MOMENT ABOUT AN AXIS

RESULTANTS OF FORCE SYSTEMS

Moment about an Axis:

Consider the force passing through point A as shown in the figure.

The view from the y axis reveals that is perpendicular to the x axis and that
its line of action does not intersect the x axis. Therefore, the moment of
about the x axis is found as

where is the moment arm of the force with respect to the x axis. In this
case, the moment axis is pointing in the positive x direction as shown.
Similarly, the view from the x axis reveals that is perpendicular to the y
axis as well. Hence, the moment of about the y axis is found as

where is the moment arm of the force with respect to the y axis. In this
case, the moment axis is pointing in the negative y direction. Also as to be
expected, since is parallel to the z axis.

We can now expand this discussion to the case of calculating the

moment about an arbitrary line aa. Two commonly encountered cases are
described next.

Case 1: The line of action of the force is perpendicular to aa, and that the two lines
do not intersect each other.
In this case, the moment about aa is found as

(6)

An example of this case is shown in the figure where the line of action of the force is
in z direction and line aa is in xy plane; clearly, they are perpendicular to each other.

Case 2: The line of action of the force is NOT perpendicular to aa, and that the two
lines do not intersect each other.

In this case, the moment about aa is found in two steps using the vector approach.
First, the moment about a point lying on line aa is calculated as

Then, the projection of along line aa is found using the dot product

(Magnitude of the component)

The previous two equations can be combined into a triple scalar product as

(7)

If comes out negative, it simply means that its direction is opposite to that
defined by This projection can also be put in vector form as
(8)
 Resultants of Force Systems

Type of force system Possible resultant

Collinear Force
Concurrent, coplanar Force
Parallel, coplanar Force or a couple
Nonconcurrent, nonparallel, Force or a couple
coplanar
Concurrent, noncoplanar Force
Parallel, noncoplanar Force or a couple
Nonconcurrent, nonparallel, Force or a couple, or a force and a
noncoplanar couple

The resultant of a force system is the simplest force system which

can replace the original system without changing its external effect on a
rigid body. The resultant of a force system can be a single force, a couple
or a force and a couple.

Resultant of a Concurrent, Coplanar force system

F3
F2
R1,2

F1
O
 The resultant of a concurrent, coplanar force system is a single
force passing through the point of concurrence and that the force will be
completely determined when its magnitude, slope and sense are known.

From the parallelogram law, the magnitude of the resultant of the

system composed of the forces Rx and Ry is

And the slope of resultant is

In vector notation, the resultant is

Resultant of a Nonconcurrent, Coplanar force system

F2

R1,2

R
F1

F3

The resultant of a nonconcurrent coplanar force system is a single

force or a couple.

The angle between the x and the resultant can be obtained from the
relation

In vector notation, the resultant is

The location of a point on the action line of the resultant is

determined by the principle of moments
 Where d is the perpendicular distance from the moment axis
through O to the resultant force R. the direction from O to R is
determined from the sense of R and of ΣMo.

Resultant of a concurrent, Noncoplanar force system

The resultant of the any set of concurrent force must be a force (not
a couple or force and a couple) passing through the point of concurrence
of the forces of the system, and thus it becomes necessary to determine
only the magnitude and direction of the resultant.

In vector notation, the resultant is

Direction cosines:

Resultant of a Parallel, Noncoplanar force system

The resultant is a Force or a couple.