Rigid bodies: Equivalent System

of forces
Objectives:
• Moment
• Couple
• Equivalence of System pf forces
 EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL FORCES

• Forces acting on rigid bodies

are divided into two groups:
- External forces
- Internal forces W

• External forces are shown in

a free body diagram.

v
• Internal forces, such as the
force between each wheel

v
and the axle it is mount on,
are never shown on a free
body diagram.
 PRINCIPLE OF TRANSMISSIBILITY:
EQUIVALENT FORCES
• The principle of
transmissibility
– Conditions of equilibrium or
motion are not affected if
• F acting at a given point of the rigid
body is replaced by a force F’ of
the same magnitude and same
direction, but acting at a different
point having the same line of
action
• F and F’ are called equivalent
forces
• based on experimental evidence.
 MOMENT OF A FORCE ABOUT A
POINT
• In addition to move the body,
force has a tendency to rotate a
body about an axis.
• This tendency is called moment
of a force or torque

=F
 
 CONTD.
• Principle of transmissibility
– states that two forces F and F’ are equivalent if
they have the same magnitude, same direction
and same line of action
• The necessary and sufficient conditions for
two forces F and F’ to be equivalent are

F=F’ M0=M0’
 VARIGNON’S THEOREM
F2

• the moment about a given point O

of the resultant of several F1
concurrent forces is equal to the F3
sum of the moments of the various
forces about the same point O
• The distributive property of vector
used to prove it
• direct determination of the
moment of a force F by the
determination of the moments of
two or more component forces.
 Problem 1

The rectangular plate is supported by

the brackets at A and B and by a wire
CD. Knowing that the tension in the
wire is 200 N, determine the moment
about A of the force exerted by the
wire at C.
Ref: Beer and Johnston, Vector Mechanics for Engineers
 Problem 1…
  
M A  rC A  F
    
rCA  rC  rA   
0.3 m  i   0.08 m  k
  rC D
F  F    200 N 
rC D
  
  0.3 m  i   0.24 m  j   0.32 m  k
  200 N 
0.5 m
  
   120 N  i   96 N  j   128 N  k
  
i j k

M A  0.3 0 0.08
 120 96  128
   
M A    7.68 N  m  i   28.8 N  m  j   28.8 N  m  k
Ref: Beer and Johnston, Vector Mechanics for Engineers
MOMENT OF A FORCE ABOUT A GIVEN AXIS
• Scalar moment MOL about an axis OL
is the projection of the moment vector
   M O    r  F 
    
MO onto the axis, M OL
 Moment of a Couple
• Two equal and opposite forces offset by distance
• Opening the bottle cap, steering wheel
• Moment of the couple,
Resolution of a Force Into a Force at O and a
Couple

A F A F A
M0
r r

-F

• Force vector F can not be simply moved to O without modifying its

action on the body.

• Attaching equal and opposite force vectors at O produces no net

effect on the body.
• These forces may be replaced by an equivalent force vector and
couple vector, i.e, a force-couple system.
 Reduction of a system of forces to a force-couple system
• any system of forces can be reduced to a force-couple system at a given point O by
first replacing each of the forces of the system by an equivalent force-couple
system at O

A F1 A FR
F1 M1
r1

v
F2 v
r2 F2 v

M2 MR

Once a given system of forces has been reduced to a force and a

couple at a point O, it can easily be reduced to a force and a
FR
couple at another point O’.
′
 𝑀 𝑅 = 𝑀 𝑅 + s × 𝐹 𝑅
❑
s
v

M’R
 Equivalence systems of forces
• As rigid bodies are concerned, two systems of
forces , F 1 , F 2 , F 3 , . . . And F 1’ , F2’ ,
F3’ , are equivalent if, and only if ,
 Special Case: Reduction to Single Resultant
Force

• Force perpendicular to couple vector

• Concurrent forces
• Coplanar forces
• Parallel forces

14
 REDUCTION OF A SYSTEM OF FORCES TO A WRENCH
• In the general case of a system of forces in space, the equivalent force and an
equivalent couple vector
• The couple vector, however, can be replaced by two other couple vectors
• Perpendicular and Parallel to R
• Component perpendicular to the force R can then be replaced by a single force
R acting along a new line of action.
• The original system of forces thus reduces to R and to the couple vector, R and a
couple acting in the plane perpendicular to R .
• This particular force-couple system is called a wrench.

R R
R
M0  
M  
M

 
M
 Problem

Determine the components of the

single couple equivalent to the
couples shown.
 Problem
represent these three couples by three
couple vectors Mx, My, and Mz directed
along the coordinate axes. The
corresponding moments are

M x  30 lb18 in.  540 lb  in.

M y  20 lb12 in.  240lb  in.
M z  20 lb9 in.  180 lb  in.

  
M    540 lb  in.  i   240lb  in.  j
 
  180 lb  in.  k
 Problem 2

   
M  M D   18 in.  j   30 lb  k
  
   9 in.  j   12 in.  k    20 lb  i
  
M   540 lb  in. i   240lb  in. j

  180 lb  in. k
 Reference
• Beer and Johnston: “Vector Mechanics for
Engineers: Statics and Dynamics”, 10th edition