Engineering Mechanics MEI 101

Introduction to Engineering Mechanics

Dr. Antarip Poddar

Department of Mechanical Engineering
IIT (ISM) Dhanbad
Email: antarip@iitism.ac.in
 What is Mechanics?
• Mechanics is the science which describes and predicts the conditions of rest or motion
of bodies under the action of forces.

• Engineering mechanics is the branch of engineering that applies the principles of

mechanics to design, which takes into account the effect of forces.

• Categories of Mechanics:
- Rigid bodies
- Statics
- Dynamics (kinematics/kinetics)
- Deformable bodies
- Fluids

Why do we study mechanics?

1. Application potentials are abundant
2. Foundation of most engineering sciences and an indispensable prerequisite to their study
 Fundamental Concepts
• Space - associated with position of a point P in terms of linear and angular
measurements relative to a reference point or origin.

• Time – measure of sequence of events. Definition of event requires

specification of time and position at which it occurred.
• Mass – quantity of matter in a body, also regarded as measure of inertia. e.g.,
response to earth’s gravitational attraction and resistance to changes in
translational motion.

• Force - represents the action of one body on another to change state of rest of
body to which it is applied. Force is characterized by its point of application,
magnitude, and direction, i.e., a force is a vector quantity.

In Newtonian mechanics, space, time, and mass are absolute concepts i.e. independent of each
other. Force, however, is not independent of the other three. The force acting on a body is
related to the mass of the body and the variation of its velocity with time.
 Idealization in Mechanics
• Continuum: Matter assumed to be continuously distributed without voids or
empty spaces.

• Particle: Mass of a body with negligible dimensions is concentrated at a point

i.e. volume → 0; entire mass is concentrated at a point.

• System of particles: Idealization of point masses, e.g. planetary system

• Rigid body: Distance between two arbitrary points is invariant. This implies that
it will not undergo any deformation under load, e.g. wheel of car, lever
supporting weights at its ends.
 System of Forces
System of Forces

Coplanar (plane) Non-coplanar (space)

Concurrent Non-concurrent Concurrent Non-concurrent

Parallel General Parallel General

 Fundamental Principles
• Newton’s First Law: If the resultant force on a particle
is zero, the particle will remain at rest or continue to
move in a straight line.
• Newton’s Second Law: A particle will have an
acceleration proportional to a nonzero resultant
applied force.
• Parallelogram Law  
F = ma
• Newton’s Third Law: The forces of action and reaction
between two particles have the same magnitude and
line of action with opposite sense.

• Newton’s Law of Gravitation: Two particles are

attracted with equal and opposite forces,
Mm GM
• Principle of Transmissibility F =G W = mg , g=
r2 R2
 Method to Solve Problems
• Problem Statement: • Solution Check:

List given data, specify what is to be

determined, and draw necessary figures (to - test for errors in reasoning by verifying that the
scale) showing all quantities involved. units of the computed results are correct

• Free-Body Diagrams:
Create separate diagrams for each of the
bodies involved with a clear indication of all
forces acting on each body.
- test for errors in computation by substituting
given data and computed results into previously
unused equations based on the six principles

• Fundamental Principles: - always apply experience and physical intuition to

assess whether results seem “reasonable”
The fundamental principles are applied to
express the conditions of rest or motion of each
body. The rules of algebra are applied to solve
the equations for the unknown quantities.
 References

Text book:
1. Vector Mechanics for Engineers by Beer and Johnston, McGraw Hill

References:
1. Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics by Irving Herman Shames
2. Engineering Mechanics by J.L. Meriam and L. Kraige
3. Engineering Mechanics by S. Timoshenko, D. H. Young, J. V. Rao and S. Pati