CE 231/ES 033

RESULTANTS OF
FORCE SYSTEMS:
COUPLES
CAN YOU IDENTIFY THE
COUPLE FORCE FROM
THESE IMAGES?
 A couple refers to two
parallel forces that are equal in
magnitude, opposite in sense and do
not share a line of action.

DEFINITION A better term is force couple or pure

moment.

Its effect is to create rotation without

translation or, more generally, without
any acceleration of the centre of mass.
Couple Effects
Couple is independent of the moment center, thus,
the effect is unchanged in the following conditions:

• The couple is rotated through any angle in its plane.

• The couple is shifted to any other position in its
plane.
• The couple is shifted to a parallel plane.
Magnitude of Couples
Problem Example
A force system consists of a clockwise couple of 480 N·m plus a 240 N force
directed up to the right through the origin of X and Y axes at θx = 30°.
Replace the given system by an equivalent single force and compute the
intercepts its line of action with the X and Y axes.
Thus, the equivalent single force is 240 N parallel to the given one and
at a distance d = 2 m from O. The intercepts of this single force are A(-
4, 0) and B(0, 2.31). answer