Engineering Mechanics

'Engineering mechanics is the application of mechanics to solve problems involving common engineering elements.
The goal of this Engineering Mechanics course is to expose students to problems in mechanics as applied to plausibly real-world scenarios. Problems of particular types
are explored in detail in the hopes that students will gain an inductive understanding of the underlying principles at work; students should then be able to recognize
problems of this sort in real-world situations and respond accordingly.
Further, this text aims to support the learning of Engineering Mechanics with theoretical material, general key techniques, and a sufficient number of solved sample
problems to satisfy the first objective as outlined above.
TYPES OF FORCES SYSTEM
FORCES AND CLASSIFICATION
Mainly all the forces divided into following types:
1. Coplanar Forces.
2. Collinear Forces.
3. Concurrent Forces.

1.Coplanar Forces:
If all the forces in a system lie in a single plane then they are
"coplanar forces."

There are different types of coplanar forces.They are :

A.Coplanar Parallel Forces.
(i) Coplanar like Forces.
(ii) Coplanar unlike Forces.
B.Coplanar Concurrent Forces.
C.Coplanar Non-Concurrent Forces.

A. Coplanar Parallel Forces:

If all the forces are parallel to each other and lie un single
plane then they are "coplanar parallel forces".

(i) Coplanar Like Parallel Forces:

All forces are parallel to each other and lie in a single plane
and are action in the same direction.

(ii)coplanar unlike parallel forces:

All forces are parallel to each other and lie in single plane but
acting in opposite direction.

B. Coplanar Concurrent Forces:

Line of action of all forces passes through a single point and
forces lie in a single plane then they are"coplanar concurrent
forces".

C. Coplanar Non-Concurrent Forces:

All forces do not meet at a point but lie in a single plane.
2. Concurrent Forces:
If the line of action of all forces acting in a system pass through
a single point then they are "Concurrent Force System".

3. Collinear Forces:
If line of action of all forces acting in a single line then they are
"Collinear Force System".

Along with these,there are other forces which are useful to us. They are:

1. Non-Coplanar Parallel Forces:

All forces are parallel to each other but not lie in single plane
then they are "non-coplanar parallel forces".

2. Non-Coplanar Concurrent Forces:

All forces do not lie in same plane but line of action passes
through single point,then they are "non-coplanar concurrent
forces"

3. Non-Coplanar, Non-Concurrent Forces:

All forces do not lie in a single plane and line of action do not
pass through single point,then they are "non-coplanar non-
concurrent forces"

Finally some important definitions are:

1.Resultant Forces:
It is a single force which have the same effect as that of
number of forces acting on body .

2.System of forces:
Number of forces acting on a body is called "System of
Forces".
FORCE SYSTEM

Q: WHAT IS A FORCE SYSTEM? CLASSIFY THEM WITH EXAMPLES.

ANSWER:

A force system may be defined as a system where more than one force act on the body. It means that whenever multiple forces act on a body, we term the forces as a force system. We can
further classify force system into different sub-categories depending upon the nature of forces and the point of application of the forces.

Different types of force system:

(i) COPLANAR FORCES:

If two or more forces rest on a plane, then they are called coplanar forces. There are many ways in which forces can be manipulated. It is often easier to work with a large, complicated system of forces by reducing it an
ever decreasing number of smaller problems. This is called the "resolution" of forces or force systems. This is one way to simplify what may otherwise seem to be an impossible system of forces acting on a body. Certain
systems of forces are easier to resolve than others. Coplanar force systems have all the forces acting in in one plane. They may be concurrent, parallel, non-concurrent or non-parallel. All of these systems can be resolved
by using graphic statics or algebra.

(ii) CONCURRENT FORCES:

 A concurrent coplanar force system is a system of two or more forces whose lines of action ALL intersect at a common point. However, all of the individual vectors might not actually be in contact with the common
point. These are the most simple force systems to resolve with any one of many graphical or algebraic options. If the line of actions of two or more forces passes through a certain point simultaneously then they are called
concurrent forces. Con-current forces may or may not be coplanar.

(iii) LIKE FORCES:

A parallel coplanar force system consists of two or more forces whose lines of action are all parallel to one another. This is commonly the situation when simple beams are analyzed under gravity loads. These can be
solved graphically, but are combined most easily using algebraic methods. If the lines of action of two or more forces are parallel to each other, they are called parallel forces and if their directions are same, then they are
called LIKE FORCES.

(iv) UNLIKE FORCES:

If the parallel forces are such that their directions are opposite to each other, then they are termed as "UNLIKE FORCE".

For more notes on force system click here

(v) NON COPLANAR FORCES:

The last illustration is of a "non-concurrent and non-parallel system". This consists of a number of vectors that do not meet at a single point and none of them are parallel. These systems are essentially a jumble of forces
and take considerable care to resolve.

There are different types of forces that act in different ways on structures such as bridges, chairs, buildings, in fact any
structure. The main examples of forces are shown below. Study the diagram and text and then draw a diagram/pictogram to
represent each of these forces.
 A Static Load : A good example of this is
a person seen on the left. He is holding a
stack of books on his back but he is not
moving. The force downwards is STATIC.
A Dynamic Load : A good example of a
dynamic load is the person on the right. He
is carrying a weight of books but walking.
The force is moving or DYNAMIC.
STATIC LOAD (standing still) DYNAMIC LOAD (moving)

Internal Resistance : The person in the

diagram is sat on the mono-bicycle and the
air filled tyre is under great pressure. The
air pressure inside it pushes back against
his/her weight.
Tension : The rope is in “tension” as the
two people pull on it. This stretching puts
the rope in tension.
INTERNAL RESISTANCE TENSION

Compression : The weight lifter finds that

his body is compressed by the weights he is
holding above his head.
Shear Force : A good example of shear
force is seen with a simple scissors. The
two handles put force in different
directions on the pin that holds the two
parts together. The force applied to the pin
is called shear force.
COMPRESSION SHEAR FORCE

Torsion : The plastic ruler is

twisted between both hands. The
ruler is said to be in a state of
torsion.
TORSION
Free-Body Diagrams

Free-body diagrams are diagrams used to show the relative magnitude and direction of all forces acting upon an object in a given
situation. A free-body diagram is a special example of the vector diagrams that were discussed in an earlier unit. These diagrams will be used throughout our
study of physics. The size of the arrow in a free-body diagram reflects the magnitude of the force. The direction of the arrow shows the direction that the force is
acting. Each force arrow in the diagram is labeled to indicate the exact type of force. It is generally customary in a free-body diagram to represent the object by a
box and to draw the force arrow from the center of the box outward in the direction that the force is acting. An example of a free-body diagram is shown at the
right.
The free-body diagram above depicts four forces acting upon the object. Objects do not necessarily always have four forces acting upon them. There will be cases
in which the number of forces depicted by a free-body diagram will be one, two, or three. There is no hard and fast rule about the number of forces that must be
drawn in a free-body diagram. The only rule for drawing free-body diagrams is to depict all the forces that exist for that object in the given situation. Thus, to
construct free-body diagrams, it is extremely important to know the various types of forces. If given a description of a physical situation, begin by using your
understanding of the force types to identify which forces are present. Then determine the direction in which each force is acting. Finally, draw a box and add
arrows for each existing force in the appropriate direction; label each force arrow according to its type. If necessary, refer to the list of forces and their
description in order to understand the various force types and their appropriate symbols.
In physics and engineering, a free body diagram (force diagram,[1] or FBD) is a graphical illustration used to visualize the applied forces, movements, and resulting reactions on a body in a
given condition. They depict a body or connected bodies with all of the applied forces and moments, as well as reactions, that act on that/those body(ies). The body may consist of multiple
internal members, for example, a truss, or be a compact body such as a beam. A series of free bodies and other diagrams may be necessary to solve complex problems.
Free body diagrams are used to visualize the forces and moments applied to a body and calculate the resulting reactions, in many types of mechanics problems. Most free body diagrams
are used both to determine the loading of individual structural components as well as calculating internal forces within the structure in almost all engineering disciplines from Biomechanics
to Structural.[2][3] In the educational environment, learning to draw a free body diagram is an important step in understanding certain topics in physics, such as statics, dynamics and other
forms of classical mechanics.

SCALAR AND VECTOR QUANTITIES

A scalar quantity is a one dimensional measurement of a quantity, like temperature, or weight. A vector has more than one number associated with it. A simple
example is velocity. It has a magnitude, called speed, as well as a direction, like North or Southwest or 10 degrees west of North.
Scalars are quantities that have magnitude only; they are independent of direction.Vectors have both magnitude and direction. The length of a vector representsmagnitude. The arrow shows direction.EO
1.1DEFINE the following as they relate to vectors:a.Scalar quantityb.Vector quantityScalar QuantitiesMost of the physical quantities encountered in physics are either scalar or vector
quantities. Ascalar quantity is defined as a quantity that has magnitude only. Typical examples of scalarquantities are time, speed, temperature, and volume. A scalar quantity or
parameter has nodirectional component, only magnitude. For example, the units for time (minutes, days, hours,etc.) represent an amount of time only and tell nothing of direction.
Additional examples ofscalar quantities are density, mass, and energy.Vector QuantitiesA vector quantity is defined as a quantity that has both magnitude and direction. To work
withvector quantities, one must know the method for representing these quantities. Magnitude, or "size" of a vector, is alsoreferred to as the vector's "displacement." Itcan be
thought of as the scalar portion of thevector and is represented by the length of the vector. By definition, a vector has bothmagnitude and direction. Direction indicateshow the
vector is oriented relative to some reference axis, as shown in Figure 1.Using north/south and east/west referenceaxes, vector "A" is oriented in the NEquadrant with a direction
of 45 north of theoEW axis. G iving direction to scalar "A"makes it a vector. The length of "A" is representative of its magnitude or displacement

Parallelogram law
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A parallelogram. The sides are shown in blue and the diagonals in red.

In mathematics, the simplest form of the parallelogram law (also called the parallelogram identity) belongs to elementary geometry. It states that the sum of the
squares of the lengths of the four sides of a parallelogram equals the sum of the squares of the lengths of the two diagonals. Using the notation in the diagram on the
right, the sides are (AB), (BC), (CD), (DA). But since in Euclidean geometry a parallelogram necessarily has opposite sides equal, or (AB) = (CD) and (BC) = (DA), the law
can be stated as, If the parallelogram is a rectangle, the two diagonals are of equal lengths (AC) = (BD) so,and the statement reduces to the Pythagorean theorem. For
the general quadrilateral with four sides not necessarily equal, where x is the length of the line segment joining the midpoints of the diagonals. It can be seen from the
diagram that, for a parallelogram, x = 0, and the general formula simplifies to the parallelogram law.

Definition of PARALLELOGRAM LAW

: a law in physics: the resultant of two vector quantities represented in magnitude, direction, and sense by two adjacent
sides of a parallelogram both of which are directed toward or away from their poin t of intersection is the diagonal of the
parallelogram through that point

In physics, a vector is a scalar quantity that represents a magnitude and a direction. The triangle law of vectors basically is a process
that allows one to take two vectors, draw them proportional to each other, connect them head to tail, then draw the resultant vector as a result
of the third side that is missing. The third side of the triangle would represent the resultant vector as a combination of the two vectors
given.Vectors can be shown to represent different types of magnitudes, such as velocities and speed. Vectors can be used to describe
cardinal directions, or combinations of cardinal directions, such as north by northwest. Vectors can also be used to describe spatial
relationships between forces. The triangle law of vector relationships is quite a useful tool in predicting resultant magnitude and direction.

Parallelogram law. Two concurrent forces, F1 and F2, are added graphically according to the parallelogram law on their common plane to produce the resultant force P. For
addition by this method, the tails of the vectors are placed at a common point, Figure 2.6(a). If necessary, the principle of transmissibility can be applied as shown in
Figure 2.6(b). The forces F1 and F2 in Figure 2.6(a) and 2.6(b) are replaced by a single force P without changing the external effects on the body that they acted on. This
addition is written mathematically by using the vector expression

P = F1 + F2

From mathematics, it is known that every vector equation can solve for two unknown scalar quantities. Hence, in the solution of this equation, two unknowns can be
determined. The two unknowns are normally the magnitude and direction of the resultant force P.

Triangle law. The addition of vectors illustrated by the equation given above can also be carried out graphically by using the triangle rule, Figure 2.7. The application of this
rule requires the shifting of the line of action of one of the forces F1, F2 or P. If the lines of action of F1 and F2 are maintained, then the resultant force P has the correct
magnitude and direction but its line of action is not obtained because the line of action does not pass through the point of intersection O, Figure 2.7(d).

Often, more than two concurrent forces are to be added. The resultant is obtained by adding, in turn, two forces by two forces, using the parallelogram , Figure 2.8(a), or
the triangle law, Figure 2.8(b).