ABSTRACT

Beams are used in the construction of many different kinds of structures, including houses and bridges. This science fair project is about the strength of beams.

In this project, I did three sets of experiments. The first set of experiments is to study the effects of width of a rectangular beam on the strength of the beam. The second set of experiments studies the effect of depth of a rectangular beam on the strength of the beam. The third set of experiments is to study the effect of cross-section shape of the beam on its strength.

The experiment: 1 considered five different widths of rectangular beams. The width of these specimens were approximately (1time of 16mm) to (5times of 16mm). For each width I considered three identical specimens, giving a total of 15 specimens. A Tenuous-Olsen Testing Machine was used for testing these specimens. The specimens were centered and aligned on the machine and a load was applied until the beam failed. The failure loads were recorded on a data sheet and the average failure loads were calculated. By observing the results, I noticed that when the beam width is increased, so did the failure load. So, in conclusion, the width does affect the strength of a rectangular beam. The beam strength is directly proportional to the beam width.

The experiment: 2 followed the same steps as in Experiment: 1, except the depth of the specimens were approximately (1time of 15mm) to (5times of 15mm).After testing, the results were recorded. By observing the results, I noticed that when the beam depth is increased, the failure load increased. The beam strength is directly proportional to the beam depth. So in conclusion, the depth does affect the strength of a rectangular beam.

The experiment: 3 considered five different shapes of beams. Three identical specimens were considered for each shape. Therefore, there was a total of 15 specimens. For this experiment, a fish scale was used to measure the load. The specimens were centered and aligned. A load was applied until failure. On a data sheet, the failure loads were written, and the average failure loads were calculated. The strength of different shaped beams was different, therefore, the shape does affect the strength of a beam.