SHEAR FORCE IN A BEAM (EXPERIMENT A)

Discussion

Shearing forces are unaligned forces pushing one part of a body in one direction, and another
part of the body in the opposite direction. When the forces are aligned into each other, they
are called compression forces. An example is a deck of cards being pushed one way on the top,
and the other at the bottom, causing the cards to slide. Another example is when wind blows
at the side of a peaked roof of a home - the side walls experience a force at their top pushing
in the direction of the wind, and their bottom in the opposite direction, from the ground or
foundation. William A. Nash defines shear force in terms of planes: "If a plane is passed through
a body, a force acting along this plane is called a shear force or shearing force."

The objective of this experiment is to examine how shear force varies with an increasing
load. The unknown forces especially at the support reactions are determine using the equations
for plane static equilibrium as shown below.

Equations for the plane static equilibrium (in two dimension)

Fx = 0 Fy = 0 Fz = 0

The equation that were used in this experiment is:

.
Shear force at cut, Sc =

The results of the experimental shear force and theoretical shear force by using the formula above
is calculated and recorded in results part. After calculation has been made, a graph of shear force
against load is plotted.

From the results, a linear graph type is obtained. From the graph, it can be concluded that
every single load will affect the value of the shear force. The greater the load, the greater the value
of shear force will be. The experimental value is almost the same with the theoretical value. The
difference in obtaining results may be caused during the experiment itself causing error in
experimental values.

From the graph also, it is shown that the equation was accurately predict the behaviour of
the beam since both graph shown the same type which is linear.

REFERENCE

R. C. Hibbeler. 2011. Structural Analysis (Eight Edition in SI Units). Singapore: Pearson Education
Souths Asia Pte Ltd

Anonymous. 2015. Shear Force. Retrieved September 2016 from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shear_force