Lab 1 : Material lab

PROGRAM KEJURUTERAAN MEKANIKAL

FAKULTI INDUSTRI KEJURUTERAAN

LAB SHEET

EXPERIMENT 2 : TORSION OF BARS

1. INTRODUCTION
The elastic deflection and eventual failure of beams in bending is related to the behaviour
of the beam material in direct tension and compression. However, there is another way of
distorting material that occurs when it is twisted. In the simplest case a length of round rod
can be twisted about its longitudinal axis in such a way that no bending or direct stress is
involved. This is called pure torsion.
Torsion of shafts is very common in mechanical engineering where power transmission
takes place. In most cases the shafts have a circular cross section which is sometimes
hollow with a uniform wall thickness. It is evident from the theory of torsion that the
material at the centre of a rod does not contribute much to the strength or resistance to
elastic twisting, so there is considerable economy to be achieved in hollow members.
In structural engineering torsion is less of a problem unless there is a special condition of
loading. The traditional steel members used for buildings have an inherent safety against
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failure by twisting partly because of the high value of the modulus of torsional rigidity of
steel and partly due to the way buildings are constructed. The replacement of steel by
aluminium alloy brought with it a possibility of secondary compression failure due to a
column twisting on its axis. As more plastics are used structurally their very low moduli or
rigidity (compared with metals) make distortion by twisting much more of a problem. This
has led to the increasing use of hollow box sections to provide the maximum torsional
stiffness.
2. APPARATUS

A base frame has a clamp at one end and a ball bearing in a housing (plummer
block) at the other.
A short shaft in the bearing has a three jaw chuck facing the clamp and a torsion
head at the outward side
A hanger cord is wound round the torsion head with an effective diameter of 75
mm.
Specimens in the form of lengths of rod are gripped by the fixed clamp and the
rotating chuck 450 mm away.
An arc shaped scale of degrees is mounted on a base which can be moved along
the length of the specimen.
A pointer on a spring steel strip registers the rotation of the specimen when a load
is applied to the hanger cord.

3. OBJECTIVE

To investigate the relationship between torque and twist of a circular cross section
specimen in terms of the formula
=
where

T
L
G
J
d

TL
GJ

= torque
= length of rod
= modulus of rigidity of material
d4
=
= polar moment of area
32
= diameter of rod

4. PROCEDURE
1. Clamp the aluminium alloy rod in position and put the load hanger on the cord.
2. Set the rotation scale and pointer 400 mm from the fixed clamp and zero the
pointer.
3. Add a load of 40 N by 5 N increments, recording the twist of the specimen for
each increment in table 1.
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4. Remove the load, move the rotation scale and pointer to 200 mm from the clamp,
and repeat the above procedure
5. Measure and record the diameter of the rod.
6. Change the specimen for the steel and/or brass rod and repeat the procedure for the
400 mm length only.
7. Finally clamp the Nylon rod in position and measure the twist over 400 and 200
mm when a load up to 5 N by increment of 1 N is applied to the torsion head.
8. Remove the load and note whether full elastic recovery has occurred.
5. RESULTS
In each case plot a graph of twist against torque and draw the best fit straight lines through
the points. Since twist is proportional to length the gradients of the two lines for Nylon
and aluminium alloy should be in the ratio of .
Use the gradients to calculate a modulus of rigidity for each material tested. Note that in
the formula is in radians.
6. OBSERVATIONS

To what extent does the experiment verify the torque/twist formula?

Were all the graphs linear, thus exhibiting purely elastic behavior?
Handbook values for G are 26200 n/mm2 for aluminium alloy and about 79000
n/mm2 for steel.Comment on the experimental comparisons.

RESULTS
Torque/twist of a rod
Material:
Diameter:
Hanger
Load
(N)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50

Torque
(Nmm)
0.0

Twist of Rod
over 400 mm over 200 mm
( 0)
( 0)
0
0

RESULTS
Torque/twist of a rod
Material:
Diameter:
Hanger
Load
(N)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50

Torque
(Nmm)
0.0

Twist of Rod
over 400 mm over 200 mm
( 0)
( 0)
0
0

RESULTS
Torque/twist of a rod
Material:
Diameter:
Hanger
Load
(N)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50

Torque
(Nmm)
0.0

Twist of Rod
over 400 mm over 200 mm
( 0)
( 0)
0
0

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University Industri Selangor

Revised AUG:2005