Student Name & Section: Muhammad Hannan Ayub

Khan & ME-12-C

3- Beam Deflection
Objective:
To investigate the relationship between the applied load and deflection of a simply supported beam

Apparatus:

• Deflection of Beam Apparatus

• Weights
• Vernier Calliper

Formulae Used:
The deflection ′𝛿 ′of a simply supported beam when loaded by a point load ‘𝑃’ at center is given by

𝑷𝑳𝟑
𝜹=
𝟒𝟖𝑬𝑰
Where
3
𝐼 = Area moment of inertia = 𝑏𝑑
12

𝐸 = Modulus of elasticity

Page 1 of 3
 Experimental Observations:

Beam 1:

Material of Beam = Steel

Breadth of beam = b = 30.05 mm

Depth of beam = d = 5.05 mm

Moment of inertia of the beam = I = 4.159 × 10−10 𝑚4

% Beam
Load 𝛿 𝛿𝑡ℎ Compliance
Difference
Sr. # 𝛿/𝑃
−𝟐 −𝟐
Newton 𝟏𝟎 mm 𝟏𝟎 mm % mmN-1

1 2 14 17.18 22.71 0.07

2 4 29 34.36 18.48 0.0725

3 6 43.5 51.54 18.48 0.0725
4 8 57.5 68.72 19.51 0.0719
5 10 72 85.9 19.31 0.0720

6 12 86 103.08 19.86 0.0717

*Draw graph between applied load and deflection of the beam.

Calculations:

1
𝐼= 𝑏𝑑 3
12
1
= (30.05 × 10 −3 )(5.05 × 10−3 )3 = 4.159 × 10−10 𝑚4
12

𝐸 = 200 𝐺𝑃𝑎 , 𝐿 = 0.7 𝑚 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 = 2 𝑁 𝛿 = 14 × 10−2 𝑚𝑚

𝑃𝐿3
𝛿𝑡ℎ =
48𝐸𝐼
2 (0.7)3
= = 17.18 × 10−2 𝑚𝑚
48(200 × 109 )( 4.159 × 10−10 )

|𝛿𝑡ℎ − 𝛿 | |17.18 − 14|

𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 = = = 22.71
𝛿𝑡ℎ 17.18
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 𝛿 14 × 10−2
𝐵𝑒𝑎𝑚 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 = = = 0.07 𝑚𝑚𝑁 −1
𝑝 2

Beam 2:

Material of the beam = Steel

Breadth of beam = b = 25.05 mm

Depth of beam = d = 6 mm

Moment of inertia of the beam = I = 4.796 × 10 −10 𝑚4

% Beam
Load 𝛿 𝛿𝑡ℎ Compliance
Difference
Sr. # 𝛿/𝑃
Newton 𝟏𝟎−𝟐 mm 𝟏𝟎−𝟐 mm % mmN-1

1 2 11 14.93 26.33 0.055

2 4 21 29.86 29.68 0.0525
3 6 32 44.8 28.57 0.0533
4 8 43 59.73 28.01 0.0538
5 10 54 74.66 27.67 0.0540
6 12 64 89.59 28.57 0.0533
*Draw graph between applied load and deflection of the beam.

Discussion of Results:

The following experiment was aimed towards devising a relation between applied load and deflection of the beam.

This was done on two beams of identical material i.e., steel with main difference being dimensions of the two

beams. Since moment of inertia is determined by dimensions of the beam, we were able to form a relation between

moment of inertia and produced deflection. It was observed that greater the moment of inertia, smaller the slope.

Hence materials with higher moment of inertia tend to show greater resistance to structural changes. Percentage

error showed that our readings were permissible range however these deviations can be considered an outcome of

systematic and human errors.

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 Compliance:

Compliance is the inverse of stiffness. It is the property of a material undergoing elastic deformation or change in

volume when subjected to an external force (applied). A highly compliant material displaces significantly when a

load is applied.

Compliance of a cracked specimen is an important parameter in the analysis and testing of fracture mechanics and is

usually derived by numerical and experimental methods. Beam compliance is an indicator of how much strain

develops in a beam respective to a load.

Graph:

Relation between Applied Load and Deflection

100

90

80

70
Deflection (10^-2 mm)

60

50
Beam 1
40 Beam 2

30

20

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Applied Load (N)

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Page 5 of 3