3B5 MECHANICS OF MACHINES 2020-2021

TUTORIAL Week 8
Accelerations in Linkages

Q1. For the four bar crank rocker mechanism shown below, draw the velocity
and acceleration diagrams and determine the linear velocities and
acceleration of B and C and the angular velocities and accelerations of all
the links. The crank AB is rotating clockwise at 40rads -1. AB = 20cm, AD =
80cm, BC = 50 and CD = 60. The crank AB makes an angle of 60° to the
horizontal.

Answers: vB = 8ms-1, aB = 320ms-2, vC = 2.45ms-1, aC = 407ms-2, ωBC =

14.4rads-1, ωCD = 4.29rads-1, αBC = 305rads-2, αCD = 683rads-2

1
Q2. From 2017 exam: A pedal and crank for a bicycle are shown.
⃗
F pedal

k⃗
i⃗

⃗j

Figure Q2

The crank arm length is 20cm and in the current configuration the right
hand crank arm makes an angle of 60 degrees to the horizontal ( i⃗ ). The
pedal AB is 10cm long. If the crank has an anticlockwise angular
velocity of ω=10rad/s and a clockwise angular acceleration of
α=100rad/s2, calculate the direction and magnitude of the relative linear
acceleration of the crank end A with respect to the crank root at C.

[Ans: acceleration = 28.8m/s2 at 15 degrees to horizontal]

2
Q3. For the slider crank mechanism shown below, the crank length OB is
50mm and the connecting rod length is 100mm. The current crank angle
is 70 degrees as shown. The crank angular velocity ω 1 is 10rad/s and
the crank angular acceleration is α 1 is 50rad/s2 as shown by the arrows
below. Do a kinematic analysis to get the following results:

m m m
a G 1 x= 2 ; a G 1 y= 2 ; a G 2 x= 2 ;
s s s

m rad m
a G 2 y = 2 ; α 2= 2 ; a G 3 x = 2 ;
s s s

3
A

m m m
[Ans: a G 1 x =−2.05 a =−1.95 2 ; a G 2 x =−2.7 2 ;
2 ; G1 y
s s s

m rad m
a G 2 y =−1.9 2;
α 2=96 2 ; a G 3 x =−1.2 2 ]
s s s

3
Q4. From 2015 Exam: Consider the tackled rugby player on the left with the
crown (top) of the head at A and the base of the head at B .

Assume that the player’s head moves only in the XY plane and that the
following kinematic information is available from video analysis:

1. | AB| = 20cm. The line AB makes an angle of 35∘ to the horizontal.

2. ⃗v A =2 m/s (downwards) and ⃗v b=1 m/s at 20 degrees to the X axis.

3. a⃗ A=20 m/ s2 (upwards).

4. α⃗ A=100 rad /s 2 (clockwise as shown).

Find the approximate direction and magnitude of the linear acceleration of

the head mass centre for the tackled player.

[Ans: head cg acceleration = 26m/s2 at 140 degrees to horizontal]