13.

Centroids and Moment of Inertia

Besides forces and moments, it is necessary to know the geometrical and crosssectional properties of the structural elements that are used in construction. The properties that we will be discussing are: 1. Centroids 2. Moment of Inertia 3. Radius of Gyration

Centroids The centroid of a body cab be described as a point at which the body can be balanced

CG

The physical way in which the point can be determined is shown below:

Mathematically the CG of a planar body is given by the equation

( xA) x= A ( yA) y= A
Or by using Calculus

xdA x= dA ydA y= dA

The physical meaning of CG in Statics

Overturning point

Overturning point Case B Since the CG of the brick wall falls outside the overturning point the wall is unstable and will fall down

Case A Since the CG of the brick wall falls within the overturning point the wall is stable

Moment of Inertia

The moment of inertia cab be considered as a shape factor which indicated how the material is distributed about the center of gravity of the crosssection. The moment of inertia has a significant effect on the structural behavior of construction elements The formulas used for determining the moment of inertia are

I I
Or by using calculus
x

= y dA = x dA
2

I = y dA I = x dA
2 2 y

The physical meaning of moment of inertia

0.5m 2m 0.5m 1m 1m 2m 2m 4m 2m 2m

2m Area Moment of Inertia 1m2 0.02 m4 1m2 0.08 m4 1m2 0.33m4 1m2 0.55m4 1m2 2.79m4

Thus it is clear that as the material is moved away from the center of the axis the moment of inertia increases. This is further illustrated by the next example

16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 3 6 9

Series1

16.20 m4 2.78 3 2 1.651 Area= 1m2

Area= 1m2

Moment of Inertia

0.421 m4

I=

(d d )
4 o 4 i

64

1 0.079 m4 Area= 1m2 Average distance of mass from the center of the circle 2.89 m

0.5 m

1.82 m

Parallel Axis Theorem

Structurally efficient cross-sections need not always be symmetric. The following are two examples of structurally efficient non-symmetric sections for bridges

The parallel axis theorem enables us to calculate the moment of inertia for such nonsymmetric structural cross-sections. The statement of the parallel axis theorem follows

I x = I xo + Ay
Where

Ix

=Moment of inertia about the centroidal x-axis of the section

I xo

=Moment of inertia of separate elements about their own axis

A
y

= area of each of the individual components

= distance between the centroidal axis and the centroids of the each individual elements

Radius of Gyration
The radius of gyration is a quantity that connects two other physical characteristics of the structural element: the cross-sectional area and the moment of inertia Since the moment of inertia has a dimension of length to the power four, it can be written as area times a length dimension squared as shown below

I x = y dA = Ar
2

2 x

Where rx is called the radius of gyration. It can be visualized as the distance at which the entire area of the cross-section is concentrated

The location the radius of gyration is shown below

rx = d 4 rx = d 4
x

Ix =

64

A=

d 2
4

d 4 4 d = rx = I x A = 2 64d 4
The radius of gyration is an useful concept in understanding the buckling of slender columns