Table of Contents

Declaration of Work ................................................................................................ 1

Introduction............................................................................................................. 2

Aim and Objectives ............................................................................................................ 2

Procedural Analysis ............................................................................................... 2

Results and Calculations ....................................................................................... 3

Results Extrapolated from the Experiment ........................................................................ 3

Calculations........................................................................................................................ 3

Interpretation ...................................................................................................................... 6

Discussion .............................................................................................................. 6

Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 7

Recommendations.................................................................................................. 7

References .............................................................................................................. 7

Declaration of Work.

name name name name name

1. Declaration of Work 

2. Division of Work
3. Introduction
4. Aim and Objectives.
5. Procedural Analysis.
6. Table Results and Calculations.
7. Interpretation.
8. Discussion.  

9. Conclusion.
10. Referencing 
Introduction.
Torsion is a sort of loading that occurs when a source of torque is applied to a solid. Torque is a
moment that causes a member's longitudinal axis to twist. The shaft becomes skewed longitudinally
when torque is applied to one end of the shaft. The radial line at a distance of x from the shaft's fixed
end will rotate through an angle of twist.

Torsion tests are used to figure out a material's torsional properties, such as shear modulus and
maximum shear stress. The length and diameter of the initial gauge were measured and
documented. The samples were put through their paces on a torsional testing machine. The applied
torque and twist angle are also documented. A shear stress versus shear strain curve can be plotted
based on the information provided.

Aim and Objectives.

The aim of this experiment is to analyse and interpret the behaviour of a specimen when the
specimen experiences twisting or undergoes torsional forces acting on the specimen. This occurs
because of applied moments that causes shear stress about the axis. This will allow us to familiarize
ourselves with solid cross-sectional area and to observe the relationship between shear stress and
shear strain.

The key measurable values include, the modulus of rigidity, the maximum shear stress, maximum
shear strain as well as the Poisson’s ratio for the respected specimen to analyse the physical
properties of that specimen.

Objectives:

1) To determine the modulus of the rigidity, the maximum shearing stress, maximum shearing
strain and Poisson’s ratio for the tested specimen.
2) To study the linearly elastic behaviour of the tested specimen under torsion and to obtain the
relationship between torsional load and angle of twist for a full range of strains until failure.
3) The purpose of torsion testing usually parallels that of uniaxial tension tests and in this
experiment solid cylindrical specimen of steel or brass will be subjected to torsional load. The
test will be conducted until failure.

Procedural Analysis.
• A ruler was used to measure the length the length of a T-Rod, torque arm and trigger arm.
The length of a T-Rod was determined to be 300 mm, thus the torque and trigger arm length
was determined to be 100 mm and 57,5 mm.
• The Vernier callipers was used to measure the thickness of the T-Rod. The Diameter was
determined to be 8mm.
 • The yield stress was given by the instructor.
• The T-Rod was inspected to the fastening components of a bearers and was lock into the
fixed bearer. The distance was adjusted between the bearer to match the desired T-Rod
gauge length.
• The torsion machine and dial gauge were set to zero. Then the balance hanger was let free
from the arm of the torsion machine and the value was set to zero
• For the unloading and loading of masses, each mass used was 100 grams. The hanger was
loaded with 5 masses each mass was 100 gram and readings were taken for each mass
being added from the hanger. Thus, each 100-gram mass was removed from the hanger and
reading were taken.
• The process was then repeated.

Results and Calculations.

Results Extrapolated from the Experiment.
The following results and tabulations were obtained during the experiment. Careful use of the
instruments provided (ruler, callipers etc.) and guidance of the instructor ensured accurate
extrapolation of data from the TERCO Twist and bend machine. The dimensions of the T-Rod were
as follows:
Length of T-Rod Diameter Radius Torque Arm Trigger Arm
mm mm mm mm mm
300 8 4 100 57,5

Once the dimensional results were recorded, the experiment could ten continue. As outlined within
the procedure, the rod was subjected to incremental torques. This was aided by adding masses for
each trial. The data was noted during both the loading and unloading phase. The following table
indicates the deflection as mass increased.
Mass Deflection
0 0

100g × 10¯³ = 0.10 kg 10mm × 10¯² = 0.10 mm

200g × 10¯³ = 0.20 kg 20mm × 10¯² = 0.20 mm
300g × 10¯³ = 0.30 kg 29mm × 10¯² = 0.29 mm

400g × 10¯³ = 0.40 kg 38mm × 10¯² = 0.38 mm

500g × 10¯³ = 0.50 kg 47mm × 10¯² = 0.47 mm

Calculations.
To calculate the relevant strength parameters such as the shear stress and strain, the second polar
moment of inertia needs to be obtained. The above computations will therefore yield the shear
modulus, thus confirming whether our experiment was a success.
Second Polar Moment for a solid shaft:

JT-Rod = 𝜋 D4
32

= 𝜋 × [(8 × 10¯³)]4
32

JT-Rod = 4.0212 × 10¯10 m4

Now, since the second polar moment is known, the shear stress and strain can be calculated.
Another requirement to obtaining the stress is finding the torque, and the table below will illustrate
those calculations.
Torque Shear Stress (𝝉)

0N.m 0Pa

T = m*g*R = 0.1 × 9.81 × 0.1 = 0.0981 N.m 𝑇∗𝑟 (0.0981)×(4 ×10¯³)

𝜏= = = 975 828.11 Pa
𝐽 4.0212 × 10¯¹⁰
T = m*g*R = 0.2 × 9.81 × 0.1 = 0.1962 N.m 𝑇∗𝑟 (0.1962)×(4 ×10¯³)
𝜏= = = 1 951 656.22 Pa
𝐽 4.0212 × 10¯¹⁰
T = m*g*R = 0.3 × 9.81 × 0.1 = 0.2943 N.m 𝜏=𝑇 ∗𝑟 = (0.2943)×(4 ×10¯³)
= 2 927 484.33 Pa
𝐽 4.0212 × 10¯¹⁰
T = m*g*R = 0.4 × 9.81 × 0.1 = 0.3924 N.m 𝑇∗𝑟 (0.3924)×(4 ×10¯³)
𝜏= = = 3 903 312.44 Pa
𝐽 4.0212 × 10¯¹⁰
T = m*g*R = 0.5 × 9.81 × 0.1 = 0.4905 N.m 𝑇∗𝑟 (0.4905)×(4 ×10¯³)
𝜏= = = 4 879 140.56 Pa
𝐽 4.0212 × 10¯¹⁰

Additionally, the shear strain needs to be calculated to represent the important strength
parameters required for interpretation. The formula will be displayed in the table below. Added to
that formula is
𝛿
the approach imperative to finding the angle of twist (θ) which is equal to .
𝑥

Mass Shear Strain (𝜸)

0 kg 0rad

0.1 kg ∗θ
𝑟 (4 ×10 ¯3 ) ×(57.3 ×10¯³)
𝛾 = = = 2.3269 × 10¯⁵ rad
𝐿 (300 × 10 ¯3 )
0.1 ×10¯³
 0.2 kg ∗θ
𝑟 (4 ×10 ¯3 ) ×(57.3 ×10¯³³)
= = = 4.6539 × 10¯⁵ rad
𝛾 𝐿 (300 × 10 ¯3 )
0.2 ×10¯³

0.3 kg ∗θ

𝛾
(4 ×10¯3) ×( )
57.3 ×10¯³

0.4 kg ∗θ

𝛾
(4 ×10¯3) ×( )
57.3 ×10¯³

0.5 kg ∗θ (4

𝛾
×10¯3) ×( )
57.3 ×10¯³
⁴ rad

The above calculations allow for us to plot a Shear Stress-Strain graph.

Graph Showing Shear Stress vs. Shear Strain.

600
y = 4E+10x
500
R² = 0,9997

400

300

200

100

0
0 0,00002 0,00004 0,00006 0,00008 0,0001 0,00012
Shear Strain (in radians).

To compute the shear modulus of rigidity, we calculate the gradient of the shear stress-strain graph.
𝑆𝑇𝑅𝐸𝑆𝑆
Shear Modulus = = = GBRASS
𝑆𝑇𝑅𝐴𝐼𝑁

Slope = = 4.5334 × 10¹⁰ Pa

GBRASS = 45.33 GPa

Interpretation.
The different masses added causes the change in the deflection distance (angle of twist). During
the experiment it was observed that from the minimum mass of 0g up to 500g, the deflection kept
on increasing and so as the torque. To obtain the shear stress the second polar moment for a solid
shaft and the torque for every mass added was determined. From the torque of 0.0981N.m up to
the maximum torque (0.4905N.m) the shear stress was rising.

This means that as the torque increases the strength distributed along the rod that could cause
deformation also increases. Furthermore, the evaluated shear strain for every load added also
increased. This was a result of the deflection caused with an increase load and torque.

To discover the relationship between the shear stress and shear strain the graph was plotted and
these two were found to have a positive relationship. The calculated shear modulus approximately
45.334×10¹⁰ Pa indicates that the rod is highly rigid, therefore more force is required to deform it
(Helmenstine, 2019).

The yield stress of 165 MPa of the rod tells us the maximum allowable load that the rod could be
subjected to before it can produce the permanent deformation other than that if the load is bigger
that the allowable one permanent deformation will occur. In application to design, this value indicates
the limiting factor as well as the maximum permissible angle of twist.

Discussion.
The line graph plotted is important because it helps us to see the spread of data in determining the
correlation and regression line of the observation. The formula of regression gives us an important
bit of information. The line of best fit is positively correlated. This means that as the angle of twist
increases due to an increase in load, the shear strain also rises i.e., a rise in stress results in a rise
in strain.

According to Hibbeler (2014), this means that the material used is homogeneous, and isotropic as
well as linear elastic. The slope of the straight line within the elastic region is called the Shear
Modulus. The correlation coefficient between the points is strongly positive which is 0.9997, the
calculated correlation coefficient is very close to 1, showing that the values are accurate.

The shear modulus or rather, modulus of rigidity that was calculated is greater than the actual shear
modulus 45.33 GPa > 44 GPa, as indicated by Hibbeler (2014).
Percentage shear modulus error = Calculated Shear modulus −𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑢𝑠 ×100
Shear modulus actual
45 ,3 3−44
= × 100 = 3,0227 %
44

The percentage error calculated is determined to be 3,02% (approximately 3%) this means that there
was human error in measuring or inaccuracy of taking readings from the dial gauge. Also, limitations
provided by the machine could have altered the experiment. It is possible that the jaws were not
aligned perfectly and tightened equally, therefore yielding inaccuracies that affected the results. As
the percentage error is less than 5% this means that the shear modulus calculated is closed to the
actual shear modulus value.

Conclusion.
To conclude, the experiment proved to be a success. The observation of this test shows that the
strain on the specimen increases when the twist angle increases. Shear stresses were analysed
and interpreted as well as how it reacted towards the torque force.

It was also found that the second polar moment of inertia “J” depends on the diameter of the shaft
not on the length of the shaft. So, length of specimen has nothing to do with polar moment of inertia
and will not affect the calculation.

Shear stress also increases when the angle of twist is increased like Strain. Ductile materials have
higher torsional rigidity, modulus of rigidity as well as shear yield stress. It also fractures at a higher
angle of twist (Hibbeler, 2014).

Recommendations.
Even though the experiment was a success there are a few ways to re-establish reliability and validity
of this experiment. More materials should have been used in comparison with each other, steel,
aluminium, etc to compare each one’s ductility when reacted with a force. To improve the experiment
further the diameter must be kept constant to see the varied results.

The experiment should be repeated multiple times – paying attention to the readings of
measurements to improve reliability. Making sure the gauges are in good working condition as well
as the machine itself.

References.
1. Hibbeler, R C. (2014). Mechanics of Materials. (9th ed.). United States of America: Pearson
Prentice Hall.
2. Helmenstine, A. M. 2019. The Shear Modulus and Rigidity. Available:
https://www.thoughtco.com/shear-modulus-4176406. (Accessed 02 July 2021)