2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The primary value of laboratory courses is that they enable students to experience lessons in a hands-on way. This hands-on approach enables students to see, understand, and believe the results of an experiment much more deeply than simply hearing about the results of others. One of the main challenges, however, is finding the resources (time, space, and money) needed to prepare and carry out experiments. In this paper, we present a novel torsional-testing device that was developed to explore the concept of torsion loads, shear stress, and the shear modulus (or modulus of rigidity G). This device has been successfully used by students to determine the modulus of rigidity for three different (re-usable) material samples in an undergraduate mechanics laboratory course. This paper presents information regarding the design and application of this device in the classroom. This torsional-testing device contributes to the field in several ways. First, it is low in cost (total materials cost is less than $500 USD). Second, the testing system is compact. It can easily be carried by one person and is small enough to fit on a desktop. Third, testing can be performed quickly and easily with no tools required. The development of the device is complete, saving instructors the cost and effort required to either develop their own solution, or to purchase (or adapt) another (likely costly) testing option to meet their needs. The torsion-testing experiment is used to teach students how to write the "Method" section of their lab reports, and represents one out of a series of twelve to fourteen experiments (depending on the semester). Compared to previous semesters, in which a much more complicated custom torsion-testing device was used, we found this device to be much faster and easier to operate, and student descriptions of the experimental setup were also more comprehensible, perhaps due to the simplifications afforded by this system.