2.

0 FORCE SYSTEM AND

EQUILIBRIUM
 INTRODUCTION
• This part discussed the effect of force which
act on engineering structure and mechanism.
• The experience gained here will help student
in the study of mechanics in other courses
such as strength of material and fluid
mechanics.
 FORCE
• A force is a vector quantity, because its effect
depend on the direction as well as on the
magnitude of the action.
• Thus forces may be combined according to the
parallelogram law of vector addition.
• The complete specification of a force must
include its magnitude, direction and point of
application, and therefore we must treat it as
a fixed vector.
 Principle of transmissibility
• When dealing with mechanics of rigid bodies, we
ignore deformation on a body and concern our self
with only the net external forces.
• The force P acting on the rigid plate may be applied
at A or B or at any other point on its line of action
and the net external effect of P on the bracket will
not change. The external effects are the force
exerted on the plate by the bearing support at O and
the roller at C.
Principle of transmissibility
The principle of
transmissibility State that;
• A force may be applied
at any point on its given
line of action without
alternating the resultant
effect of the force
external to the rigid
body to which it act.
 Concurrent forces
• Two or more forces are
said to be concurrent at
a point if their line of
action intersect at that
point
• F1, F2 are concurrent
forces; R will be on Forces act at same point ,Forces act at
same plane; R = F1+F2 different point ,Triangle Law respectively
 Force component
• If follow from the
parallelogram rule that, the
force F can be written as
F= Fx + Fy
 where Fx and Fy are vector
component of F in x and y
direction
• Each of the vector may
written as a scalar times
appropriate unit vector
• In terms of unit vector i and j
Fx= Fxi and Fy= Fyj and thus
we may write
F = Fxi + Fyj
 where Fx and Fy are scalar
the x and y scalar component
of F
 cont
• The scalar component can be either negative
or positive depending on the quadrant into
which points.
• The scalar component of x and y are related to
the magnitude and direction of F as follows
Examples
 Example-1
• Determine the x and y
scalar components of
F1, F2, and F3 acting at
point A of the bracket
Solution-1
Rectangular component in space
Many problem in mechanics require analysis in three
dimensions, and for such problems it is often
necessary to resolve force into its three mutual
perpendicular component.
The force F acting at a point O in the figure (next
slide) has the rectangular component Fx, Fy and Fz
• Using the direction cosine of F which are
• In solving three dimension problems one must
usually find the x, y, and z component of a
force. In most cases the direction of a force is
described by
a) By two point on line of action of a force
b) By two angle which orient the line of action
a) By two point on line
of action of a force
If the coordinate of
point A and B
known, the force F
may be written as
b) By two angle which orient
the line of action.
• Consider the geometry
on left hand side, we
assume that angle θ
and Φ are known.
• First resolve F into
horizontal and vertical
• Then resolve the horizontal force Fxy into x and
y direction.

The quantity Fx, Fy and Fz are the desired scalar

component
Example
Solution
Cont
 Example
• Find the scalar component of force F shown in
figure below and then re-write F in Cartesian
form
Solution
 Moment and Couple
• In addition to the tendency to move body in
the direction of its application, a force can also
tends to rotates a body about an axis. The axis
may be the line which neither intersect nor is
parallel to the line of action of the force. This
rotational tendency is known as the moment
M of the force. Moment is also referred as
Torque
 Moment about a point
• Consider a two dimensional body acted on by
a force F in its plane. The magnitude of the
moment or tendency of the force to rotate the
body about the axis O-O perpendicular to the
plane of the body is proportional both to the
magnitude of the force and to the moment
arm d which is perpendicular distance from
the axis to the line of action of the force.
Therefore, the magnitude of the moment is
defined as
Example
Solution-1
Solution-2
Solution-3
Solution-4
Solution-5
Couple
Example
Solution
 Resultant
• Most of problem in mechanics deal with the
system of forces and it is usually necessary to
reduce the system to its simplest form to
describe its action.
• The resultant of the force is the simplest force
combination which can replace the origin
forces without altering the external effect on
the rigid body to which the forces are applied.
• The most common type of force system occur
when the forces all act in single plane say x-y
plane as illustrated by the system of three
force F1, F2 and F3 in figure below
• We obtain the magnitude and direction of the
resultant force R by forming the force polygon
as shown in figure below.
 cont
• Thus, for any system of coplanar forces we
may write,
 Principle of moment
• This process is summarized in equation form
by
•
Example
Question 1
Question 2
 EQUILIBRIUM
• Statics deals primary with the description of
force condition necessary and sufficient to
maintain the equilibrium of engineering
structure.
• Equilibrium of a body is a condition in which
the resultants of all forces acting on the body
is zero. Thus the resultant force and the
resultant couple are both zero and we have
equilibrium equation
 Equilibrium condition
• A rigid body will remain in equilibrium
provided
sum of all the external forces acting on the body is
equal to zero, and
Sum of the moments of the external forces about
a point is equal to zero.
i.e
 Free body diagram
• Free body diagram (FBD) is a drawing that
shows all the forces acting on a particle
 Support reactions
• Before the presentation a formal procedure
on how to draw the free body diagram, we
will first consider the various type of reaction
that occur at support and points of contact
between bodies subjected to coplanar force
system.
Construction of FBD
FBD Exercise
 Example 1
• Draw the free body diagram of the uniform
beam shown in figure below. The beam has a
mass of 100kg.
 solution
• The free body diagram of
the beam is shown in figure
below. Since the support at
A is fixed, the wall exerts
three reaction on a beam
denoted as Ax, Ay and MA.
• The magnitude of these
force are unknown and
their sense are assumed.
• The weight of the beam is
100(9.81)N = 981N acting
through the centre of
gravity G 3m from A since
the beam is uniform.
 Procedure for analysis
• Free body diagram
Establish the x and y coordinate axes in any
suitable orientation
 draw outline shape of a body
Show all forces and couple acting on a body
Label all the loading and specify their direction
relative to the x and y axis. The sense of a force or
couple having an unknown magnitude but kown
line of action can be assumed
• Equation of equilibrium
 Example
• Determine the horizontal and vertical
component of reaction on the beam caused
by the pin at B and the rocker at A as shown in
the figure below
 solution
• FBD
 Example-2
• A man raises a 10 kg joist, of length 4 m, by
pulling on a rope. Find the tension in the rope
and the reaction at A.
 Example-3
• Determine the external reaction at A and F for
the roof truss
We now extend our principle and method for
two dimensional equilibrium to the case of
three dimensional equilibrium.
The general condition is
 FBD
• In three dimension the free body diagram
serves the same essential as in two dimension
and should always be drawn.
 Example-1

• The uniform 7-m steel shaft

has the mass of 200kg and
is supported by a ball and
socket at A in the horizontal
floor. The ball end B rest
against the smooth wall as
shown. Compute the force
exerted by the wall and the
floor on the ends of the
shaft.
 Solution
• FBD
• The weight of the shaft is acting at the centre
of gravity and is equal to

The vertical position of B is given as

 solution
• Finding the moment about A, the position
vector needed

• The moment about A is given by