JAHANGIRABAD INSTIUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

BARABANKI
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Elements of Mechanical Engineering

CONTENTS
1. Force System

2. Law of Parallelogram

3. Collinear forces

4. Concurrent Forces

5. Lami's Theorem

6. Principle of Transmissibility

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 7. Moment of Force

8. Couple

9. Varignon’s Theorem

10. Resolution of force

11. Resultant of Coplanar –Concurrent force

12. Free Body Diagram

13. Center of gravity & Centroid

14. Moment of Inertia

Force System
If all the forces in a system lie in a single plane through a single point, they constitute a coplanar concurrent force
system. It is possible to find a single force which will have the same effect as that of number of force acting.
Such single force is called Resultant force and the process of finding the resultant force is called composition of
forces.
Force
1) Force is a push or pull.
2) Force is the capacity to do work or cause physical change.
3) Force= Mass times acceleration (F = ma)
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 4) A force is that which changes or tends to change the state of rest or motion of a body.
Law of Parallelogram
This law is applicable to determine the resultant of two coplanar concurrent forces only. This law states
―If two forces acting at a point are represented both in magnitude and direction by the two adjacent
sides of a parallelogram, then the resultant of the two forces is represented both in magnitude and
direction by the diagonal of the
Parallelogram passing through the same point.”

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 Collinear forces
Forces have the same line of action.
May act in same or different directions.

Collinear forces
Forces have the same line of action.
May act in same or different directions.

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 Concurrent Forces
Forces do not act along same line, but do act through the same point.
In physics, concurrent forces are defined as forces that pass through a common point.
In other words,
a concurrent force system is a set of two or more forces whose lines of action
intersect at a point at the same time.

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Lami’s Theorem
If a body is in equilibrium under the action of only three forces, each force is proportional to the
sine of the angle between the other two forces.
F2 F1

α β
F3

F1 = F2 = F3
sinα sinβ sinγ
Principle of Transmissibility
States that the conditions of equilibrium or conditions of motion of a rigid body will
remain unchanged if a force acting at a given point of the rigid body is replaced by a

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 force of the same magnitude and same direction, but acting at a different point,
provided that the two forces have the same line of action.
Moment of Force
Moment of force about a point is the measure of rotational effect of the force. Moment of a
force about a point is defined as the product of the magnitude of the force and the
perpendicular distance of the point from the line of action of the force. The point about which
the moment is considered is called moment center and the perpendicular distance of the point
from the line of action of the force is
called moment arm. F

d2
d1

Couple
A couple is a pair of forces, equal in magnitude, oppositely directed, and
displaced by perpendicular distance or moment.

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 The simplest kind of couple consists of two equal and opposite force whose
lines of action do not coincide. This is called a "simple couple". The forces
have a turning effect or moment called a torque about an axis which is
normal (perpendicular) to the plane of the forces. The SI unit for the
torque of the couple is newton meter.
Varignon’s theorem
French mathematician Varignon(1654-1722) gave the following which is also known as principles of
moments:
The algebraic sum of moments of a system of coplanar forces about a moment center is equal
to the moment of their resultant force about the same moment center.

Resolution of force
Finding the components of a given force in two given direction is called resolution. These
component forces will have the same effect on the body as given single force.
P=R Cosα

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 Y

Q
R

P
Q=R Sin α
X
Resultant of coplanar –Concurrent forces
The analytical method is based on theorem of resolved parts which states
that
“ The algebraic sum of the resolved parts of two forces in a given direction is
equal to the resolved part of their resultant in the same direction.”

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 Y
P3 P2

α3
P1
α2
α1 X
α4

R= (∑ F ) +(∑ F )X
2
Y
2

P4
and its inclination θ
∑
F y tan= Fx

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 Free Body Diagram
The force analysis of a structure is made in a simplified way by considering the equilibrium of a
portion of the structure. For that, the portion is drawn separately showing applied forces, self
weight and reactions at the point of contact with other bodies. The resulting diagram is known
as free body diagram.
In a FBD, all the supports (like walls ,floors, hinges etc) are removed and replaced by the reactions
which these supported exert on the body.
Examples-…….

Center of Gravity
• The point at which all the mass of the body may be assumed to be concentrated.
• The point through which the force of gravity is considered to act vertically downwards, with a force equal to
the weight of the body. The point about which the body would balance. The center of gravity of a
homogeneous body is at its geometrical center.
Centroids
The centroid of an area is situated at its geometrical centre. In each of the following figures ‘G’ represents the
centroid, and if each area was suspended from this point it would balance.

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 Moment of Inertia
The product of the elemental area and square of the perpendicular distance between the centroid of area and the
axis of reference is the “Moment of Inertia” about the reference axis. 2 Y
Ixx = ∫dA. y
Iyy = ∫dA. x2

dA
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x