In part one, three different length plastic I-beams are tested under compression to investigate their method of failure. The way in which a member fails (buckling or not) is determined by its Slenderness Ratio, and this ratio is calculated for each beam. Topics covered also include the Radius of Gyration and the Area Moment of Inertia.

In part two, the critical force is predicted using the Euler Column Equation. When a compressive force is applied to a long straight column, it will elastically compress until a critical force is reached, and at this point the column will suddenly buckle. The relationship between this critical load and the column material and geometry is called the Euler Column Equation.

PASCO Advantage: PASCO Capstone software has the ability to embed live video from a webcam and sync the Materials Tester data to the recorded video. Then you can play back the video along with the data on the graph, stepping through one frame at a time to see the exact breaking point

Concepts

• Column Buckling of I-Beams
• Slenderness Ratio
• Euler Column Equation