Faculty of Civil and Environmental No.

of
Engineering experiment: 1
Department of Structure and Material Date of
Engineering experiment:
Title: Bending Moment In The Beam 6/3/2017

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The bending moment at any point along the beam is equal to the area under the shear
force diagram up to that point. (Note: for a simply-supported beam, the bending moment
at the ends will always be equal to zero).
Bending moment diagrams are simply plots of the bending moment (on the y-axis)
versus the position of various points along the beam (on the x-axis).

2.0 THEORY

Wa( La)
Mc= . Equation 1
L
Use this statement
The bending moment at the cut cut is equal to the algebraic sum of the moment of
force acting to the left or right of the cut

3.0 PROCEDURE
Part 1
1. Without any load check the digital force display meter is zero.
2. A hanger with a 100g mass was placed to the left of the cut. The digital force
display reading been recorded.
3. Repeated using masses between 100g and 500g.
4. Converted the mass into a load in Newton(multiply by 9.81) and the force reading
into a bending moment (Nm) using the following expression:
Bending moment at a cut (Nm) = Displayed force x 0.125
5. The theoretical bending moment the cut was calculated and Table 1 completed.

Part 2
1. Without any load check the digital force display meter is zero.
2. Loaded the beam carefully with the hangers in any positions and loads according
to Figure 2, Figure 3 and Figure 4 and Table 2 completed.
 Faculty of Civil and Environmental No. of
Engineering experiment: 1
Department of Structure and Material Date of
Engineering experiment:
Title: Bending Moment In The Beam 6/3/2017

3. The force reading was converted into a bending moment (Nm) using:
Bending Moment at a cut (Nm) = Displayed Force x 0.125
4. Calcuate the support reaction (RA and RB) and calculated the theoretical bending
moment at the cut.

5.
6.
7. RB
RA 8.
140mm RB
9. Cut
10.
W1 = 400G (3.92N) 11.

Figure 2

Figure 3
 Faculty of Civil and Environmental No. of
Engineering experiment: 1
Department of Structure and Material Date of
Engineering experiment:
Title: Bending Moment In The Beam 6/3/2017

Figure 4
4.0 EQUIPMENTS

Apparatus for bending moment experiment

Digital Force Display The loader (1 piece = 10 gram)

5.0 RESULT AND ANALYSIS

 Faculty of Civil and Environmental No. of
Engineering experiment: 1
Department of Structure and Material Date of
Engineering experiment:
Title: Bending Moment In The Beam 6/3/2017

Mass (g) Load (N) Force (N) Experimental Theoretical

Bending Moment Bending
(Nm) Moment (Nm)
100 0.981 0.7 0.0875 0.0935
150 1.472 1.1 0.1375 0.1405
200 1.962 1.5 0.1875 0.1873
250 2.453 1.8 0.225 0.2342
300 2.943 2.2 0.275 0.2809
350 3.434 2.5 0.3125 0.3278
400 3.924 2.9 0.3625 0.3745
Table 1

Figur W1 W2 Force Experimental RA (N) RB (N) Theoretical

e (N) (N) (N) Bending Moment Bending
(Nm) Moment
(Nm)
2 3.924 0 1.3 0.1625 5.17 -1.25 0.1738
3 3.924 0.98 2.7 0.3375 2.36 2.54 0.3552
4 3.924 0.98 2.7 0.3125 1.87 3.03 0.3258
Table 2

Calculation for Theoretical Bending Moment value

Part 1
W a ( La)
Moment at the cut section, Mc=
L
Example:
W =1 N
 Faculty of Civil and Environmental No. of
Engineering experiment: 1
Department of Structure and Material Date of
Engineering experiment:
Title: Bending Moment In The Beam 6/3/2017

W a (La)
M C=
L
(0.98 N 0.3)(0.440.3)
M c=
0.44
M c =0.0935 Nm

Part 2
Example:
W =3.92 N W =0 N

To calculate the reaction RA and RB:

M A =0 N
3.92 N ( 0.14 ) R B ( 0.44 )=0
RB =1.25 N
F y =0 N
R A + R B=3.92 N
R A =3.92+ 1.25=5.17 N
M c =5.17 ( 0.440.14 )3.92 ( 0.44 )
M c =0.1738 Nm

6.0 DISCUSSION
Part 1
1.0 Derive equation 1.
+ F y =0 + F y =R A + R BW
+ M A =0 + M A =W A R B L
WA
RB =
L
 Faculty of Civil and Environmental No. of
Engineering experiment: 1
Department of Structure and Material Date of
Engineering experiment:
Title: Bending Moment In The Beam 6/3/2017

WA
RA+ W =0
L

WA
R A =W
L

WL W A
RA=
L L

W (La)
RA=
L

M c =R A a

W a ( La)
M c=
L

2.0 Plot the graph, which compare your experimental result to those you calculate using
theory.
Refer graph of load versus bending moment.

3.0 Comment on the shape of graph. What does it tell you about how bending moment
varies due to an increased load?
From the graph we can get get a linear graph type. When the loads increase, the
bending moment will be increase too. This is because, from the normal formula
bending moment = Applied Load (P) x Distance. Then, when P is increase, bending
moment will increase too. So, this is almost same with the experimental value.

4.0 Does the equation you used accurately predict the behaviour of the beam?
Yes, from the graph, we know that value between experimental bending moment and
theoretical bending moment is almost same the different percentage is only 2.15%.
Different percentage when load = 2.943N
 Faculty of Civil and Environmental No. of
Engineering experiment: 1
Department of Structure and Material Date of
Engineering experiment:
Title: Bending Moment In The Beam 6/3/2017

0.28090.275
100
0.275
2.15
Part 2
1.0 Comment on how the result of the experiment compare with those calculated using
the theory.
From the result of the experiments, for Figure 2 (value bending moment is
0.1625Nm), for Figure 3 (value bending moment is 0.3375Nm) and for Figure 4
(value bending moment is 0.3125Nm). Compare with using theory method, for Figure
2 (bending moment is 0.1738Nm), for Figure 3 (value bending moment is 0.3552Nm)
and for Figure 4 (bending moment is 0.3258Nm).
Different percentage for Figure 2:
0.17380.1625
100
0.1625
6.95
Different percentage for Figure 3:
0.35520.3375
100
0.3375
5.24

Different percentage for Figure 4:

0.32580.3125
100
0.3125
4.26

2.0 Does the experiment proof that the moment at the cut is equal to the algebraic sum
of the moment of force acting to the left or right of the cut. If not why?
Yes, because the bending moment can be calculate based on the data distance. This
can be proven by our experiment that distance effect the bending moment when we
look at the different percentage of all the experiment is small.

3.0 Plot the moment force diagram for load cases in Figure 2,3 and 4.

A
C B
 Faculty of Civil and Environmental No. of
Engineering experiment: 1
Department of Structure and Material Date of
Engineering experiment:
Title: Bending Moment In The Beam 6/3/2017

Figure 2
0.549
M C =0

M A=3.92 ( 0.14 ) =0.549

M B=3.92 ( 0.58 ) +5.168 ( 0.44 ) =0 OK

0.519

0.457

B
A C D
Figure 3

M A=0

M C =2.36 ( 0.22 )=0.519

M D =2.36 ( 0.26 )3.92 ( 0.04 )=0.457

M B=2.36 ( 0.44 )3.92 ( 0.22 )0.98 ( 0.18 )=0 OK

0.451

0.125

B
A C D
 Faculty of Civil and Environmental No. of
Engineering experiment: 1
Department of Structure and Material Date of
Engineering experiment:
Title: Bending Moment In The Beam 6/3/2017

Figure 4

M A=0

M C =1.88 ( 0.24 ) =0.451

M D =1.88 ( 0.4 ) 3.92 ( 0.16 )=0.125

M B=1.88 ( 0.44 )3.92 ( 0.2 )0.98 ( 0.04 )=0 OK

4.0 Comment on the shape of the graph. What does it tell you about how Bending
Moment varies due to a increased load?
From the bending moment diagram we sketch, for the Figure 2 (the value bending
moment that we can get at the cut is 0.1625Nm), for Figure 3 (the value bending
moment that we can get at the cut is 0.3375Nm) and for Figure 4 (the value bending
moment that we can get at the cut is 0.3125Nm). So, we can tell that when the same
load applies at the different distance will affect the bending moment value. The value
of load is depending to the distance of beam.

7.0 CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we can conclude, this experiment proves that the theory of bending moments
can be proved by an experiment conducted in the laboratory. Things that affect the value of
the bending moment can also be identified.