UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
MECHANICAL AND PRODUCTION ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT
E443 Beng (Hons.) Mechanical Engineering (Minor:
Energy Systems)

MECH 2012Y
Mechanics of Materials II
Experiment L3: CURVED BARS EXPERIMENT
GROUP 8
1. BADULLA Muhammad Twaaha
2. LOREKANG Mokgwabone Funny
3. NUNHUCK Mohammad Shah Wasil

(1311150)
(1300246)
(1313122)

-Date of Experiment: 24 April 2015

- Date Submitted: 1 May 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1. INTRODUCTION

Despite the fact that curved bars do not generally found themselves as a whole structure, they
are, most of the time, a piece of a mechanical part which has a mix of straight and bended
components. The investigation of how curved bars deflect is of great importance so as to get an
idea of the amount of mechanical displacement of structures that consolidate curved areas. One
of the more powerful techniques used to gauge deflections in curved bars originates from
Castigliano's first hypothesis or from a unit-load strategy. This examination puts the unit load
way to deal with the test. The test contraption will exhibit the real conduct of curved bars set up
in distinctive arrangements and comparisons will be made to the unit load strategy's outcomes.

2. OBJECTIVES
The aim of the analysis is to confirm experimentally the deflection of curved bars having little
cross-sectional areas compared to the radius of the bars' center line. The three structural
components considered are as per the following:

A semicircular bar with diameter, 40cm.

A quadrant (quarter of a circle) with radius, 20cm.
A davit-shaped bar composed of a straight length of 10cm and a quadrant of 20 cm
radius.

The objective of this experiment was to determine the deflections in the horizontal and vertical directions
under loading of a semi-circular beam and a davit-shaped bar by means of experiment and compare the
experimental values of deflection to calculated (theoretical) values.

3. APPARATUS USED
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 Curved bar apparatus

Davit-shaped
Semi-circular

Quadrant

Hang

Figure 1: Side view Curved bar apparatus

Vertical dial
indicator

Horizontal
dial
indicator

Figure 2: Front view of Curved bat apparatus

4. PROCEDURES
1. The experiment was first carried out using the semicircular bar.
2. The hanger is attached to the semi-circular bar with the vertical and horizontal dial set in
position.
3. Zero the dials and read the initial zero-datum reading off them.
4. Next, load the ring by increments of 2 N, up to 20 N. At each increment record the
deflection at each dial.
5. Steps 2-4 are then repeated with the quadrant and davit shaped bar.
6. All readings noted and calculated are tabulated in Tables 1, 2, 3.
Note: The actual deflection is obtained by subtracting the zero-datum reading from all
the readings noted.

5. THEORY
Castiglianos theorem can be utilized to resolve the deflection incurred by a force of loading in a
curved beam.
Castiglianos theorem states that the component in a given direction of the deflection caused by an external
force on an elastic body is equivalent to the partial derivative of the work of deformation with respect to the
component of the force in the given direction.
The vertical displacement,V of the curved bar is given by;

V=

P R3
2 EI (1)

Where:
P Load applied
R Radius of the semicircle
E Young Modulus of the material
I Moment of inertia

Figure 3: Curved bar (semi-circular) subjected to loading and having vertical displacement V
and horizontal displacement H.(Deflection of Curved Beams, n.d.)

The horizontal displacement is given by;

2 P R3
H=
(2)
EI
Where:
P Load applied
R Radius of the semicircle
E Young Modulus of the material
I Moment of inertia

Figure 4:Davit shaped bar with straight length L and a quadrant of a radius R.(Deflection
of Curved Beams, n.d.)
The davit shaped bar is composed with a straight member and a quadrant of a circle at its end.
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When loaded vertical displacement, Vdof the davit shaped bar is given by;
V d=

P R3 PL R2
+
(3)
2 EI
EI

Where:
P Load applied
R Radius of the semicircle
E Young Modulus of the material
I Moment of inertia
L-Straight length of davit shaped bar
The horizontal displacement, Hdis given by;
P R3 PRL (
Hd=
+[
2 R+ L )] (4)
2 EI 2 EI

Where:
P Load applied
R Radius of the semicircle
E Young Modulus of the material
I Moment of inertia
L-Straight length of davit shaped bar

6. RESULTS
Table 1: 40cm radius semi-circular bar
Load / N

Vertical Displacement

Horizontal displacement

Dial Reading /
mm

Deflection/ mm

Dial Reading /
mm

Deflection mm

2.0

13.10

1.43

4.0

11.50

1.60

1.75

0.32

6.0

10.87

2.23

2.15

0.72

8.0

8.23

4.87

2.79

1.36

10.0

7.71

5.39

3.33

1.90

12.0

5.31

7.79

3.89

2.46

14.0

4.73

8.37

4.50

3.07

16.0

2.21

10.89

5.10

3.67

18.0

1.48

11.62

5.63

4.20

Table 2: 20cm radius quadrant bar

Load / N

Vertical Displacement

Horizontal displacement

Dial Reading /
mm

Deflection / mm

Dial Reading /
mm

Deflection / mm

2.0

2.23

3.75

4.0

2.06

0.17

3.55

0.20

6.0

1.85

0.38

3.24

0.51

8.0

1.53

0.70

3.09

0.66

10.0

1.18

1.05

2.88

0.87

12.0

1.09

1.14

2.69

1.06

14.0

0.83

1.40

2.54

1.21

16.0

0.58

1.65

2.31

1.44

18.0

0.30

1.93

2.19

1.56

20.0

0.005

2.18

2.03

1.72

Table 3: Straight length of 10cm and 20cm radius Davit shaped bar
Load / N

Vertical Displacement

Horizontal displacement

Dial Reading /
mm

Deflection /
mm

Dial Reading /
mm

Deflection / mm

2.0

7.24

8.07

4.0

6.85

0.40

7.64

0.43

6.0

6.54

0.71

7.22

0.85

8.0

6.26

0.99

6.94

1.13

10.0

5.87

1.38

6.51

1.56

12.0

5.40

1.85

6.13

1.94

14.0

5.09

2.16

5.62

2.45

16.0

4.75

2.50

5.19

2.88

18.0

4.49

2.76

4.77

3.30

20.0

4.10

3.15

4.34

3.73

7. ANALYSIS
1. 2. For each of the members, graphs of load against the deflection are plotted. Both
horizontal and vertical displacements are considered and straight line curve are drawn to the
plotted data points.

Graph 1: Load against deflection for semi circular bar

14
12
Vertical displacement

10
Load P / N

Linear (Vertical
displacement)

Horizontal displacement

Linear (Horizontal
displacement)

2
0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Deflection / mm

Graph 2: Load against deflection for quadrant bar

2.5
2
Vertical displacement
1.5
Load P / N

Linear (Vertical
displacement)
Horizontal displacement

Linear (Horizontal
displacement)

0.5
0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Deflection / mm

10

Graph 3: Load against deflection for davit bar

4
3.5
3
Vertical displacement

2.5
Load P / N

Linear (Vertical
displacement)

Horizontal displacement

1.5

Linear (Horizontal
displacement)

1
0.5
0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Deflection / mm

3. The exact and approximate deflections for the three members are calculated, as per the
following:
i.
ii.
iii.

Semi circular member subjected to an 8 N load.

Quadrant subjected to 8N load.
Davit shaped bar subjected to a 10N load.
Table 4: Theoretical values of both vertical and horizontal deflection

Member
Semi-circle
Quadrant
Davit

Load / N
8
8
10

Vertical deflection / mm
Exact
Approx.
15.06
0.94
1.93

Horizontal deflection / mm
Exact
Approx.
19.18
0.60
0.58
1.69
1.66

4. The approximate theoretical results obtained in part 3 are compared with the vertical and
horizontal deflections from the graphs in part 1 and 2.
Table 5: Comparison between approximate and experimental values

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Member
Semi-circle
Quadrant
Davit

Load / N
8
8
10

Vertical deflection / mm
Approx.
Experimenta

Horizontal deflection / mm
Approx.
Experimental

l
4.87
0.70
1.38

15.06
0.94
1.93

19.18
0.58
1.66

1.36
0.66
1.56

5. The percentage differences between approximate and experimental deflections

for each member are tabulated below.

Table 6: Percentage error between approximate and experimental deflections

Member
Semi-circle
Quadrant
Davit

Load / N

Vertical error / %

Horizontal error / %

67.7
25.5
28.5

92.9
13.8
6.02

8
8
10

From the error analysis (table 6), it can be found that the semi-circle has the highest vertical and
horizontal percentage error of 67.7% and 92.9% respectively.
It can also be observed that most of experimental deflections are smaller than the theoretical
ones.
Some sources of errors that may have lead to the errors are given below.
1. The dial indicator was over-sensitive. Any vibration or movement caused was absorbed
by the dial indicator changing the readings.
2. Sometimes, the indicator became wrongly calibrated even if there were no systemic
errors observed at the start of the experiment.
3. The gauge head of the dial indicator may have applied a force on the member, hence
preventing the beam from deflecting completely.
4. The spindle of the dial indicator and the hanger had limited space preventing the
measurement of some loadings.

Some of the improvements that can be made are listed below.

1. Digital indicators could be used instead of the dial indicator given. This would definitely
errors due to movement and vibrations, as well as, the systemic errors observed.

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2. Hangers with more slots should be used, so as to be able to perform the measurement of
the deflection at 20N for the semi circular member.
3. Dimensions of the members should be verified and compared to

original ones to make sure that the yield point has not been exceeded.

8. CONCLUSION
From the results obtained, it can be noted that the highest experimental
error was obtained for the semi-circular member (67.7% vertically and
92.9% horizontally). However, the percentage errors for the quadrant and
Davit shaped bars are within the experimental limits. (25%).
Hence, we can conclude that this experiment can only be used to measure
the deflections on the quadrant and davit-shaped and the errors obtained
were due to the dial indicator. More accurate results would be obtained upon
use of better apparatus.

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9. APPENDIX

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10. REFERENCES
Scribd. (2010) Deflection of Curved Beams. [ONLINE]
Available from: https://www.scribd.com/doc/48248411/Deflection-of-Curved-Beams.
[Accessed: 24 April 2015].
Homepages. (n.d). Curved bars. [ONLINE]
Available at: http://homepages.wmich.edu/~kujawski/curved%20bars%20test.pdf.
[Accessed: 24 April 2015].

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