STATIC FORCE ANALYSIS

Todeti. Somasekhara Rao

Assistant Professor
Room No. 414,
Department of mechanical Engineering,
NITK Surathkal
Mangalore 575025
ssrao@nitk.edu.in
 Introduction
• The general function of any machine is to transmit motion and forces from an actuator to the
components that perform the desired task.
• Consider an escalator used in many commercial buildings: Electrical power is fed into motors,
which drive mechanisms that move and fold the stairs.
• The task is to safely and efficiently move people up and down multilevel buildings.
• A critical task in the design of machines is to ensure that the strength of the links and joints is
sufficient to withstand the forces imposed on them.
• Therefore, a full understanding of the forces in the various components of a machine is vital.
• A machine is a device that performs work by transferring energy by means of mechanical
forces from a power source to a driven load.

David H. Myszka, MACHINES AND MECHANISMS

 Introduction
• It is necessary in the design of a mechanism to know the manner in which forces are
transmitted from the input to the output so that the components of the mechanism can be
properly sized to withstand the stresses induced.
• If the links are not designed to be strong enough, failure will occur during operation.
• If the machine is overdesigned to have much more strength than required, then it may not be
competitive with other machines in terms of cost, size, weight, or power requirements.
• All links have mass, and if the links are accelerating, there will be inertia forces associated with
this motion.
• If the magnitudes of these inertia forces are small relative to the externally applied loads, then
they can be neglected in the force analysis.
• Such an analysis is referred to as a static force analysis and is the topic of this lecture.
Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms/
 Introduction
• We are now ready for a study of the dynamics of machines and systems.
• Such a study is usually simplified by starting with the statics of such systems.
• Forces are transmitted between machine members through mating surfaces-that is, from a
gear to a shaft or from one gear through meshing teeth to another gear, from a connecting rod
through a bearing to a lever, from a V-belt to a pulley, from a cam to a follower, or from a brake
drum to a brake shoe.
• It is necessary to know the magnitudes of these forces for a variety of reasons.

pennock, dicker, shigley, theory of machines and mechanisms

 Introduction
• An inertial force results from any accelerations present in a linkage.
• This chapter deals with force analysis in mechanisms without accelerations, or where the
accelerations can be neglected.
• This condition is termed static equilibrium.
• Static equilibrium is applicable in many machines where the changes in movement are gradual
or the mass of the components is negligible.
• These include clamps, latches, support linkages, and many hand-operated tools, such as pliers
and cutters.

David H. Myszka, MACHINES AND MECHANISMS

 Introduction
• For example, during the normal operation of a forklift, the static loads on the forks far exceed
any dynamic loads due to accelerating masses; thus, a static force analysis can be justified.
• On the other hand, if you are analyzing the connecting rod of an air compressor running at
high speed, the inertia forces far exceed the static forces.
• A static force analysis could be used for the initial size of the connecting rod, but a dynamic
force analysis would be required to verify you have properly sized the connecting rod.
• An analysis that includes the inertia effects is called a dynamic force analysis and will be
covered in the next lecture.
• Another assumption that is often made is that frictional forces are negligible.
• Another assumption deals with the rigidity of the linkage components.

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Introduction
• Machines are used to apply mechanical force, energy, or power for useful purposes.
• However, mechanisms are used to transmit and apply force, as well as to generate desired
motions.
• In many applications, the motion is unimportant, usually because it is slow.
• What is important is the application of force. The simplest and original “machines” transmitted
force from an input location to an output location while magnifying or diminishing it.
• Examples are the first- and second-order levers, wedges, and pulley mechanisms.
• These are usually regarded as static machines.

Kenneth waldron, kinematics, dynamics, and design of machinery

 Introduction
• Many other forms of machines can be analyzed by the methods of statics because they
function without motion, or because the velocities of their motions are small enough that
dynamic effects can be neglected.
• Examples are many types of clamps, pliers, and cutter jacks, winches, and other heavy lifting
devices and many kinds of latches and toggles.
• Further, many machines require structural supports such as brackets, beams, frames, and
trusses.
• The design analysis of these mechanisms and their associated structures depends on static
force analysis.

Kenneth waldron, kinematics, dynamics, and design of machinery

 Introduction
• A further powerful motivation for pursuing static or dynamic force analysis is that conversion
of a kinematic design into a real, physical mechanism design requires consideration of the
loads on components, and the stresses and deflections of those components.
• The loads on each member of a machine are usually of great interest to the machine designer
because it is the engineer's responsibility to select the material to be used and to size the
component so that it can safely resist those loads.
• The output of the static force analysis typically yields the forces and moments to be applied to
models of the individual components for subsequent finite element analysis to identify failure
situations either involving sufficient dimensional change to cause malfunction, or by
permanent deformation or fracture.

Kenneth waldron, kinematics, dynamics, and design of machinery

 Forces
• A force is a vector that has a definite line of action on a given link of the mechanism but not
necessarily a definite point of application.
• Two forces that have intersecting lines of action can be summed into a single, equivalent force
as shown in Figure 14.1.
• The resultant force will act along a line that passes through the point of intersection and lies in
the plane defined by the two force vectors.

Kenneth waldron, kinematics, dynamics, and design of machinery

 Couple
• If two forces are equal and opposite but not collinear, the two forces cannot be resolved into a
single force, but they still have an effect on the body to which they are applied.
• The vector sum of the two equal and opposite forces will be zero.
• The moment of a couple is independent of the point of application.
• It is a free vector that can be assumed to be applied anywhere on the body of interest.
• Also, the magnitude and direction are independent of how r is chosen.

Kenneth waldron, kinematics, dynamics, and design of machinery

 Moments
• The moment generated about a point by a single force, as shown in Figure 14.3

Kenneth waldron, kinematics, dynamics, and design of machinery

 Forces, Moments, Couple
• If a force and a couple (F and M) are applied to a rigid body, the system can be replaced by a
single force such that the force will have the same effect on the system as the original force
and couple.
• The new force vector will be equal to the original force vector but offset relative to the line of
action of the original force vector by the normal distance h.

Kenneth waldron, kinematics, dynamics, and design of machinery

 Free body diagrams
• The first step in any static analysis of a mechanism is the construction or, more usually,
sketching of a free-body diagram of each member of the mechanism.
• All forces acting on each member, including the forces of action and reaction between the
members, as well as externally applied loads, must be indicated on the free-body diagram.

Kenneth waldron, kinematics, dynamics, and design of machinery

 Free body diagrams

Kenneth waldron, kinematics, dynamics, and design of machinery

 Free body diagrams

Kenneth waldron, kinematics, dynamics, and design of machinery

 Forces, Moments, and Free Body Diagrams
• A force is a vector quantity.
• it has a magnitude with units and a direction.
• In 2-D, a force can be represented by F = (Fx,Fy ), where Fx and Fy are the components of the
force in the x and y directions.
• A torque or moment, T, is defined as the moment of the force about a point and is also a
vector quantity.
• We can calculate the torque or moment using the cross product, where
• T = r × F or T =r F sinθ between ⊥to r and F .

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 FREE-BODY DIAGRAMS
• To fully understand the safety of a machine, all forces that act on the links should be examined.
• It is widely accepted that the best way to track these forces is to construct a freebody diagram.
• A free-body diagram is a picture of the isolated part, as if it were floating freely.
• The part appears to be floating because all the supports and contacts with other parts have
been removed.
• All these supports and contacts are then replaced with forces that represent the action of the
support.
• Thus, a free-body diagram of a part shows all the forces acting on the part.

David H. Myszka, MACHINES AND MECHANISMS

 FREE-BODY DIAGRAMS
• The following steps can assist in systematically drawing a free-body diagram:
I. Isolate the component(s) that must be studied.
II. Draw the component as if it were floating freely in space by removing all visible supports
and physical contact that it has with other objects.
III. Replace the supports, or physical contacts, with the appropriate force and/or moments,
which have the same effect as the supports.

David H. Myszka, MACHINES AND MECHANISMS

 STATIC EQUILIBRIUM
• For an object to be in static equilibrium, the following two necessary and sufficient conditions
must be met:
• Condition I: The combination, or resultant, of all external forces acting on the object is
equivalent to zero and does not cause it to translate. Mathematically, the first condition
of equilibrium can be summarized as ΣF = 0.
• Condition II: The moment due to any external force is canceled by the
moments of the other forces acting on the object and do not
cause it to rotate about any point. The second condition of
equilibrium can be mathematically summarized as ΣMA = 0
The location of point A is arbitrary.

David H. Myszka, MACHINES AND MECHANISMS

STATIC EQUILIBRIUM
 Two force member

pennock, dicker, shigley, theory of machines and mechanisms

 Two force member

pennock, dicker, shigley, theory of machines and mechanisms

 Three force member

pennock, dicker, shigley, theory of machines and mechanisms

 Three force member

pennock, dicker, shigley, theory of machines and mechanisms

 ANALYSIS OF A TWO-FORCE MEMBER
• A special case of equilibrium, which is of considerable interest, is that of a member that is
subjected to only two forces.
• This type of machine component is termed a two-force member.

• In order for a two-force member to be in equilibrium the two forces must:

1. Have the same magnitude,
2. Act along the same line, and
3. Be opposite in sense.

David H. Myszka, MACHINES AND MECHANISMS

 EXAMPLE PROBLEM
• Figure 13.12 shows a mechanism used to crush rocks. The 60-mm mechanism crank is moving
slowly, and inertial forces can be neglected. In the position shown, determine the torque
required to drive the 60-mm crank and crush the rocks.

David H. Myszka, MACHINES AND MECHANISMS

 SOLUTION

David H. Myszka, MACHINES AND MECHANISMS

 SOLUTION

David H. Myszka, MACHINES AND MECHANISMS

 SOLUTION

David H. Myszka, MACHINES AND MECHANISMS

 SOLUTION

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a 4 bar mechanism
• Free body diagrams (FBD) are extremely important and useful in a force analysis (Figure 7.1).
• A FBD is a sketch of a part showing all forces and moments or torques acting on it.

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a 4 bar mechanism
• The first step in a successful force analysis is the identification of the FBD for each of the parts
used in the mechanism with the appropriate force, moments, angles, and distances defined
(see Figure 7.2).

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a 4 bar mechanism
• For a part to be in static equilibrium, the vector sum of all forces acting on the part must be
zero and the vector sum of all moments about an arbitrary point must also be zero.
• If the XY plane is designated as the plane of loading, then the static force analysis equations
are

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a 4 bar mechanism
• For a part to be in static equilibrium, the vector sum of all forces acting on the part must be
zero and the vector sum of all moments about an arbitrary point must also be zero.
• If the XY plane is designated as the plane of loading, then the static force analysis equations
are

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a 4 bar mechanism
• Link 3 is a two-force member(forces applied at just two locations).

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a 4 bar mechanism
• the force at each application point must be pointed toward the other force application point
(see Figure 7.3).
• The only way the sum of the moments about any point can be zero is if the two forces are
along the same line and in opposite directions.
• Therefore, F23 is at angle θ3, and F34 (same magnitude as F23) is at angle (θ3 + 180 ).
• If link 3 was not a two-force member, then this statement would not be true.

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a 4 bar mechanism
• Look at the FBD for link 2 (Figure 7.4).

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a 4 bar mechanism
• we see that F12 and F23 must be the same magnitude and in
opposite directions; otherwise, the vector sum of the forces would
not equal zero.
• If you didn’t realize this, then force F12 should be written as its x and
y components, F12x and F12y.
• Newton’s third law states that for each action, there is an equal and
opposite reaction.
• Therefore, F23 on link 2’s FBD must be at an angle of (θ3 + 180 ).
• This makes F12 at an angle of θ3.

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a 4 bar mechanism
• Forces F12 and F23 form a couple moment whose magnitude is equal to one of the forces
times the perpendicular distance between the two forces.
• Note that the third term in the moment equation contains a negative sign because the cos(θ2)
is negative and the force component creates a positive moment.
• Summing moments about the fixed bearing leads to

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a 4 bar mechanism
• Examine the FBD of link 4 (see Figure 7.5).

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a 4 bar mechanism
• We know the direction of force F34.
• We are typically given the direction of the load force, Fload.
• What we don’t know is the direction of the force, F14.
• In this case, it is better to show the x and y components of force, F14.
• This will allow the force F14x to be in the sum of the forces in the x-direction and F14y to be in
• the sum of the forces in the y-direction equation:

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a 4 bar mechanism
• We know the direction of force F34.
• We are typically given the direction of the load force, Fload.
• What we don’t know is the direction of the force, F14.
• In this case, it is better to show the x and y components of force, F14.
• This will allow the force F14x to be in the sum of the forces in the x-direction and F14y to be in
• the sum of the forces in the y-direction equation:

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a slider–crank mechanism
• The following slider–crank mechanism has two external forces applied: one at the slider and
• one on the connecting link, link 3 (see Figure 7.10).
• Link 3 is no longer a two-force member so we do not know the directions of the pin forces at
either of its ends.

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a slider–crank mechanism
• Since we do not know the direction of the pin force between links 2 and 3, we do not know the
direction of the pin force at the fixed bearing on the left.
• The direction of the horizontal and vertical force components is arbitrary, but once a
component is drawn, the next time it shows up on a FBD it must be drawn in the opposite
direction.

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a slider–crank mechanism
• The FBD for link 2 (Figure 7.11) and its static equilibrium equations follows:

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a slider–crank mechanism
• Draw the FBD for link 3 (see Figure 7.12).
• However, if we draw link 3 so that it is located in the first quadrant where the sine and cosine
are both positive, it is easier to write the static equilibrium equations (see Figure 7.13).

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a slider–crank mechanism
• Draw the FBD for link 3 (see Figure 7.12).
• However, if we draw link 3 so that it is located in the first quadrant where the sine and cosine
are both positive, it is easier to write the static equilibrium equations (see Figure 7.13).
• Note that F23x and F23y are in the opposite direction compared to these forces shown on link
2’s FBD:

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a slider–crank mechanism
• Now, draw the FBD for the slider, link 4 (Figure 7.14), and then write the static equilibrium
equations:

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a slider–crank mechanism
Problem: For the slider–crank mechanism shown in Figure 7.15, determine the forces at each of
the pins and the input torque for static equilibrium. The fixed bearing is 30 mm above the slider
pin. The input link, link 2, is 100 mmlong and currently at 35 . The coupler link, link 3, is 350 mm
long. The external force, Fout, is 100 N. The vertical force, F2, is 64 N and is located 40 mm from
the bearing between links 2 and 3.

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Static force analysis of a slider–crank mechanism

Michael Rider, Design and Analysis of mechanisms

 Problem

pennock, dicker, shigley, theory of machines and mechanisms