
come to the conclusion that in Wheatstone bridge circuit resistance is inversely
proportional to the current flowing through it.It means as the resultant
resistance increases across the circuit the current flowing through the circuit
decreases. Wheatstone bridge and Strain recorder is very sensitive to small
changes in the strains and hence can record very small values of the strains
precisely.

Comparing theoretical and experimental results we see that there are errors in
the values of strain for both tension and compression regions. As you can see
in Table above, some of the percent errors are high and some are low. The
highest is for load case 2 compressive strain which is around 166% and is
anomalous and the lowest is for the compressive strain for load case 3.

This might have occurred due to non-uniform weight distribution of the load
on the beam or may be due to touching of the wire while performing
experiment. This percentage error must be removed and can be done by
repeating the experiment multiple times unless percentage error comes under
20%.

It is also observable that there are more % errors in the compression readings
than the tensile readings and this may have occurred because strain gage
might not have been aligned underneath each other. And it can be concluded
that experiment is good fit for the tensile regions as opposed to compressive
region.

The main difference between a half bridge and full bridge is the number of
strain gages. The full bridge has 4 while the half bridge has 2. When possible,
full bridge should be used since it has more strain gages, which makes it
sensitive and more efficient. However, the half bridge is easier to set up as
opposed to the full bridge circuit.

8. References:

Dowell, R.K. and Johnson, T. 2013. CIV E 302 Lab Manual.

San Diego: San Diego State University

Hibbeler, Russell C. 2017. Mechanics of Materials 10 th Ed. Boston: Pearson

Education, Inc.
A. Schraff, P.E., personal communication, February 5, 2019