This kit allows students to apply loads to hangers suspended along a beam, held between two supports. One support allows rotational movement, acting as a pinned support, whilst the other allows translational movement, acting as roller support.

A load cell measures the bending moment due to the load applied by the student and students’ can then create positive and negative shear force. Point loads and uniformly distributed loads can be applied across the beam in order for students to gain experience of various different situations for their experimentation. An integrated load cell measures the force applied across the cut and is displayed on the bult in LCD display.

The display has a push button zero feature for experimental setup. The experiment is powered by a USB cable to PC or wall plug. If the USB is connected via a PC port, data acquisition can be output directly into excel or further experimental analysis and simulation.

Learning Objectives

• Shear force at the cut due to a varying single point load
• Shear force at the cut due to a moving single point load
• Shear force at the cut due to a uniformly distributed load
• Shear force at the cut due to a point load and uniformly distributed load in superposition