Force System

Resultants

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
• To discuss the concept of the moment of a force and show how to
calculate it in two and three dimensions.
• To provide a method for finding the moment of iI force about a
specified aKis.
• To define the moment of a couple.
• To present methods for detefTflining the resultants of nonconcurrent
force systems.
• To indicate how to reduce iI simple distributed loading to a resultant
,.,
force having a specified location.

4.1 Moment of a Force-

Scalar Formu lation
When a force is appl ied 10 a body il will prod ute II Icndcnq' fo r Ihc body
to rot:!IC about a poi nt thaI is not on thc lille of action of Ihc force. This ,> ,
tendency to rolMe is sometimes called a lOrI/III!. but most ofte n it is called
Ihc moment of a force or simply Ihc /lWIIII'Iil. For exa mple. !;onsidtT a
wrench used 10 unscrew the bolt in Fig. 4-10. If a force is applicd to the
handle of the wrench it will tend to turn lhe boll about point 0 (or the =
axis). The magni tude of the moment is directly propo rtionill to the
magnitude of .' and the perpendi cul ar distance or /IIQmelllllflll d. The
larger the fort't! or the longer the momenl ami. the greater the moment or
'*
turning effct:1. Note thilt if th e force F is appl ied at an angle 0 90".
Fig. 4-lb. then it will be more difficult 10 turn Ihe bolt sincc the moment
ami d' "" Ifsin8 will be smaller than d. lf F is applied along the wrench.
Fig. 4-1r. ils moment arm will be ze ro si nce the line of action of .' will
intersect point 0 (the =axis). As a result. the moment of .' about 0 is also
,<,
zero and no turning c~m occur. "1 ~. 4-1

117
 118 CH.6.~HR 4 FORCE SVSTE'-! RES ULTANTS

We can generalize the above discussion and consider the force ." and
"OO~ !lOint 0 whic h lie in the shaded pl:lne as shown in Fig. 4-211.111c moment
Mo about point O. or about an axis passing through 0 and perpendicular
10 th e plane. is a 1'«lor t{lIlllllil)' since it has a specified magnitude and
, dircction.

~l~
I' r Q,
Magnitude. The magnitude of Mo is

,., Sense: of rOlalion I*'0 - I Fd (4--1)

•
where" is the 1II<)1IIt:1If IlfIIl or flerpf'lIdirll/ar dUIIIIIC(' frOIl1 the asis at
point 0 10 the line of action of the forcc. Units of moment magnitude
consist of force times distancc. e.g.. N· III or lb· fl.

Direction . The direClion of Mo is defined by its mOil/till axis. which

,., is perpendicular to the plane that contains the forcc F and its moment
arm il. The right-hand rule is used to establish Ihe scnsc of dirc!;lion of
Moo According to this rule. the n:uural curl of the fingcrs of the right
hand. as they arc dr~wn towards the palm. represent the tendency for
rotation caused by the moment. As this action is perfonncd. th e thumb
of the righ t hand will give the directional sense of Ma. Fig. 4--20. Notiel.'
thaI the moment vector is represented thrce.dimensionalJ)' by a curl
around an arrow. In two dimensions this ,'cctor is rep rcsented only by
thc curl as in Fig. 4- 2b. Since in this case the mOll1l.'nl will tend to cause a
counterclockwise rotation. the moment vector is actuall~' directed OUi of
the page.

Resultant Moment. For tWO-di mensional problcms. where all the

forces lic within the .l-Y plane. Fig. 4- 3. the resultant moment (I\I/()"
about poinl 0 (the;: axis) can be! de termined by jilJl/illg Iltt illgehmic !.1I111

'" ",'"
oflhe moments caused by alllhe forces in the syslem. As a COIII'cnlion.
M, / '\. we will generally consider positi,.,! II/OIl/I'lIiS as cowllercfock ...ise since
they arc dirCded along Ihe positi ve z axis (OUI of the page). Clockwise
1II0lllelllS will be! /I('gll/;Vf. Doing th is. the dircctional senSC of each
------~O,_-----,
moment can be! represented by a (,irIS or II/ill/"~ sign. Using this sign
oon,'cnlion. the rcsultant moment in Fig. 4--3 is therefore

If tho:: numerical rCSult of th is sum is a positive scalar. (1\1/1)" will be a

counterclockwise moment (OUI of the page): and if the result is negative.
(M R )" will be a clockwise moment (into the page).
12 0 CHAPTER '" FORce Sn te M R esU l-TM H S

EXAMPLE 4.2

Determine th e rcsu1t:A nt moment of the four forces ac ti ng OIl the rod

shown in Fig. 4-5 about poinl 0 ,

SOLUTION
Ass uming Ihal posit iVI.' mo menlS act in lhe + k di rectio n, Le ..
oounlerc1ockwi sc. We ha\·e

(+ M It" = ::£. Fd:

"''ff4, = -50 N(2 ml + 60 N{U) + 20 N(3 sin 30° m)
- 40 N(4 m + 3 cos 30" m)
M f4, "" - 334 N · m = 334 N· m )

Fig. 4-5 For this calculMion. nolt: how lhc moment·aml dis tances for lhe 2o.N
and 4o.N fo rces arc est3blished fronl the eXlend ed (dashed) tines of
(I'lion of each of these forces.

As illu. t.-ted by t he exa mple problem.. the moment of a
force docs nOl "t"1I)'SC:l use~ rotalion . Forcx.~mplc.lhc force
f tcn.ls 10 rot31c Ibe beam clod"i~ abool ils suppo.1 at A
with ~ nlo nlent,ll " ., F,/". "The actual m tali<m "~lUld o<xur
iF Ihe sopport al B were renlovcd.
1bc abilil)' torenlo,'c the n3il " 'ill require the moment
of f l/ ~bout point 0 to be larger tban the mOlllent of
the force ~\ a!>out 0 th.l is RCCdcd to puU lbe nail out.