MFBS Unit for Studying Forces in a Simple Bar Structure

The Unit for Studying Forces in a Simple Bar Structure, "MFBS", designed by EDIBON allows the study of forces acting on a simple truss when is subjected to a point load in one of the nodes that make up the structure.

It consists of a group of five bars, three of them have the same length, and the other two are of different length.

Each bar has two sheets connected to one another by two supports and a dial gauge coupled to the bar by a support. These sheets can bend in function of the force applied to the bars, either tension or compression, thus being able to calculate that force by measuring the deformation generated in the sheet with the dial gauge.

The bars are joined by three node discs. Two of them, located at the bottom, are used as support for the structure and the third one is used to hang a certain load with the set of masses.

With the node discs, the arrangement of the bars can be changed to form different trusses, combining the junction angles between discs and bars. This way, angles of 60°/60°/60°, 45°/90°/45°, 30°/120°/30° and 120°/30°/30° between bars can be obtained.

The set of weights and a weight holder are used to apply external load in the upper disc of the simple bar structure.

The method of joints and the calculations are used to determine the bar forces in the different bar structure to compare with the experimental results.