TORSION TEST

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. ABSTRACT:............................................................................................................................... 2
2. EXPERIMENTAL INTRODUCTION:................................................................................... 2
2.1.1. The torsion system: ..................................................................................................... 3
2.1.2. Use of torsion test:........................................................................................................3
2.1.3. The strain display: ......................................................................................................4

3. Basic connections to digital strain display:...............................................................................4

3.1. Technical
Details:...........................................................................................................................4
3.2. Specimens: ....................................................................................................................5
3.3. Theory:.......................................................................................................................... 5
3.4. Strain Gauge Rosettes:.................................................................................................6
3.5. The Wheatstone Bridge:.............................................................................................. 6
3.6. Quarter Bridge connection: ........................................................................................ 7
4. Full Bridge:.................................................................................................................................. 8
4.1. Type of Material: ..........................................................................................................9
4.2. Clamping Force of Machine:....................................................................................... 9
4.3. Amount of Load Applied: ........................................................................................... 9
4.4. Length of the Specimen: .............................................................................................. 9
4.5. Length of Moment Arm: ............................................................................................. 9
4.6. Diameter of Specimen: ................................................................................................10
5. Experimental procedure:........................................................................................................... 10
6. Calculations: ............................................................................................................................... 10
7. Conclusion: ...................................................................................................................... 11
8. Reference: ................................................................................................................................... 11

Page | 1
TORSION TEST

Use of strain gauge for torsion measurement

Lab Report

1. ABSTRACT:
Instrument was designed to estimate and calculate torsion on common materials namely brass,
aluminum and steel. The diameter of bar was 8mm and the length of each material specimen was
taken fixed at 1m. Different loads were applied to produce different amount of torsion in materials
and the torsional angle was measured. A strain gauge converts torque into an electrical signal. The
sensor is bonded to a rotating shaft that deforms when a torque is applied. This results in an
unbalanced bridge, which produces an electrical output corresponding to the applied torque.

2. EXPERIMENTAL INTRODUCTION:
Torsional effect in a material is a measure of plane slippage in a material when certain load “F” is
applied at some distance “r” from the axis of rotaion . This is measured easily and precisely by the
angle of deflection that is caused by certain load in a material. And this angle is measured relative
to the position of material with no load taken as zero. This angle of twist is called torsional angle.

Strain gauges are used in many branches of engineering, as stress and strain are major aspects to
consider when designing a product to ensure the product meets safety requirements and maximum
longevity. Experiments were carried out with all three configurations offered by the Strain Gauge
Trainer (SM1009 from TecQuipment) - tensile, torsion and a bending test system. Different
combinations of strain gauges and resistors are connected in the form of a Wheatstone Bridge
circuit, with the strain gauges attached to the object of interest. Due to its design, the strain bridge
circuit is able to detect very small changes in resistance, suitable for this purpose. The calculated
strains for each experiment were tabulated and compared to the displayed strain on the machine, to
compare theoretical and experimental values for the different conditions offered by the three
systems. The three different types of strain gauge configurations were explored - quarter bridge
types, half bridge types and full bridge type. Another aim of this experiment was to get better at
calculating and manipulating numbers of different orders of magnitude

Page | 2
TORSION TEST

Fig. 1 Strain gauge

2.1.1. The torsion system:

1) It is used to show that how to connect and use shear and torque strain gauges to measure
strains in an object that twists.
2) To show how to compare displayed strains with theory for a torsion beam.
3) The length of this rod is known, this rod serves as the moment arm for the torque to act. By
multiplying length of the rod “r” with the load “F”, Torsion Moment is calculated and at the
same time, angle deflection is measured by the Angle Gage.

2.1.2 Uses of Torsion Test:

Torsion is an important phenomena that is used for transfer of mechanical rotational effect from one
part of assembly to other part. Thus, this has certain important applications as well, like:

• This phenomenon is used to transfer force from turbine to the generator in hydel power
plants.
• In Engine, force is transferred by this phenomenon from crank shaft to flywheel to turbo fans.
• In steering wheels, to control the direction of the car and in rotors of the motors.
• Emphasisingly this is an important phenomena that has got important application in almost
every field and assembly that is little or more linked with rotation and rotational effect.

Page | 3
TORSION TEST

Fig. 2 Digital display

2.1.3 The strain display:

Fig 2 shows strain display. Digital Strain Display. A 16-channel instrument that connects to industry-
standard strain gauges to give direct readings of strain. materials testing and properties.  The output
of strain gauges and bridges is relatively small. In practice, most strain gauge bridges and strain-
based transducers will output less than 10 mV/V (10 mV of output per volt of excitation voltage).

3. Basic connections to digital strain display:

The strain display has 4 sockets for us to connect to strain gauges the figure below shows the basic
circuit.

Fig. 3 Basic connections

3.1. Technical Details:

Page | 4
TORSION TEST

Table 1.1

3.2. specimens:

Table 1.2

3.3. Theory:
Strain gauges are used in many branches of engineering, as stress and strain are major aspects to
consider when designing a product to ensure the product meets safety requirements and maximum
longevity. Experiments were carried out with all three configurations offered by the Strain Gauge
Trainer (SM1009 from TecQuipment) - tensile, torsion and a bending test system. Different
combinations of strain gauges and resistors are connected in the form of a Wheatstone Bridge circuit,
with the strain gauges attached to the object of interest. Due to its design, the strain bridge circuit is
able to detect very small changes in resistance, suitable for this purpose. The calculated strains for
each experiment were tabulated and compared to the displayed strain on the machine, to compare
theoretical and experimental values for the different conditions offered by the three systems. The
three different types of strain gauge configurations were explored - quarter bridge types, half bridge
types and full bridge type. Another aim of this experiment was to get better at calculating and
manipulating numbers of different orders of magnitude. A 16-channel instrument that connects to
industry-standard strain gauges to give direct readings of strain. materials testing and properties.  The
output of strain gauges and bridges is relatively small. In practice, most strain gauge bridges and
strain-based transducers will output less than 10 mV/V (10 mV of output per volt of excitation
voltage). A strain gauge is a type of electrical sensor. It's primary use is to measure force or strain.
The resistance of a strain gauge changes when force is applied and this change will give a different
electrical output. Strain gauges use this method to measure pressure, force, weight and tension.

Page | 5
TORSION TEST

Fig.4
3.4. Strain gauge rosettes:
A strain gauge rosette is a term for an arrangement of two or more strain gauges that are positioned
closely to measure strains along different directions of the component under evaluation. A strain
gage only measures strain in one direction, in order to get principal strains,it is necessary to use a
strain rosette. A strain rosette is a cluster of 3 strain gages oriented at different angles. To determine
the three independent components of plane strain, three linearly independent strain measures are
needed, i.e., three strain gages positioned in a rosette-like layout.

Fig. 5 two gauges at 90 degree and a T rosette

3.5. The Wheatstone bridge:

Fig. 6 the wheatstone Bridge

Page | 6
TORSION TEST

A Wheatstone bridge is an electrical circuit used to measure an unknown electrical resistance by

balancing two legs of a bridge circuit, one leg of which includes the unknown component. The
primary benefit of the circuit is its ability to provide extremely accurate measurements (in contrast
with something like a simple voltage divider). Its operation is similar to the original potentiometer.

R1, R2, and R3 are resistors of known resistance and the resistance of R2 is adjustable. The
resistance R2 is adjusted until the bridge is "balanced" and no current flows through
the galvanometer Vg. At this point, the potential difference between the two midpoints (B and D) will
be zero. Therefore the ratio of the two resistances in the known leg (R2 / R1) is equal to the ratio of the
two resistances in the unknown leg (Rx / R3). If the bridge is unbalanced, the direction of the current
indicates whether R2 is too high or too low.

3.6. Quarter Bridge connection:

Fig. 7

With the quarter-bridge system, a strain gage is connected to one leg of the bridge and a fixed
resistor is connected to each of the other 3 legs. This system will be easily configured, and thus it is
widely used for general stress or strain measurement.

Page | 7
TORSION TEST

4. Full bridge:

Fig.8 Full Bridge

Strain gauge torsionmeter: With this device four strain gauges are mounted onto the shaft, as shown
in Figure below. The twisting of the shaft as a result of an applied torque results in a change in
resistance of the strain gauge system or bridge. In order to measure strain with a bonded resistance
strain gauge, it must be connected to an electric circuit that is capable of measuring the minute
changes in resistance corresponding to strain. the full-bridge devices provide simplified, more
precise alignment and reduced bonding operations. All four active arms of the Wheatstone bridge
circuit are formed on a single carrier, allowing the entire bridge to be bonded at one time.

Strain Bridge Equation:

Page | 8
TORSION TEST

FACTORS AFFECTING TORSION TEST:

4.1. Type of Material:
Ductile materials generally fail in shear while brittle materials are weaker in tensile than shear.
Aluminium combined with carbon fibres give the best results (the highest values), while glass
fibres yield the worst results. The smallest deformations (small values of the twist angles) are
usually obtained for combined Al/carbon/epoxy shafts. The worst results are usually obtained for
materials from a combination of aluminium and glass fibres.

4.2. Clamping Force of Machine:

Torsion angle depends on the clamping force of the machine. As the clamping force of machine
increases torsion angle decreases as a result torsion moment also decreases.

4.3. Amount of Load Applied:

Torsional angle is directly proportional to the amount of load applied. So, if Load increases, Torsion
angle also increases.

Torsion Angle α Load

4.4. Length of the Specimen:

Length of specimen affects the torsion test. As the length of specimen increases torsion angle
increases.
But the torsion moment remains the same. That’s because torsion moment depends on the load.

4.5. Length of Moment Arm:

Moment arm and torsion angle directly related to each other. The longer the moment arm, the
easier, it would be to apply the load.If the same amount of load will be applied on a greater moment
arm, the torsion will increase.

Page | 9
TORSION TEST

4.6. Diameter of Specimen:

Diameter of the rod is inversely proporsional to the torsion angle. As the Diameter increases, the
Torsion angle will decrease as it will be hard to twist a material with a larger diameter.

5. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE:
 Apply 220 VAC tostrain gauge display and switch it on.
 Connect strain connection cable to output socket of torsion system.
 Connect the torsion system strain gauges to strain display as full bridge.
 Add a small weight hanger to end of torque arm.
 Observe initial voltage at this point.
 Now add weight to hanger and observe final voltage.
 Max limit is 10N.
 Observe all entities mentioned in table .
 Calculate strain.
 Calculate theoratical and experimental strain values.
 Gain of amplifier is 500.
 If its not 30 then use the ZERO and span adjustmentknobs to set it to 500.

6. CALCULATIONS:

6.1. Table:

Gauge Factor: Active Arms:

Gain of Amplifier: Shear Modulus:
Torque Arms:
D F T J τ γ εth= γ/2 εexp
Vinitial Vfinal (mm) (N) (N-mm) (mm4)
(N/mm2)
(V) (V)

1.149V 1.251V 11.1mm 7N 700Nmm 1490.36mm4 2.607N/mm2 3.07*10-5 1.85*10-5 1.81*10-5

Table 1.3

Page | 10
TORSION TEST

7. CONCLUSION:
A strain gauge is a type of electrical sensor. It's primary use is to measure force or strain. The
resistance of a strain gauge changes when force is applied and this change will give a different
electrical output. Strain gauges use this method to measure pressure, force, weight and tension.

8. REFERENCES:
 P. Wang, P. Davies, J. M. Starkey and R. L. Routson, "A torsional vibration measurement
system," in IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 41, Dec. 1992
 Chao Chen, Philippe Duffour, Kaoshan Dai, Ying Wang, Paul Fromme, Identification of
aerodynamic damping matrix for operating wind turbines, Mechanical Systems and Signal
Processing,2020
 M.L. Corradini, G. Ippoliti, G. Orlando, Efficiency maximization of wind turbines using
data-driven Model-Free Adaptive Control, Renewable Energy Systems, (2021)

Page | 11