Experimental proposal for the study of elastic deflection curves

Abstract In this article, we present an experimental pedagogical proposal for the study of material strength. Our objective is to experimentally obtain deflection curves by proposing the analysis of images using the free software GeoGebra as a method for obtaining experimental data. We will apply our methodology to the study of a beam under two deflection conditions. First, we analyze a cantilever beam under the action of a transverse load that causes bending, and then we apply the proposed technique to the case of a beam subjected to two opposing forces that cause buckling. The proposal of this article is to design portable and low-cost experiments. As a result, the experimental values of the bending curve for different loadings are obtained. These curves were compared with the bending theory, allowing the determination of the Young’s modulus of the cantilever beam material E = (64.3 ± 1.3) GPa. The value of the critical axial force required to cause buckling instability was estimated F cr = 2.3 N. Our methodology shows a fit of the experimental results with the theoretical predictions with R 2 ≥ 0.9 and good agreement with literature.