Chapter 2:

Concurrent force systems

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Objectives
 To understand the basic characteristics of forces
 To understand the classification of force systems
 To understand some force principles

 To know how to obtain the resultant of forces in 2D

and 3D systems
 To know how to obtain the components of forces in
2D and 3D systems

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Characteristics of forces
 Force: Vector with magnitude and direction
 Magnitude – a positive numerical value representing
the size or amount of the force

 Directions – the slope and the sense of a line segment

used to represent the force
– Described by angles or dimensions
– A negative sign usually represents opposite
direction
 Point of application
– A point where the force is applied
– A line of action = a straight line extending through
the point of application in the direction of the
force
 The force is a physical quantity that needs to be
represented using a mathematical quantity

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Example

direction j

1000 N

 magnitude

Point of application
Line of action

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Vector to represent Force

 A vectoris the mathematical representation that

best describes a force

 A vectoris characterized by its magnitude and

direction/sense

 Mathoperations and manipulations of vectors

can be used in the force analysis
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Free, sliding, and fixed vectors
 Vectors have magnitudes, slopes, and senses, and lines of
applications

 A free vector
– The application line does not pass a certain point in space
 A sliding vector
– The application line passes a certain point in space
 A fixed vector
– The application line passes a certain point in space
– The application point of the vector is fixed

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 Vector/force notation
 Thesymbol representing the force  bold face
or underlined letters

 The magnitude of the force  lightface (in the

text book, + italic)

A A or A A

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Classification of forces
 Based on the characteristic of the interacting bodies:
– Contacting vs. Non-contacting forces
 Surface force (contacting force)
– Examples:
» Pushing/pulling force
» Frictions
 Body force (non-contacting force)
– Examples:
» Gravitational force
» Electromagnetic force
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Classification of forces
 Based on the area (or volume) over
which the force is acting
– Distributed vs. Concentrated forces
 Distributed force
– The application area is relatively large
compare to the whole loaded body
– Uniform vs. Non-uniform
 Concentrated force
– The application area is relatively small
compare to the whole loaded body

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What is a force system?
 A number of forces (in 2D or 3D system)
that is treated as a group:
 A concurrent force system
– All of the action lines intersect at a
common point
 A coplanar force system
– All of the forces lie in the same plane
 A parallel force system
– All of the action lines are parallel
 A collinear force system
– All of the forces share a common line of
action
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The external and internal effects
 A force exerted on the body has two effects:
– External effects
» Change of motion
» Resisting forces (reactions)
– Internal effects
» The tendency of the body to deform  develop
strain, stresses
– If the force system does not produce change of
motion
» The forces are said to be in balance
» The body is said to be in (mechanical)
equilibrium
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 External and internal effects
 Example 1: The body changes in motion
a
F

Not fixed, no (horizontal) support

 Example 2: The body deforms and produces

(support) reactions  The forces must be in
balance
F
Fixed support
Support Reactions
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Principle for force systems
 Two or more force systems are equivalent when their
applications to a body produce the same external effect
 Transmissibility
 Reduction =
– A process to create a simpler equivalent system
– to reduce the number of forces by obtaining the
“resultant” of the forces
 Resolution =
– The opposite of reduction
– to find “the components” of a force vector 
“breaking up” the resultant forces

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Principle of Transmissibility
 Many times, the rigid body assumption is taken  only the
external effects are the interest
 The external effect of a force on a rigid body is the same for
all points of application of the force along its line of action





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Resultant of Forces –
Review on vector addition

 Vector addition
B
R  A B  B  A
 Triangle method (head-to-tail A R
R A
method)
– Note: the tail of the first vector
and the head of the last vector B
become the tail and head of the
resultant  principle of the force
polygon/triangle
 Parallelogram method
– Note: the resultant is the diagonal
of the parallelogram formed by
the vectors being summed
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Resultant of Forces – Review on geometric laws

 Law of Sines A

c
 Laws of Cosines b

c 2  a 2  b 2  2ab cos  
 C
b  a  c  2ac cos 
2 2 2
a
B
a  b  c  2accos
2 2 2

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Resultant of two concurrent forces

Pay attention to the angle

 The magnitude of the resultant (R) is given by
and the sign of the last
R 2  F 12  F 22  2F1F2 cos  term !!!
R 2  F 2  F 2  2F F cos
1 2 1 2

 The direction (relative to the direction of F1) can be given by the law
F2 sin 
of sines
sin  
R

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Resultant of three concurrent forces and more
 Basically it is a repetition of finding resultant of two
forces
 The sequence of the addition process is arbitrary
 The “force polygons” may be different
 The final resultant has to be the same

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Resultant of more than two forces
 The polygon method becomes tedious when dealing
with three and more forces
 It’s getting worse when we deal with 3D cases
 It is preferable to use “rectangular-component”
method

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Example Problem 2-1
 Determine:
– The resultant force (R)
– The angle  between the R and the x-axis
 Answer:
– The magnitude of R is given by
R 2  9002  6002  2(900)(600) cos 400
R  1413.3  1413lb
– The angle  between the R and the 900-lb
force is given by
sin  sin(1800  400 )

600 1413.3
  15.836o
– The angle  therefore is
  15.8360  350 50.80 Department of Mechanical Engineering
Example Problem 2-2

 Determine
– The resultant R
– The angle between the R
and the x-axis

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Another example

 If the resultant of the force

system is zero, determine
– The force FB
– The angle between the FB
and the x-axis

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Force components

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Resolution of a force into components

 The components of a resultant force are

not unique !!
R  A  B  (G  I)  H
 CD  EF

 The direction of the components must be

fixed (given)

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How to obtain the components of a force
(arbitrary component directions)?
Parallel to u
 Steps:
– Draw lines parallel to u and v crossing
the tip of the R
– Together with the original u and v
lines, these two lines produce the
parallelogram
– The sides of the parallelogram
represent the components of R
Parallel to v
– Use law of sines to determine the
magnitudes of the components
Fu Fv 900
 
sin 45 o sin 25 o sin110 o
9 0 0 sin 45o
Fu   677 N
s i n 11 0 0
9 0 0 sin 250
Fv   405N
s i n 11 0 o
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Example Problem 2-5
 Determine the components of F = 100 kN along
the bars AB and AC

 Hints:
– Construct the force triangle/parallelogram
– Determine the angles   
– Utilize the law of sines
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Another example
 Determine the magnitude of the components of
R in the directions along u and v, when R =
1500 N

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Rectangular components of a force
 What and Why rectangular components?
– Rectangular components  all of the components are perpendicular to
each other (mutually perpendicular)
– Why? One of the angle is 90o ==>simple
 Utilization of unit vectors
 Rectangular components in 2D and 3D
 Utilization of the Cartesian c.s.
Arbitrary rectangular

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The Cartesian coordinate system
 The Cartesian coordinate axes z
are arranged following the
right-hand system (shown on
the right)
 The setting of the system is
arbitrary, but the results of the
analysis must be independent of
the chosen system y
x

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 Unit vectors
 A dimensionless vector of unit magnitude
 The very basic coordinate system used to specify coordinates in
the space is the Cartesian c.s.
 The unit vectors along the Cartesian coordinate axis x, y and z
are i, j, k, respectively
 The symbol en will be used to indicate a unit vector in some n-
direction (not x, y, nor z)
 Any vector can be represented as a multiplication of a
magnitude and a unit vector
A  A en  Aen
A is in the positive
A A
en  
direction along n

A A
B is in the negative
direction along n
B   B en  Ben
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The rectangular components of a force in 2D system
 While the components must be perpendicular to each other, the directions
do not have to be parallel or perpendicular to the horizontal or vertical
directions

F  Fx  Fy  Fxi  Fy j

y
Fx  F cos
F Fy  F sin
Fy = Fy j
F F F 2 2
x y

Fy
j   tan 1
 Fx = Fx i Fx
x
i
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The rectangular components in 3D systems
z
k en

F  Fx  Fy  Fz Fz = Fz k

 Fxi  Fy j  Fzk
F  Fen F
F Fxi  Fy j  Fzk
en   z
F F
Fx  F cosx x y

Fy  F cos y Fx = Fx i Fy = Fy j

Fz  F cos z j y

i
F  Fx  Fy  F en  cosxi  cos y j  coszk
2 2 2
z
x

Fx Fy Fz
 x  cos 1
 y  cos 1
 z  cos 1

F F F
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Dot Products of two vectors

A B  B  A  A B cos  ABcos

A
It’s a scalar !!!
Special cosines:

 Cos 0o = 1
Cos 30o = ½ √3
Cos 45o = ½ √2
B
Cos 60o = 0.5
Cos 90o = 0

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Dot products and rectangular components
 The dot product can be used to obtain the rectangular
components of a force (a vector in general)

An  A  en  Acosn (magnitude)

A n  An en (the vectorial component

in the n direction)

A n  (A en )en
The component along en

At  A  An
The component along et

Remember, en and et are perpendicular

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Cartesian rectangular components
 The dot product is particularly useful when the unit vectors
are of the Cartesian system (the i, j, k)
y Fx  F i  F cos
Fy  F  j  F cos(90  )
F
Fy = Fy j
 F sin
90-
j Also, in 3D,
 Fx = Fx i
x
i Fz  F k

F  Fx  Fy  Fxi  Fy j  (F  i)i  (F  j)j

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More usage of dot products …

 Dot products of two vectors written in Cartesian system

A  B  Ax Bx  Ay By  Az Bz
 The magnitude of a vector (could be a force vector),
here A is the vector magnitude

A  A  A2 cos 0  A2  A A  A A  A A
x x y y z z

 The angle between two vectors (say between vectors A

and B)
 Ax B x  Ay B y  Az B z 
  cos 
1

 AB 
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The rectangular components of arbitrary direction
z

k
Fz = Fz k
en

F  Fx  Fy  Fz
F
 F x i  Fy j  F z k Ft
zn
F  Fnen  Ft et Fx = Fx i Fn Fy = Fy j

xn yn

Fn  F en
j y
 (Fxi  Fy j  Fzk)  e n
i
 Fxi  en  Fy j en  Fzk  en x Can you show the following?

 Fx cosxn  Fy cos yn  Fz coszn e n  cosxni  cos yn j  cosznk

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Summarizing ….
 The components of a force resultant are not unique
 Graphical methods (triangular or parallelogram methods)
combined with law of sinus and law of cosines can be used to
obtain components in arbitrary direction
 Rectangular components are components of a force (vector) that
perpendicular to each other
 The dot product can be used to
– obtain rectangular components of a force vector
– obtain the magnitude of a force vector (by performing self-
dot-product)
– Obtain the angle between two (force) vectors
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Example Problem 2-6
 Find the x and y scalar components of the
force
 Find the x’ and y’ scalar components of
the force
 Express the force F in Cartesian vector
form for the xy- and x’y’- axes

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 Example Problem 2-6
Fx  F cos Fy  F cos(90  )
Fx'  F cos  Fy'  F cos(90   )
  90  28  62o

  62  30  32o
Fx  450 cos 62  211N

Fy  450sin 62  397N
Fx'  450 cos 32  382N
Fy  450sin 32  238N Writing the F in Cartesian vector form:

F  (211i  397j)N  (382ex'  238e y ' )N

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 Example Problem 2-8 B

 Find the angles x, y, and z

x is the angle between OB and
x axis and so on ..)
 The x, y, and x scalar
components of the force.
 The rectangular component Fn of
the force along line OA
 The rectangular component of
the force perpendicular to line
OA (say Ft)

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 Example Problem 2-8
B

 To find the angles:

– Find the length of the 3
diagonal OB, say d  x  cos 1
 59.0 o

5.831
– d = 5.831 m  y  cos1
4
 46.7o
– Use cosines to get the 5.831
3
angles  z  cos1  59.0o
5.831

 The scalar components in the Fx  F cosx  12.862kN

x, y, and z directions: Fy  F cos y 17.150kN
Fz  F cosz 12.862kN

F  (12.862i 17.150j 12.862k)kN

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Example Problem 2-8
 To find the rectangular component Fn
of the force along line OA:
– Needs the unit vector along OA
– Method 1 : Follow the method
described in the book
– Method 2: utilize the vector
position of A (basically vector
OA)
rA 3i 1j  3k
e OA  
OA  rA  3i 1j  3k rA 32 12 32
3i 1j  3k
– Remember, that any vector can   0.688i  0.230j  0.688k
be represented as a multiplication 4.36
of its magnitude and a unit vector
along its line of application

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Example Problem 8-2
FOA  F eOA
 The scalar component of F along OA
FOA  (12.862i 17.150j 12.862k)  (0.688i  0.230j  0.688k)
FOA  12.862 0.688 17.150  0.230 12.862  0.688  21.643kN

 The vector component of F along OA

FOA  (F  eOA )eOA  21.6(0.688i  0.230 j  0.688k)
 14.86i  4.97j 14.86k

 The vector component of F perpendicular to OA

Ft  F  FOA  (12.862i 17.150j 12.862k)  (14.86i  4.97j 14.86k)
 (2i 12.18j  2k)

 The scalar component of F perpendicular to OA

F | F || (2i 12.18j  2k) | (2)2 12.182  (2)2 12.50kN
t t

Check: F 2
FOA  Ft 2  21.6432 12.502  25kN Department of Mechanical Engineering
Resultants by rectangular components

 The Cartesian rectangular components of forces can be

utilized to obtain the resultant of the forces
y •Adding the x vector components, we obtain the x
vector component of the resultant
R x   Fx  F1x  F2 x
F1 •Adding the y vector components, we obtain the y
F1y
vector component of the resultant

R y   Fy  F1 y  F2 y
F2x

F1x x

•The resultant can be obtained by performing the

F2 vector addition of these two vector components
F2y
R  R x  R y  Rx i  Ry j
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Resultants by rectangular components

 The scalar components of the resultant

R x  F1x F2 x  (F1x  F2 x )i  Rxi
R y  F1 y  F2y  (F1y  F2 y )j  Ry j

 The magnitude of the resultant R  R 2 R 2

x y

 The angles formed by the resultant and the Cartesian axes

Rx Ry
 x  cos 1
 y  cos 1

R R
 All of the above results can be easily extended for 3D system

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Please do example problems 2-9, 2-10, and 2-11

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HW Problem 2-20
 Determine the non-rectangular components of R

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HW Problem 2-37
 Determine the
components of F1 and F2
in x-y and x’-y’ systems

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HW Problem 2-44

 Express the cable tension in Cartesian

form
 Determine the magnitude of the
rectangular component of the cable force
 Determine the angle  between cables
AD and BD

Typo in the problem!!!

B(4.9,-7.6,0)
C(-7.6,-4.6,0)

Don’t worry if you don’t get the solution in the back of the
book
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HW Problem 2-46

 Determine the scalar components

 Express the force in Cartesian
vector form
 Determine the angle  between th e
force and line AB

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HW problems 2-55
 Given: F1 = 500 lb, F2 = 300
lb, F3 = 200 lb
 Determine the resultant
 Express the resultant in the
Cartesian format
 Find the angles formed by the
resultant and the coordinate
axes

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HW Problem 2-49
 Given T1 and T2 are 650 lb,
 Determine P so that the resultant of T1, T2 and P is
zero

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