INTRODUCTION

As the world revolves with humans, myriad types of machines work smoothly to keep the
things going, providing human needs. Massive planes take to skies in tremendous burst of
power. Coal powered or nuclear powered turbines keep the electricity flowing through all the
industries into domestic kitchens. From bridges, skyscrapers to domestic house structures need
information of load distributions to make them safer. Designing load carrying components in
machines require information about stress distributions. In proper design of devices such as
shafts, pressure vessels and support structures, we must consider load carrying capacities and
allowable deflections.

Strain measurement of air craft wing Strain measurement of a turbine shafts

Strain measurement of engine crank shaft Strain measurement of bridge gussets

Mechanics of materials provide a basis for predicting the essential characteristics of a

mechanical design and provides fundamental understanding of the behavior of load carrying
capacity.
 Take a rubber band and stretch it out to twice of its original length and let it return to its
resting state. Although it does not appear to have failed, rubber band no longer has the same
dimensions or mechanical properties which will alter the performance of it in use.

However theoretical analysis is often not sufficient and experimental measurements are
required to achieve a final design. Our interest here is to learn how to measure strains in
structured members with the use of strain gauges.
 Theory
Consider a beam which is bend to an angle ‘q’ at the center of curvature C. consider
and element P’Q’ at a distance y from the neutral plane.

R – Radius of curvature of the neutral plane.

𝑃 ′ 𝑄 ′ − 𝑃𝑄
Strain of the element = 𝑃𝑄

(𝑅+𝑦)𝑞̂− 𝑅𝑞̂ 𝑦
𝜀 = =
𝑅𝑞̂ 𝑅

The stress developed due to this strain is called bending stress.

𝜎 = E𝜀
𝑦
𝜎 = E𝑅

𝐸
𝜎 = ( 𝑅) 𝑦

Bending moment of a section

Consider an element of area dA from distance y from the neutral axis.

Moment = force x distance

M = ∫ 𝜎 𝑑𝐴 𝑦
 𝐸
M = 𝑅
∫ 𝑦 2 𝑑𝐴 ; ∫ 𝑦 2 𝑑𝐴 is the second moment of area about the neutral axis

𝐸
M = 𝐼
𝑅

Therefore:

𝐌 𝐄 𝛔
= =
𝐈 𝐑 𝐲

Procedure

 Strain gauges were connected to the strain gauge measuring unit and calibrated.
 Length and width of the cantilevered beam was measured using a meter ruler.
 Thickness of the beam was measured using vernier caliper.
 Loads were attached to the free end of the cantilevered beam and take
measurements in loading and unloading conditions.

Strain measuring unit whetstone bridges

Cantilever beam
 Calculations
Modulus of elasticity of brass = 105 Gpa

𝜎 = E𝜀

For 𝜀 = 7.5 × 10−6

𝜎 = 105 × 109 × 7.5 × 10−5 = 7875 kN/m2

Similarly,

𝜺 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟓 𝝈 MN/ m2

7.5 7.875
15.8 16.590
25 26.250
33.3 34.965
42.5 44.625
50 52.500

Theoretical approach

𝑀𝑦
𝜀 = 𝐸𝐼

𝑊 𝑙 𝑡⁄2
𝜀 = 1
𝐸 12 𝑏 𝑡3

6𝑊𝑙
𝜀 =
𝐸 𝑏 𝑡2

For 50g
6 ×0.5 ×0.323
𝜀= = 8.25 × 10−5
105×109 ×0.03×1.93×1.93×10−6

W (g) 𝜺 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟓

50 8.25
100 16.52
150 24.77
200 33.03
250 41.29
300 49.55
Comparison
Theoretical strain Practical strain Error (%)
8.25 7.5 9.1
16.52 15.8 4.36
24.77 25 0.93
33.03 33.3 0.82
41.29 42.5 2.93
49.55 50 0.91
 Discussion
Strain gauge
Strain gauge is a small device that is used to measure strain of an object, invented by
Edward E. simmons and Arther C. Rage in 1938. The most common type of strain gauge
consists of an insulating flexible backing which supports a metallic foil pattern. If the strip
of conductive metal is stretched, it’ll become skinner and longer resulting in an increase
of electrical resistance. Conversely under compressive forces it’ll broaden and shorten.
This resistance change usually measured using a Wheatstone bridge.

Typically the rheostat arm of the bridge (𝑅2 in the diagram) is set to a value equal to the
strain gauge resistance when no force is applied. This bridge is set to symmetrical
balance (Voltmeter reading is zero). Unbalance bridge due to change of resistance of
strain gauges indicate it in the voltmeter.

Importance of using strain gauges in strain measurements.

Strain gauges that measure fatigue in metals play a vital role in productivity and
safety. Stress, strains occur in almost every object in our lives due to loading conditions.
From aircrafts that fly to buildings that are made by a frame with beams and columns to
all the vehicles and ships to all mechanical components that drive the world forward. All
these things do not break down, but causes due to stresses will result effects that are
inevitable.
Therefore stress analysis of these objects is very important. But stresses in materials
cannot be measured directly. Therefore stress analysis using strain with other properties
of materials taken into consideration to calculate stresses. But before the invention of
strain gauges earliest measurement devices were purely mechanical in nature. (E.g : using
a micrometer to measure strain). There are inherent problems that the accuracy to which
we can measure the strain is minimal. But with the strain gauges we can have a high
accuracy of measuring strains.

Some strain measuring devices do not fit in to certain objects. But the importance of
strain gauges is the easiness to fix them on the surface where strain to be measured.
Unlike the other strain measuring instruments these strain gauges can be fixed into tiny
groves, small holes etc. another important factor is that thermal corrections can easily be
done by Wheatstone bridge method.
 Possible reasons to have a difference between practical results and
theoretical results.
1. Sometimes possible errors may occur due to the stiffening effect of strain gauges
over their glued area.
2. When the gauge is bonded to the test surface, a small angular error might occur with
respect to the intended axis of strain measurement. The indicated strain will also be
in error due to this misalignment.
3. Effects caused by temperature changes may affect the results.
4. Line for tensile strain measuring is malfunctioning in our machine. Therefore we
couldn’t take those readings which we could have get a clear understanding on how
this cantilever behave.
5. There might be errors due to the Wheatstone bridge.

Importance of using strain rosettes

A strain rosette is an arrangement of two or more closely positioned gauge grids
separately oriented to measure the normal strains in different directions.

Rosettes are designed to perform a very practical and important function. That is stress
analysis. A wire strain gauge can effectively measure strains in only one direction. (The
direction to which the gauge is oriented) In case of determining shear strain we need two
linearly independent measurements.

This is very important when principal directions are unknown as well. With the angle
between rosettes and strain measurement of each of the strain gauges and by using a
Mohr’s stress circle, we can obtain the principal axes.