ELEMENT OF STATICS

The subdivision of mechanics that is concerned with the force that act on bodies at
rest under equilibrium condition. It include force moment and equilibrium.
What is Statics?
Statics is the physics that treats objects at rest or objects in constant motion.
Define equilibrium
If a system of forces acting on a body, keeps the body in a state of rest then the
system of forces is said to be in equilibrium.
Equilibrium
Engineering statics is the study of rigid bodies in equilibrium so it’s appropriate to
begin by defining what we mean by rigid bodies and what we mean by
equilibrium.
A body is an object, possibly made up of many parts, which may be examined as a
unit. In statics, we consider the forces acting on the object as a whole and also
examine it in greater detail by studying each of its parts, which are bodies in their
own right. The choice of the body is an engineering decision based on what we are
interested in finding out. We might, for example, consider an entire high-rise
building as a body for the purpose of designing the building’s foundation, and later
consider each column and beam of the structure to ensure that they are strong
enough to perform their individual roles.
A rigid body is a body that doesn’t deform under load, that is to say, an object
which doesn’t bend, stretch, or twist when forces are applied to it. It is an
idealization or approximation because no objects in the real world behave this way;
however, this simplification still produces valuable information. You will drop the
rigid body assumption and study deformation, stress, and strain in a later course
called Strength of Materials or Mechanics of Materials. In that course, you will
perform analysis of non-rigid bodies, but each problem you do there will begin
with the rigid body analysis you will learn to do here.
A body in equilibrium is not accelerating. As you learned in physics, acceleration
is velocity’s time rate of change and is a vector quantity. For linear motion,
dv
a = dt

For an object in equilibrium a = 0 which implies that the body is either stationary
or moving with a constant velocity
EQUILIBRIUM OF PARTICLES
The acceleration of an object is related to the net force acting on it by
Newton’s Second Law
ΣF = ma.
So for the special case of static equilibrium Newton’s Law becomes
ΣF = 0.
This simple equation is one of the two foundations of engineering statics. There are
several ways to think about this equation. Reading it from left to right it says that if
all the forces acting on a body sum to zero, then the body will be in equilibrium. If
you read it from right to left it says that if a body is in equilibrium, then all the
forces acting on the body must sum to zero. Both interpretations are equally valid
but we will be using the second one more often. In a typical problem equilibrium
of a body implies that the forces sum to zero, and we use that fact to find the
unknown forces which make it so. Remember that we are talking about vector
addition here, so the sums of the forces must be calculated using the rules of vector
addition; you won’t get correct answers if you can’t add vectors!
We’ll be using all of the different vector addition techniques, which may lead to
some confusion. It doesn’t matter, mathematically, which technique you use but
part of the challenge and reward of statics is learning to select the best tool for the
job at hand; to select the simplest, easiest, fastest, or clearest way to get to the
solution. You’ll do best in this course if can use multiple approaches to solve the
same problem.
We will add another requirement for equilibrium, namely equilibrium equation
which says the forces which cause rotational motion and angular acceleration α
also must sum to zero, but for the problems of this course the only condition we’ll
need for equilibrium is ΣF = 0.

A suspended weight
Drawing free-body diagrams can be surprisingly tricky. The reason for this is that
you must identify all the forces acting on the object and correctly represent them
on the free-body diagram. If you fail to account for all the forces, include
additional ones, or represent them incorrectly, your analysis will surely be wrong.
So what kind of analysis can we do here? Admittedly not much. We can find the
tension in the rope caused by a particular weight and use it to select an
appropriately strong rope, or we can determine the maximum weight a particular
rope can safely support.
The actual analysis is so trivial that you’ve probably already done it in your head,
nevertheless several ways to approach it will be shown next. In the vector approach
we will use the equation of equilibrium.
Example Vector Addition. Find the relationship between the tension in the rope
and the suspended weight for the system of Figure 3.3.1.
Answer.
T=W
We learn that the tension equals the weight.
Solution.
The free-body diagram shows two forces acting on the particle, and since the
particle is in equilibrium they must add to zero.
ΣF = 0
T+W=0
T = −W

ALTERNATIVELY, if the resultant of the force system is zero, then, the force
system is said to be in equilibrium.
Equilibrium of Concurrent, Coplanar Force Systems
 Newton’s First Law - If, and only if, an object’s “mass center” has zero
acceleration, then the sum of ALL of the forces acting on the object (body)
is zero.

 the entire body is at rest, so the mass center, has zero acceleration.

Concurrent, Coplanar Force System

What is coplanar force system?
The lines of action of all forces lie in a common plane.
What is concurrent force system?
The lines of action of all forces intersect at a common point.
Triangle Law: If three forces are in equilibrium, then, they form a closed triangle
when represented in a Tip to Tail arrangement, as shown in
LAMI’S THEOREM
Stated If a system of three forces is in equilibrium, then, each force of the system is
proportional to sine of the angle between the other two forces (and constant of
proportionality is the same for all the forces).

Note: While using Lami’s theorem, all the three forces should be either directed
away or all directed towards the point of concurrence.
6. Find magnitude and direction of F
7. What is translational Equilibrium?
The linear speed is not changing with time. There is no resultant force and
therefore zero acceleration. Translational equilibrium exists.
8. What is Rotational Equilibrium?
The angular speed is not changing with time. There is no resultant torque and,
therefore, zero change in rotational velocity. Rotational equilibrium exists.
9. Find the tension in ropes A and B.
Find the tension in A and B?
MOMENT OF A FORCE