Senior Theses

Publication Date

5-20-2015

Document Type

Thesis (Open Access)

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Physics

Department

Physics

Faculty Advisor(s)

Tianbao Xie (Thesis Advisor)
Joelle Murray & Bill Mackie (Committee Members)

Subject Categories

Engineering Physics | Materials Science and Engineering | Structural Materials

Abstract

Strain is an important quantity in engineering design and materials science that relates the deformation of a material to its original length, through a percentage. Different materials exhibit particular qualities under loading, for example the amount of strain due to a certain magnitude of force, or the amount of strain that can be borne before failure. This experiment aims to compare the relative strengths of three common truss configurations by measuring the strain in their members under loading. The Queen’s post truss was found to be the best at minimizing strain under similar loading conditions.

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