FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND

BUILT ENVIRONMENT
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

CIVIL ENGINEERING LAB 2

Experiment No. 7 –
Two Hinged Arch
(Structural)

Name HUSSEIN ADEL ALI

Matrix No. BCE19046548
Batch 2
Lecturer MISS.RASHIDAH
Experiment No: 7 Date:

TWO HINGED ARCH

SAFETY GUIDELINES:
Before proceeding to operate the equipment, be fully aware of the dangerous potential hazards
(associated with the particular equipment) that would be present if safety practices were not
performed in accordance with the local standards and regulations of the governing bodies. Injury
would occur to the person operating the equipment through misuse, electric shock, rotating
equipment hazards and lack of cleanliness. Also, be fully aware of all the safety guidelines and
instructions specified. Loose-fitting clothes should never be worn in the laboratory as they can
cause a serious accident if caught in a rotating equipment. Use of appropriate attire, shoes and
personal protective aids are insisted as precautionary safety measures.

THEORY
The two hinged arch is a statically indeterminate structure of the first degree. Two hinged arch is
made determinate by treating it as a simply supported curved beam and horizontal thrust as a
redundant reaction. The arch spreads out under external load as shown in fig. (a). This results in
a horizontal displacement of support B by 1. Here, deflection due to flexure only has been
considered.

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Therefore, it is required to calculate the horizontal displacement in arch caused by external load
as well as unit horizontal force. The horizontal displacement in a curved member can be found
by either Castiglano's second theorem or the unit load method.
For a concentrated load W at the crown, the horizontal displacement

Where L is the span of the arch and r is the rise.

OBJECTIVE:
To find the horizontal displacement of the two hinged arch structure.

APPARATUS:
The model has a span of 100cm and rise 25cm. Both ends are hinged but one of the end is
also free to move longitudinally. A lever arrangement is fitted at this end for the application
of known horizontal inward force for measuring the horizontal thrust. Along the horizontal span
of the arch various points are marked at equidistant for the application of load. This being a
statically indeterminate structure of the first degree. A dial gauge with magnetic base is supplied
with the apparatus.

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PROCEDURE
1. Fix the dial gauge to measure the movement of the roller end of the model and keep the lever
out of contact.
2. Place a load of 0.5kg on the central hanger of the arch to remove any slackness
and taking this as the initial position, set the reading on the dial gauge to zero.
3. Now add 1kg weights to the hanger and tabulated the horizontal movement of the
roller end with increase in the load in steps of 1kg. Take the reading up to 5kg
load. Dial gauge reading should be noted at the time of unloading also.
4. Plot a graph between the load and displacement (theoretical and experimental)
5. Compare and discuss the results obtained.

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DATA ANALYSIS

Length of two hinged arch, L (mm) =

Rise of two hinged arch, r (mm) =

Dial gauge reading, 1 div = 0.01mm

Load, P Dial gauge Experimental horizontal Theoretical horizontal

No.
(Kg) reading (div) displacement (mm) displacement (mm)
1. 2 0.03 0.001 0.002
2. 4 0.06 0.003 0.004
3. 6 0.09 0.005 0.006
4. 8 0.12 0.007 0.008
5. 10 0.15 0.009 0.010

DISCUSSION
In this Two Hinged Arch experiment, students need to conduct a two hinged arch
experiment with pinned-end support and pinned-end support. This experiment is to study
two-hinged arch for the horizontal thrust of the pinned-end by given system of loading
and to compare the same with those obtain analytically. There are two set of data which
differ in distance of the load from pinned support. For the first set, the distance of point
load 1, W1, from pinned support is 0.26m while for point load 4, W4, from pinned support
is 0.63m. For the second set, the distance of point load 1, W1, from pinned support is
0.26m while fore point load 2, W2, from pinned support is 0.39m. The point loads used
are 5N, 10N, 15N, 20N and 25N. This experiment shows the reading of horizontal thrust
using system load of the indicator which are shown in table, but the horizontal value was
calculated by using the given formula:
H = 5WL(k4 – 2k3 – k / (8h)
According to the data, the graph plotted which is horizontal value is directly proportional
to the point load. The difference between experimental value and theoretical value
obtained is insignificant. This two-hinged arch only resolved reaction in two directions

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which are horizontal and vertical direction. This is the main reason why two-hinged arch
is widely used in structural engineering.

CONCLUSION

As conclusion, we can analyse that the higher the horizontal thrust value, the higher the load
applied based from the graph of Horizontal Thrust (N) versus Load (N). The error of the reading
may occur due to parallax error that might be affected during conducting the experiment such as
the experimenter forgot to tare the dial indicator first to zero value. Bridge structure that has
vibes of this experiment is Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia. The design of this bridge is
cantilever and capable of handling heavier loads. The deep waters of Sydney Harbour Bridge
made temporary supports impractical, so the steel arch was assembled by building out from each
bank.

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REFERENCES

https://www.studocu.com/my/document/universiti-teknologi-mara/structural-engineering-lab/
lab-report-two-three-hinged-arch-group-1/14000548

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