Department of Petrochemical

College of Technical Engineering

Duhok Polytechnic University

physical lab.
1
Year Level
st

Name of student: Muhammad Akram

Muhammad
Group: B
Name of experiment: Vibration of a Cantilever
No. of experiment: 2

Objective
The purpose of this experiment is to determine the natural frequency of a
cantilever beam andstudy both undamped and damped free vibration motion of a
cantilever beam.
Introduction:
For a cantilever beam subjected to free vibration, and the system is
considered as continuous system in which the beam mass is considered
as distributed along with the stiffness of the Measurements of thin film
properties are difficult when compared to bulk materials. One method
for finding the modulus of elasticity of a thin film is from frequency
analysis of a cantilever beam. A straight, horizontal cantilever beam
under a vertical load will deform into a curve. When this force is
removed, the beam will return to its original shape; however, its inertia
will keep the beam in motion. Thus, the beam will vibrate at its
characteristic frequencies. If a thin film is sputtered onto the beam, the
flexural rigidity will be altered. This change causes the frequency of
vibrations to shift. If the frequency shift is measured, the films elastic
modulus can be calculated.

Apparatus and materials:

stopwatch
One meter metal ruler

Procedure:
1. Suspend the steel ruler on the table with 0.4 m
freestanding
2. Vibrate the free end and measure the time for 20
vibration
3. Repeat the measurement with 0.5 & 0.6 & 0.7 and
0.8
4. Save your result in the table
2
4
5. Find the slope and put T on the Y=axis and L on
the x axis
6. Use this equation to calculate Young modulus
P
1
(
)
2 2
slope
4 d

That the thickness of the ruler is d=0.001 and the density of the
steel is p=8000 kg/

m3

Questions:

1-what is young modulus?

Young modulus is ratio of tensile stress to the tensile strain for a
given material. Its mathematically expressed as below:
Y=

tensile stress
tensile strain

F
A
e
l

2-what are the units of young modulus?

SI units pa= N/

m2

= kg/m.

s2

3- young modulus of some material ( searching in the internet)

Steel> copper> plastic> glass> wood> concrete

Conclusion:
Due to the large margin of error from the measured and calculated results that is
from 25% - 35%, the experimental results are not acceptable for practical
application. Any design utilizing a cantilever setup that experiences stresses
close to the yield point of the material need to be more rigorously tested. At
maximum deflection, strain gage 1 exhibited a 25% error from the calculated
value. One cause for this error occurs because the equations used are accurate in
small deflect ions and loads easily handled by the material test ed . Also , it is
howedth at Hooke's law is not the best choice when using it where there is
flexural of a beam. Therefore , whenever a cantilever setup is used in high stress
or deflecti on applications, thorough testing and a suitable safety factor must be
considered