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Centre of Gravity and Centroids: Concepts
Centre of Gravity and Centroids: Concepts
The centroid is a point which defines the geometric centre of an object. If the material
composing a body is homogenous (density or specific weight is constant throughout the
body), the position of the centroid coincides with the centre of mass or the centre of
gravity. If an object has an axis of symmetry, then the centroid of object lies on that axis.
Finally, note that in some cases the centroid is not actually on the object.
where
x , y , and z represent the coordinates of the centre of gravity G of the system of
particles regardless of orientation of the x, y, z axes, and
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ES 1022y Engineering Statics Centre of Gravity and Centroids
~
xi , ~y i , and ~
z i represent the coordinates of each particle.
Noting that we can write similar equations for moments about the x and z axes, the
coordinates of the centre of gravity are given by
provided that the acceleration due to gravity is the same for each particle, the coordinates
of the centre of mass can be shown to be given by
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ES 1022y Engineering Statics Centre of Gravity and Centroids
The coordinates of the centre of mass can be found by writing the weight as
which leads to
Centroid of a Body
If the material composing a body is uniform or homogeneous the density will be constant
throughout the body and will cancel out of the above integrals. Since they are now
independent of the body’s weight, and only depend on the body’s geometry the resulting
equations define the position of the centroid of the body.
Finally, if an object has an axis of symmetry then the centroid of the object lies on that
axis.
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ES 1022y Engineering Statics Centre of Gravity and Centroids
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ES 1022y Engineering Statics Centre of Gravity and Centroids
Example Problem
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ES 1022y Engineering Statics Centre of Gravity and Centroids
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ES 1022y Engineering Statics Centre of Gravity and Centroids
Composite Bodies
A composite body consists of a series of connected ‘simpler’ shaped bodies, which may
be rectangular, triangular, semicircular, etc. If the weight and location of the centre of
gravity is known for each of these simpler shapes, the position of the centre of gravity for
the entire body can be found by considering each of the simpler shapes as a particle, and
following the procedure outlined earlier in this chapter.
a
c b
d
Consider the body shown above. This body can be divided into the following pieces:
a) a rectangle,
b) a triangle,
c) a quarter circle, and
d) a semicircle.
Note that if a composite part has a hole, the composite part is first considered without the
hole, before treating the hole as an additional composite part having negative weight or
size. Thus in the example above we would treat the composite body as though it were
rectangle (a) + triangle (b) + quarter circle (c) − semicircle (d).
• Divide the body into pieces that are known shapes. Holes are considered as pieces
with negative weight or size.
• Make a table with the first column for segment number, the second column for
weight, mass, or size (depending on the problem), the next set of columns for the
moment arms, and, finally, several columns for recording results of simple
intermediate calculations.
• Fix the coordinate axes, determine the coordinates of the center of gravity of centroid
of each piece, and then fill-in the table.
• Sum the columns to get x , y , and z . Use formulas like
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ES 1022y Engineering Statics Centre of Gravity and Centroids
Example Problem
Locate the centroid of the concrete beam having the tapered cross section shown.
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ES 1022y Engineering Statics Centre of Gravity and Centroids
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ES 1022y Engineering Statics Centre of Gravity and Centroids
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