A "Lo-Fi Simulator" for Educators

Overview

In this simple browser-based interactive simulation students can perform a "three point bend test" to investigate the deflection of beams under three point loading. Students can investigate how the cross section of a beam affects its deflection under a range of applied loads (0-700N). This is a "digital twin" of a real laboratory test rig in the Diamond.  

This is one of a series of "Lo-Fi" simulations created by Prof. Garrard using HTML and JavaScript. To read more about this simulation tool, how it works and the rational behind it, see here.

See Also

This simulation was used as part of a wider study on "Comparing XR and Digital Flipped Methods to Meet Learning Objectives" (Bangert, Krys; Browncross, Edward; Di Benedetti, Matteo; Day, Harry; Garrard, Andrew (2024))  

Re-use or Adapt

You can use this resource as-is for your own teaching or you can adapt it to suit your own needs, as long as the full terms of the licence are followed. If you want to adapt this then you can access the source code via the link above and use this as a starting point or a point of reference. Some prior experience of building webpages using HTML and JavaScript is recommended, but the nature of this (and other) "Lo-Fi" simulations is that they are reasonable straightforward to construct, and what can be achieved largely comes down to the amount of time the educator has to invest in its development:

"In the simplest case, a text entry box could be used to input a variable (applied force) and an output box could display the output (a deflection)."

Garrard, Andrew (2024). Three Point Bend Experiment - Lo-Fi html Simulator - University of Sheffield. The University of Sheffield. Online resource. https://doi.org/10.15131/shef.data.24794514.v1