ELEMENTS OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

AND ENGINEERING MECHANICS

MODULE 1
INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING
MECHANICS
I Semester,
Department of Civil Engineering,
Sapthagiri College of Engineering, Bengaluru.
 Engineering Mechanics

 Mechanics is a branch of the physical sciences that is

concerned with the state of rest or motion of bodies
subjected to the action of forces

 Engineering mechanics applies the principle of mechanics

to design , taking into account the effect of forces. It is
useful when it comes to analysing stress, designing of
machine structures and hydraulics
BRANCHES OF MECHANICS
STATICS
KINEMATICS
RIGID
BODIE
S DYNAMICS
. KINETICS
SOLIDS

STRENGTH OF
MATERIALS
DEFORMAB THEORY OF
LE BODIES ELASTICITY
THEORY OF
PLASTICITY
IDEAL
FLUIDS

VISCOUS
FLUIDS
FLUIDS

COMPRESSIBLE
FLUIDS
 Mechanics of Rigid Bodies- It is the branch of science which deals with
the study of bodies that do not undergo any deformation under the
application of forces.

 Statics- Deals with the study of the behavior of particles or bodies in the
state of rest.

 Dynamics- Deal with the study of particles or bodies in the state of

motion.
 Basic Idealizations
1.PARTICLE-
 A particle has mass but no shape and dimensions
 It is a body of negligible dimensions
 In the mathematical sense, a particle is a body whose dimensions are
considered to be near zero so that we may analyze it as a mass
concentrated at a point
Example:
 Rotation of earth in solar system
 Aerospace in the sky
 A ship in the mid sea
 2.Continuum

 A body is made up of several particles like atoms and molecules.

Here the body is assumed to be made up of continuous distribution
of matter. Such continuous distribution of matter in the body is
treated as continuum. This continuum helps us to treat the body as
rigid

 This idealization is valid as long as the size of the system we deal

with is large relative to the space between the molecules
 3.Rigid body
 A body which does not undergo any deformation on the
application of forces is called rigid body.

 It will regain its size and shape and the distance between
any two particles in the body will not change.

4.Point force
Point force is a force which occupy the space which is
confined to a point.

Eg- Weight of the man standing on the ladder.

 Forces

Force is a useful and simple way of

describing a very complex physical
interactions between bodies

A force is the action of one body on

another body which changes or tends to
change the motion of the body acted on
 Force is characterized by,
 Point of application

 Magnitude

 Direction

 Hence, force is represented by a vector

 From newton’s third law of motion,

force always exists in pairs
 System of Forces

When a mechanics
problem or system has
more than one force acting,
it is known as a ‘force
system’ or ‘system of
force’
Coplanar Force System - When the
lines of action of a set of forces lie in a
single plane is called coplanar force
system
Coplanar concurrent force system- If 2 or more
forces are acting in a single plane and their lines of
action passes through single point, it is said to be
coplanar concurrent force system.

Coplanar non-concurrent force system- If 2 or more

forces acting in a single plane and their line of action do
not meet at common point, its known as coplanar non
concurrent force system
Coplanar Parallel force system- If 2 or more forces
acting in a single plane and their line of action parallel to
one another, its known as coplanar parallel force system

Like Parallel Force – All forces acts parallel to one

another and their line of action is in same direction.

Unlike Parallel Force – All forces acts parallel

to one another and their line of action is in
different direction.
Non coplanar force system- If two or more
forces acting in different planes, the forces
constitute a non coplanar force system.
Non coplanar concurrent force
system- If two or more forces acting in
different planes but passes through same
point.

Non coplanar non- concurrent force system- If two

or more forces acting in different planes but do not

passes through the same point.

Non coplanar parallel force system- If two or
more forces acting in different planes and
parallel to one another.
 PRINCIPLES OF MECHANICS

Physical Independence of forces

It states that “ the action of a force on a body is not affected by the

action of any other force on the body”
 PRINCIPLE OF SUPERPOSITION OF FORCES

This principle states that the combined effect of force system acting on
a particle or a rigid body is the sum of effects of individual forces
PRINCIPLE OF TRANSMISIBILITY OF FORCES

This principle states that “ a force can be transmitted from one point to
another point along the same line of action such that the effect
produced by the force on a body remains unchanged”.
Newton’s law of motion
First law – It states that “ every body continues in the state of rest or
in uniform motion in a straight line unless and until it is acted upon by
external agent called force”. This is also called law of inertia.
 Newton’s law of motion

Second law – It states that “ the rate of change of momentum of a

body is directly proportional to the applied force and takes place in the
direction of force”
Force  rate of change of momentum
momentum = mass * velocity
Force = mass * rate of change of velocity
Force = m * (v/t)
Force = mass * acceleration
i.e, F  m*a
Third law – It states that “ for every action there is equal and
opposite reaction”.
Newton’s Law of Graviation- The force of attraction between any two bodies is
directly proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the
distance between them.
 Moment of forces
 It is the rational effect of force at any point and may be clockwise or
anticlockwise in direction.

 Moment of force about a point is defined as “ the product of magnitude of

force and perpendicular distance of the line of action of forces from the
same point i.e moment centre”.
TYPES OF MOMENTS
 Couple
 Two parallel forces equal in magnitude and opposite in direction and
separated by a definite distance are said to form a couple

 The perpendicular distance between parallel force is called Arm of couple

or lever arm.
Moment of couple-It is the product of magnitude of either one of forces and the
perpendicular distance between the parallel forces..
Moment of couple= F*d
 Characteristics of Couple
 A couple consists of a pair of equal and opposite parallel forces which are
separated by a definite distance.

 The sum of all the forces forming a couple in any direction is zero.

 The translator effect of a couple on the body is zero.

 The rotational effect (moment) of a couple about any point is a constant

and is equal to the product of the magnitude of the forces and the
perpendicular distance between the two forces.
 Since the effect of couple is a moment and this moment is the same
about any point, the effect of a couple is unchanged if:

 The couple is rotated through any angle

 The couple is shifted by any other position

 The couple is replaced by another pair of forces whose rotational

effects are the same.
EQUIVALENT FORCE COUPLE SYSTEM
Equivalent force and couple system

 It is the combination of force passing through a given point and the moment
about the same point. The force is the resultant of all the forces acting on a
body and the moment is the sum of moments of all the forces about the same
point.
 Equivalent system consists of:
1. A single resultant force R through the point
2. The sum of moments of all the forces acting on the given body about the same.
RESOLUTION OF FORCES
It is splitting up of single force into horizontal and vertical components or It is the splitting
up of single force into mutually perpendicular forces.
Composition of forces-
It is finding of single resultant force of a number of given forces acting on a body
or particle.

Resultant- It is defined as “ a single force which can replace the given force system without
changing the net effect on the body or particle”.
Composition of coplanar concurrent Force system
 Law of Parallelogram of forces-

 Statement- It states that “if two forces are acting simultaneously on a body at a point
that are represented both in magnitude and direction by two adjacent sides of a
parallelogram, then the resultant is represented by both magnitude and direction by
the diagonal of parallelogram which passes from point of intersection of two sides of
parallelogram”.
Consider two forces F1 and F2 .Let the angle between F1 and F2 be ꬾ.
 Proof-
According to this law,
 Triangle law-It states that “ if two forces are acting simultaneously
on a body that are represented both in magnitude and direction by
two adjacent sides of the triangle then their resultant is represented
both in magnitude and direction by the closing side of the triangle
taken from firdt point to the last point”.
 Polygon law- It states that “ if the number of forces acting simultaneously on a
body are represented both in magnitude and direction by the sides of polygon
taken in order, then their resultant is represented by the closing side of the polygon
both in magnitude and direction taken from first to the last point”.
Composition of Coplanar Non concurrent force system
 Forces acting in the same plane and not meeting at point are called
non-concurrent force system.
 Forces may be either parallel or non-parallel to each other or general
force system.
 Varignon’s theorem-
 Statement- “ If a number co-planar forces acting simultaneously on
a body then the algebraic sum of moments of all forces about a point
or moment centre is equal to the moment of the resultant force about
the same point or moment centre.

(F1*d1 )+ (F2*d2 )= R*d

 Proof- Let F1 and F2 be the two co-planar forces acting at a point.

Let R be the resultant of the forces