Engineering

Mechanics-
Statics
EMG 2203

Dr. (Eng.) Evan Murimi

Purpose of the course

Concept of
Carry out
centroid in
2 and 3-D forces structural analysis
relation to masses
of forces
and areas

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Course description

Equilibrium of
Intro to Statics Force vectors Force systems particles and rigid
body

Centroids, centre of
mass and
Structural analysis Distributed forces Virtual work
properties of plane
areas

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Topic 1
Introduction to
Statics

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1. Introduction to statics
• Mechanics • Scalars and vectors • Units
• Fundamental concepts • Newton’s laws

• Mechanics - physical science

dealing with the effects of
forces on objects.
• Statics- equilibrium of bodies at
rest or in constant motion
• Dynamics- concerned with
accelerated motion of bodies

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Length- used to locate position of a point in space and thereby describe the
size of a physical system.

Time- measure of succession of events. Mostly used in dynamics

Mass- measure of quantity of matter. Manifests itself as gravitational

attraction between 2 bodies.
Fundamental
Force- action of one body on another. A force tends to move a body in the
direction of its action. Action of a force is characterized by its magnitude,
by the direction of its action, and by its point of application
concepts
Particle- a body (with mass) of negligible dimensions. Mass analyzed as
acting at a point.

Rigid body- combination of a large number of particles that remain at a

fixed distance from one another, both before and after applying a load.

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Newton’s Laws of motion
Law I. A particle remains at rest or continues to move with uniform
velocity (in a straight line with a constant speed) if there is no
unbalanced force acting on it.
Law II. The acceleration of a particle is proportional to the vector sum
of forces acting on it, and is in the direction of this vector sum.
Law III. The forces of action and reaction between interacting bodies
are equal in magnitude, opposite in direction, and collinear (they lie on
the same line).

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 • Gravitational attraction between any two
particles is
𝑚𝑚1 𝑚𝑚2
𝐹𝐹 = 𝐺𝐺
𝑟𝑟 2
Where F=mutual attraction force between the 2
particles Newton’s Law of
G= constant of gravitation gravitation
8 G = 66.73x(10-12) m3/(kg .s2)
m1,m2=mass of each particle
r= distance between the two particles
 • Weight is the gravitational
attraction between a
particle and earth
• If m1=m and m2=Me (mass
of earth), r= distance
between earth’s center and
particle
𝑊𝑊 = 𝐺𝐺 2
𝑚𝑚𝑀𝑀𝑒𝑒
𝑟𝑟
Weight
𝑀𝑀𝑒𝑒
9 Letting g = 𝐺𝐺 2 then
𝑟𝑟
𝑊𝑊 = 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚
Comparing with F=ma (Law
2), g is gravitational
acceleration (g=9.81 m/s2)
DON’T USE 10!
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Topic 2
Force Vectors

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2. Force vectors • Parallelogram law • Dot product of force
• Cartesian vector form vectors
• Scalar quantities
Only a magnitude is associated. Examples:
Distance, time, volume, density, speed, energy and mass
• Vector quantities
Possess direction as well as magnitude. Examples
Displacement, velocity, acceleration, force, moment, and momentum

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Multiplication/division
of vector by scalar

• Multiplying a vector by a
positive scalar increases its
magnitude by that
amount.
• Multiplying by a negative
scalar also changes the
directional sense of the
vector

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 Vector addition
• All vectors must obey the parallelogram law of addition
Vector sum:
𝑉𝑉�1 + 𝑉𝑉�2 = 𝑉𝑉�
Note: this is vector and not
scalar addition.

Alternatively, use triangle Vectors V1 and V2 are

Resultant of vectors rule. It is a special case of
V1 and V2 components of vector V.
parallelogram law
Special case
If A and B are collinear, (both have same line of
action), parallelogram law reduces to scalar or
algebraic addition.
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 • Convenient to deal with vector components which are mutually
perpendicular (rectangular components)

3D vector
2D vector 𝑉𝑉� = 𝑉𝑉𝑥𝑥 𝑖𝑖 + 𝑉𝑉𝑦𝑦 𝑗𝑗 + 𝑉𝑉𝑧𝑧 𝑘𝑘
𝑉𝑉� = 𝑉𝑉𝑥𝑥 𝑖𝑖 + 𝑉𝑉𝑦𝑦 𝑗𝑗 And
Where
𝑉𝑉 = 𝑉𝑉𝑥𝑥2 + 𝑉𝑉𝑦𝑦2 + 𝑉𝑉𝑧𝑧2
𝑉𝑉 = 𝑉𝑉𝑥𝑥2 + 𝑉𝑉𝑦𝑦2

• i,j,k are unit vectors (magn of 1)

giving the direction.
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Vector subtraction
• The resultant of the difference between two vectors A and B may be
expressed as
𝑅𝑅� = 𝐴𝐴̅ − 𝐵𝐵� = 𝐴𝐴̅ + (−𝐵𝐵)
�

Note
Subtraction is a
special case of
addition

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Examples
• Determine the resultant force on the screw eye.
• Parallelogram law yields.
• Then extract vector triangle

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• Using cos rule:

• This has only given the magnitude of the Force.

• Next?
Find the direction using sine rules.

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Principle of transmissibility
• states that 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.

Dot product
• Used to find the angle between two lines

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`Exercise

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Topic 3
Force Systems

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Classification of Forces
• Forces are classified as either contact or body forces
• A contact force is produced by direct physical
contact; e.g. force exerted on a body by a
supporting surface.
• Body force is generated by virtue of the position of
a body within a force field such as a gravitational,
electric, or magnetic field. An example of a body
force is your weight.
• Further classification- concentrated or distributed.
• Every contact force is distributed over finite area. If
the area is too small, it becomes concentrated.

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Concurrent Forces
• Two or more forces are said to be concurrent at a point if their lines
of action intersect at that point.

Have same point of

application

Have different points of application. Principle

of transmissibility used to bring them to same
point of application. 29
Moment of a force
• Rotational tendency by a force is the
moment(or torque)
𝑀𝑀 = 𝐹𝐹 × 𝑑𝑑

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Example
•a

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Exercise

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Moment of a couple
Two forces F and -F having the same magnitude, parallel lines of action,
and opposite sense are said to form a couple

𝑀𝑀 = 𝑟𝑟 × 𝐹𝐹

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Exercise

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 Topic 4
Equilibrium of Rigid Bodies

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4. Equilibrium of rigid bodies
• When a body is in static equilibrium,

• Free body diagram- a diagrammatic representation of the isolated

system treated as a single body.
• shows all forces applied to the system by mechanical contact with other
bodies, which are imagined to be removed.

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Example

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Exercises

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Exercise

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 Topic 5
Structural Analysis

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 5. Structural analysis
Typical truss. Note
there is no member
AB but AD and DB

Engineering structure- a connected system of members built to support or transfer forces & to safely withstand
the loads applied to it.

To determine internal forces in a structure, dismember and analyze separate free-body diagrams of individual
members or combinations of members.

The analysis requires careful application of Newton’s third law.

Categories of engineering structures

• Truss- a structure composed of stationary, straight members joined together at their end points. Members experience two forces acting
along the member.
• Frames- consist at least one multi-force member (3 or more forces) and generally not acting along the member. All members are stationary.
• Machines- structures containing moving parts to transmit and modify forces. They contain at least one multi-force member.
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Analysis of truss
• Method of joints- Used to analyze forces in all members of
a truss given that if the entire truss is in equilibrium, then
each of its joints is also in equilibrium.
• Method of sections- Used to determine forces in only a few
members of a truss. It is based on the principle that if the
truss is in equilibrium then any segment of the truss is also
in equilibrium.

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Method of joints
• For equilibrium, satisfy ∑ 𝐹𝐹𝑥𝑥,𝑦𝑦,𝑧𝑧 = 0 and ∑ 𝑀𝑀𝑂𝑂 = 0 for all members.

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Exercises

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Method of sections
• Efficient in determining forces in some members of a truss.

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 Start by getting the overall FBD

Use existing knowledge to

solve for the unknown forces
RAx

RAy REy

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Exercises

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