Engineering Mechanics

Zhao Qin

College of Civil Engineering

Zhejiang University of Technology

General Principles
 What is Mechanics?
Mechanics is a branch of the physical sciences
that is concerned with the state of rest or
motion of bodies that are subjected to the
action of forces. In general, this subject can be
subdivided into three branches: rigid-body
mechanics, deformable-body mechanics, and
fluid mechanics.
In this semester we will study rigid-body
mechanics since it’s a basic requirement for the
study of the mechanics of deformable bodies
and mechanics of fluids. Furthermore, rigid-
body mechanics is essential for the design and
analysis of many types of structural members,
mechanical components, or electrical devices
encountered in engineering.
Statics
Dynamics
 What is Mechanics?
In another direction
 With Engineering mechanics, we
can analysis and design
• Bridge

Suspension bridge
• Building
Dam
Artificial bone
 Besides，
• Road
• Train
• Airplane
• Car
Car
Theoretical mechanics
In theoretical mechanics, bodies are assumed to
be perfectly rigid. Though actual structures and
machines are never absolutely rigid and will
deform under the action of forces, these
deformations are usually small and do not affect
the state of equilibrium or motion of the
structures and machines under consideration.
Mechanics of materials
Mechanics of materials studies the relationships
between the external loads and the intensity of
internal forces acting within the body. This
subject is also concerned with computing the
deformations of the body, and it provides a
study of the body’s stability when the body is
subjected to external forces.
 Basic concepts
• Length. Length is used to locate the position
of a point in space and thereby describe the
size of a physical system. Once a standard unit
of length is defined, one can then use it to
define distances and geometric properties of a
body as multiples of this unit.
 Basic concepts
Time. Time is conceived as a succession of
events. Although the principles of statics are
time independent, this quantity plays an
important role in the study of dynamics.
 Basic concepts
Mass. Mass is measure of a quantity of matter
that is used to compare the action of one body
with that of another. This property manifests
itself as a gravitational attraction between two
bodies and provides a measure of the resistance
of matter to a change in velocity.
 Basic concepts
Force. In general, force is considered as a “push”
or “pull” exerted by one body on another. This
interaction can occur when there is direct
contact between the bodies, such as a person
pushing on a wall, or it can occur through a
distance when the bodies are physically
separated.
 Basic concepts
• Scalars. A scalar is any positive or negative
physical quantity that can be completely
specified by its magnitude, e.g., length, time,
mass, work, energy. Scalars are added by
algebraic method.
 Basic concepts
• Vectors. A vector is any physical quantity that
requires both a magnitude and a direction for
its complete description. A vector is shown
graphically by an arrow. e.g., force,
displacement, impulse, momentum.
 Basic concepts
The length of the arrow represents the
magnitude of the vector, and the angle θ
between the vector and a fixed axis defines the
direction of its line of action. The head or tip of
the arrow indicates the sense of direction of the
vector.
 Idealizations
• Particle. A particle has a mass, but a size that
can be neglected. For example, the size of the
earth is insignificant compared to the size of
its orbit, and therefore the earth can be
modeled as a particle when studying its
orbital motion.
 Idealizations
When a body is idealized as a particle, the
principles of mechanics reduce to rather
simplified form since the geometry of the body
will not be involved in the analysis of the
problem.
 Idealizations
• Rigid Body. A rigid body can be considered as
a combination of a large number of particles
in which all the particles remain at a fixed
distance form one another, both before and
after applying a load. This model is important
because the material properties of any body
that is assumed to be rigid will not have to be
considered when studying the effects of forces
acting on the body
 Idealizations
In most cases the actual deformations occurring
in structures, machines, mechanisms, and the
like are relatively small, and the rigid-body
assumption is suitable for analysis.
 Idealizations
Concentrated Force. A concentrated force
represents the effect of a loading which is
assumed to act at a point on a body. We can
represent a load by a concentrated force,
provided the area over which the load is applied
is very small compared to the overall size of the
body. An example would be the contact force
between a wheel and the ground.
 General principles
• Parallelogram Law. Parallelogram Law states
that two forces acting on a particle can be
replaced by a single resultant force obtained
by drawing the diagonal of the parallelogram
which has sides equal to the given forces
An alternative method.
• Principle of transmissibility
Principle of transmissibility states that the state
of equilibrium or motion of a rigid body will
remain unchanged if one force acting at a given
point of the rigid body is replaced by another
force of the same magnitude and same
direction, but acting at a different point,
provided that the two forces has the same line
of action.
 Newton’s Three Laws of Motion
Engineering mechanics is formulated on the
basis of Newton’s three laws of motion, the
validity of which is based on experimental
observation.
 First Law
A particle originally at rest, or moving in a
straight line with constant velocity, tend to
remain in this state provided the particle is not
subjected to an unbalanced force, which means
the resultant force acting on the particle is zero.
First Law
 Second Law
A particle acted upon by an unbalanced force F
(which means the resultant force acting on the
particle is not zero) experiences an acceleration
a that has the same direction as the force and a
magnitude that is directly proportional to the
force. If F is applied to a particle of mass m, this
law may be expressed mathematically as: F=ma.
Second Law
 Third Law
The mutual forces of action and reaction
between two particles are equal (same
magnitude), opposite (direction), and collinear
(same line of action).
Third Law
 Newton’s Law of Gravitational
Attraction
M 1M 2
F =G 2
r
F = force of gravitation between the two
particles
G = universal constant of gravitation; according
to experimental= evidence, G 66.73(10−12 )m3 / (kg ⋅ s 2 )
 Newton’s Law of Gravitational
Attraction
M 1M 2
F =G 2
r
m1,m2 = mass of each of the two particles
r = distance between the two particles
 Newton’s Law of Gravitational
Attraction
So if the particle is near the surface of the earth,
the force exerted by the earth on the particle is
defined s the weight of the particle. M is the
mass of the earth, m is the mass of the particle,
and R is the radius of the earth.
 Newton’s Law of Gravitational
Attraction
So if the particle is near the surface of the earth,
the force exerted by the earth on the particle is
defined s the weight of the particle. M is the
mass of the earth, m is the mass of the particle,
and R is the radius of the earth.
 Newton’s Law of Gravitational
Attraction
Letting g=GM/R2 the magnitude of the weight
of the particle is W=mg ，g is the acceleration
of gravity. If the particle is located on or near
the surface of the earth, the value of g is
approximately equal to 9.8 m/s2, and the value
of g is 10 m/s2 on north and south pole.
 CHAPTER REVIEW
A vector has a magnitude and direction where
the arrowhead represents the sense of the
vector.
 CHAPTER REVIEW
Multiplication or division of a vector by a scalar
will change only the magnitude of the vector. If
the scalar is negative the sense of the vector will
change so that it acts in the opposite sense
 CHAPTER REVIEW
If vectors are collinear, the resultant is simply
the algebraic or scalar addition.
R=A+B
 CHAPTER REVIEW
Parallelogram Law
Two forces add according to the parallelogram
law. The components form the sides of the
parallelogram and the resultant is the diagonal.
To find the components of a force along any two
axes, extend lines from the head of the force,
parallel to the axes, to form the components.
 CHAPTER REVIEW
To obtain the components of the resultant, show
how the forces add by tip-to-tail using the
triangle rule, and then use the law of cosines
and the law of cosines to calculate their values.
FR = F12 + F22 − 2 F1 F2 cos θ R

F1 F2 FR
= =
sin θ1 sin θ 2 sin θ R