Procedure:

1. Computer and the data acquisition module were switched on. The data
acquisition must be switched om 10 minutes before taking reading for stability
of reading.
2. Truss configuration was selected.
3. The truss was assembled according to the selected configuration using the
member available.
4. One end of the plane truss was placed on the roller support and the other on the
pin support. The centre of the join has to be ensured that it is located on the
knife edge and at the centre of the roller.
5. The pinned support has to be ensured that it is properly secured to the frame.
6. The screw jack was attached to the joint to be loaded.
7. The screw jack was loosened so that the truss is free from applied load.
8. The wire was connected from the load cell to the data acquisition module, each
load cell occupying one channel of the module.
9. The WinCP32 software was run.
10. The ‘Specify Time Interval’ was changed from 10 to 2 second per sample.
11. The ‘Setup’ was clicked to set the modules and channels to be acquired.
12. The module(s) that is attached to the load cell was ‘on’ by clicking the ‘on’
button on the ‘Module on/off’ dialog box.
13. For the selected module(s) ‘on’ the channels that is connected to the truss
members and the loading jack.
14. The stored data dialog box was checked to store the acquired data.
15. The ‘O.K’ button was clicked when the setting is complete.
16. The start button was pressed and the overwrite or append file location was
chosen. The graph(s) to be displayed was chosen.
17. Some figure displayed in the boxes of the chosen channels. These figures are
the loads in the members measured in Newtons.
18. Time approximately 20 seconds of reading to be captured was allowed. The stop
button was pressed after 20 seconds. This was initial reading for each load cell.
19. The menu was on and the ‘start’ button was clicked. The append option was
chosen.
20. The screw jack was turned anti-clockwise to apply loads in the downward
direction and the reading of the screw jack was observed. The turning of screw
jack is stopped when the desired load is reached.
21. Time approximately 20 seconds of reading to be captured was allowed. The stop
button was pressed after 20 seconds.
22. Step 19 to 21 was repeated for a few more load increments.
23. The data was exported to the excel spreadsheet and the necessary analysis was
carried out at the end of the experiment.