FORCE SYSTEM RESULTANTS

MOMENT OF A FORCE
 Presentation outline
• Learning objectives
• Definition of moment
• Moment about a point
• Resultant moment
• Principle of transmissibility
• Varignon’s theorem
• Moment about a specified axis
• Moment of a couple
• Simplification of a force and couple system
• Reduction of a simple distributed load
• Location of the resultant force
 Learning Objectives
• Define moment of a force
• Calculate the moment of a force in both two
and three dimensions
• Apply the principle of transmissibility
• Calculate the moment of a force about a
specified axis
• Reduce a simple distributed load
 Moment
• When a force is applied to a body it will
produce a tendency for the body to rotate
about a point that is not on the line of action
of the force.
• This tendency to rotate is sometimes called a
torque, but most often it’s the moment.
 Moment about a point
• The magnitude of the moment is directly
proportional to the magnitude of F and the
perpendicular distance or moment arm d.

M o  Fd
 Moment about a point cont’d
• The moment about point O or about any axis
passing through O and perpendicular to the
plane is a vector quantity
• The direction of the moment is defined by its
moment axis which is perpendicular to the
plane that contains the force F and its
moment arm d.
 Moment about a point cont’d
• The right hand rule is used to establish the
sense of direction of the moment.
 Moment about a point cont’d
• In three dimensions the moment vector is
represented by a curl around an arrow. In two
dimensions the vector is only represented by a
curl.
 Example 1
• Calculate the magnitude of the moment about
the base point O of the 600N force
 Example 1 Cont’d

d  4 cos 40  2 sin 40  4.35m

 

M O  600(4.35)  2610 N  m
 Resultant Moment
• For 2D problems where all the forces lie within
the same plane, the resultant moment can be
determined by finding the algebraic sum of
the moments caused by all the forces in the
system
 Resultant Moment
• The resultant moment is therefore:
 M R  O   Fd
 M R  O  F1d1  F2 d 2  F3d 3
 Example 2
• Determine the resultant moment of the four
forces acting on the rod shown
 Example 2 Cont’d
 M R  O   Fd
 50  2  60  0  20  3 sin 30  40  (4  3 cos 30 )
0 0

 334 N  m
 Cross Product
• The cross product of two vectors A and B
yields the vector C
C  AB
• The magnitude of C is defined as the product
of the magnitudes of A and B and the sine of
the angle θ between their tails.
(0    180)
0

C  AB sin 
 Cross product cont’d
• Vector C has a direction that is perpendicular
to the plane containing A and B such that C is
specified by the right hand rule.
C  A  B  ( AB sin  )u c
 Laws of Operation
AB  B A
A  B  B  A
a(A  B)  ( aA)  B  A  ( aB)  (A  B)a
A  (B  D)  (A  B)  (A  D)
 Moment of a Force – Vector Method

MO  r  F
• r is the position vector directed from O to any
point on the line of action of F
 Moment of a force cont’d
• The magnitude of the cross product is defined
as:
M O  rF sin   F (r sin  )  Fd
 Principle of transmissibility
• A force may be applied at any point on its
given line of action without altering the
resultant effects of the force external to the
rigid body on which it acts.
• The force may be treated as a sliding vector,
and we need specify only the magnitude,
direction, and line of action of the force, and
not its point of application.
Principle of transmissibility

i j k
M O  r  F  rx ry rz
Fx Fy Fz
 System of forces
• If a body is acted upon by a system of forces,
the resultant moment of the forces about
point O can be determined by the vector
addition of the moment of each force

(M R ) O   (r  F )
 Example 3
• Determine the moment produced by the force
F about point O.
 Example 3 Cont’d
rA  12k
rB  4i  12 j
F  Fu AB  0.4588i  1.376 j  1.376k
i j k
M O  rA  F  0 0 12
0.4588 1.376  1.376
   16.5i  5.5 j kN  m
 Example 3 Cont’d
i j k
M O  rB  F  4 12 0
0.4588 1.376  1.376
   16.5i  5.5 j kN  m
 Or

i j k
M O  rB  F  4 12 0
0.4588 1.376  1.376
   16.5i  5.5 j kN  m
 Varignon’s theorem
• The moment of a force about a point is equal
to the sum of the moments of the
components of the force about the point

M O  r  F  r  (F1  F2 )
 r  F1  r  F2
 Example 4
• Calculate the magnitude of the moment about
the base point O of the 600N force
 Example 4 Cont’d

F1  600 cos 40  460 N

F2  600 sin 40  386 N


M O  460(4)  386(2)  2610 N  m

Moment about a specified axis - scalar

M y  Fd y  Fd cos 
M a  Fd a
Moment about a specified axis - vector

M y  j  M O  j  (r  F )
M a  ua  (r  F )
triple scalar product
 Example 5
• Determine the moment produced by the force
about the axis AB.
 Example 5 cont’d
U B  0.8944i  0.4472 j
rD  0.6i F   300k  N
M AB  u B  (rD  F )
0.8944 0.4472 0
 0.6 0 0  80.5 N  m
0 0  300
As a cartesian vector; M AB  M AB u B
 (80.5)(0.8944i  0.4472 j )   72i  36 j N  m
MOMENT OF A COUPLE
Moment of a couple
A couple is two parallel forces that have the same
magnitude, but opposite directions, and separated
by a perpendicular distance d
The moment produced by a couple is called a couple
moment.
The couple moment about O is:
M  rB  F  rA   F  (rB  rA )  F
However, r  rB  rA , so
M  rF
A couple moment is a free vector, i.e it can act at
any point since it depends only upon the position
vector r directed between the forces
The direction and sense of the couple moment
are determined by the right-hand rule.
The moment of a couple is defined as having a
magnitude of M  Fd
The moment of a couple can also be expressed by
the vector cross product
M  rF
If two couples produce a moment with the same
magnitude and direction then the two couples are
equivalent
A resultant couple moment is simply the vector
sum of all the couple moments of the system
M R   (r  F )
Simplification of a force and couple system
A system of forces and couple moments acting on a
rigid body can be reduced to a single resultant force
acting at a specific point and a resultant couple
moment.
FR   F
( M R )O   M O   M

The second equation states that the resultant couple

moment of the system is equivalent to the sum of all
the couple moments plus the moments of all the
forces about point O
Example
Replace the force and couple system acting on
the member by an equivalent resultant force
and couple moment acting at point O
Solution
( FR ) x   Fx  300 N
( FR ) y   Fy  350 N
FR  461N
 350 
  tan 
1
  49 0

 300 
( M R )O   M O   M
4 3
( M R ) O  (500) (2.5)  (500) (1)
5 5
 (750)(1.25)  (200)(1)
 37.5 N  m
Example 2
Replace the couple moment and forces of the system
with an equivalent force and couple moment acting
at its base point O
F1    800k  N
F2  (300)uCB    249.6i  166.4 j N
M    400 j  300k  N  m

FR   F  F1  F2
   250i  166 j  800k  N

( M R ) O  M  rc  F1  rB  F2
   166i  650 j  300k  N  m
Example 3
Replace the force and couple moment system
acting on the beam by an equivalent resultant
force and find where its line of action meets the
beam measured from point O.
( FR ) x   Fx  4.8kN 
( FR ) y   Fy  2.4kN 
FR  5.37 kN

 2.4 
  tan 
1
  26 .6 0

 4.8 

( M R ) O   M O
3 4
2.4d  (4)(1.5)  15  (8) (0.5)  (8) (4.5)
5 5
d  2.25m
Reduction of a simple distributed load
In most cases a body is subject to a load that is
distributed over its surface. The pressure exerted at
each point indicates the intensity of the loading.

Uniform Loading along a single axis

Consider a beam of constant width and subjected to
pressure loading that varies along the x-axis. The
loading can be represented by the function p=p(x).
Multiplying the loading function by the width b of
the beam will leave it with one variable x, making it
a coplanar distributed load.
The coplanar parallel force system can be
replaced by a single equivalent resultant force
acting at a specified location on the beam.
The magnitude of the resultant force is
equivalent to the sum of all the forces in the
system
FR   w( x)dx   dA  A
L A

Therefore the magnitude of the resultant force

is equal to the total area under the loading
diagram
Location of the resultant force
The location of the resultant force is obtained by
equating the moments of the resultant force and
that of the parallel force distribution about point O.
 x FR    xw( x)dx
L

x
 xw( x)dx  xdA
L
 A

 w( x)dx  dA
L A
This x-coordinate locates the geometric centre or
centroid of the area under the distributed
loading curve.
In this case the resultant force has a magnitude
equal to the volume under the loading curve p =
p(x) and a line of action which passes through
the centroid (geometric centre) of this volume.
Example 1
Determine the magnitude and location of the
equivalent resultant force acting on the shaft
Solution
dA  wdx  60 x 2 dx
2
FR   dA   (60 x )dx  160 N
2
A 0

2
 xdA  2
x(60 x )dx
x A
 0
 1.5m
 dA
A
160
Example 2
A distributed loading of p = (800x)Pa acts over
the top surface of the beam shown. Determine
the magnitude and location of the resultant
force.
Solution
Since the loading intensity is uniform across the
width of the beam, the loading can be viewed in 2
dimensions as shown

1
FR   9 1440  6.48kN
2
1
x  9   9  6m
3