Visual beams: tools for statics and solid mechanics

Author

Kadlowec, Jennifer ; Von Lockette, Paris ; Constans, Eric ; Sukumaran, Beena ; Cleary, Douglas

Author_Institution

Rowan Univ., Glassboro, NJ, USA

Volume

1

fYear

2002

fDate

2002

Abstract

A team of faculty and students in the College of Engineering at Rowan University are developing hands-on and visualization tools for use in mechanics courses. The developed tools consist of physical simply-supported and cantilever beams that are instrumented with load cells to which students can apply various loading conditions. Measurements from the load cells and displacement transducers are used in a Labview graphical user interface allows the user to find reaction loads and plot deflections, stresses, and shear and bending diagrams. The tools are designed to help students overcome difficulties in working with forces, moments, displacements and stresses in courses the mechanical and civil engineering courses as well as benefit students with various learning styles.

Keywords

civil engineering; educational courses; engineering education; mechanical engineering; mechanics; Labview graphical user interface; bending diagrams; cantilever beams; civil engineering courses; displacement transducers; engineering education; learning styles; load cells; loading conditions; mechanical engineering courses; plot deflections; reaction loads; shear diagrams; solid mechanics; statics; stresses; students; university; visual beams; Civil engineering; Displacement measurement; Educational institutions; Graphical user interfaces; Instruments; Solids; Stress measurement; Structural beams; Transducers; Visualization;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Frontiers in Education, 2002. FIE 2002. 32nd Annual

ISSN

0190-5848

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7444-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FIE.2002.1157998

Filename

1157998