Unit 9B

Acceleration diagrams

Contents

1 AnaIy818 of 8lngI0 and oompwnd link# In planar motion 21

1.1 Grounded link 21
1.1.1 Constant angular velocity 21
1.1.2 Link with angular acceleration 23
1.1.3 Compound links 25
1.2 Link not grounded 25
1.2.1 Link moving with angular acceleration 25
1.2.2 Lid sliding on a fucd link 27
1.3 Summary of Section 1

2 A ~ I y 8 1 8d cornpie& p l a ~ meehanlmm
r
2.1 Four-link chain
2.1.1 Position diagram and velocity analysis
2.1.2 Acceleration analysis
2.2 Sliderxrank mechanism
2.2.1 Position diagram and velocity analysis
2.2.2 Acceleration analysis
2.3 More SAQs

3.1 The rules employed 38

3.2 Procedure for the construction of acceleration diagrams 39
3.3 Summary 39
Alms
The aims of this Unit am.
To extend your experience of kinematic analysis of simple planar
mechanisms to indude acceleration.
To prsscnt a graphical method of determining the linear and angular
~ccelemtionsof the components of simple mechanisms.

Objectives
After working through this Unit you should be able to:
Calculate the two components of absolute aderation a,,,, and 4, for
points on a rotating crank modcUcd as a rigid link, and specify i,and
&,(SA@ 1, 3, 5, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15).
Calculate the two components of acceleration (a*, and a,) for any one
point relative to another, for points on a non-grounded rigid link which
is rotating and translating, and specify h,, and I,(SAQs 12, 13,14,
IS).
Draw acceleration diagrams for single links, to include links (both
simple and compound) which rotate and translate, and links which only
slide in a straight path on a 6 x 4 link (SAQs 2, 3.4, 5, 7. 8).
Use the acceleration diagram procedure to draw accdention diagram
for simpk complete mechanisms (SAQs 11.1213.14. 15).
Interpret acceleration diagrams to give the absolute accekration for
any point, the relative acceleration between any two points, and the
angular acceleration of any rotating link (SA@ 9, 12, 13, 14, 15).

Notation
1 Vector quuntities are p ~ t in4 bold type, in italics, and with a
horizontal bar over the top:
a angular d e r a t i o n vector
h, angular velocity vector
(h)c vector for acceleration of point B relative to point C
(h), vector for the velocity of point B relative to point C
8, absolute acceleration vector for point B
2 Scalar qwtities are printed (not bold) in italics and without a bar:
a magnitude of angular acceleration.
o magnitude of angular velocity.
( a ) magnitude of acceleration for point B relative to point C
3 tcrbels for position diagrams. Key points are IabeUed with u p p c r ~
characters, for example:
B, C, D. etc.
Refema axes for position are labelled 0,X, y
Note that in this Unit 9B axes O x y are often Earth-fixed, in contrast
to Unit 9A where X Y aies are Earth-6x4 and xy axes move
relative to the X Y axes.
4 Lobcls for accebatbn diagrams. Key points m labelled with lower-
case charadcts. for example:
b, c, 4 etc.
Refema axes for acceleration are labeU4 o, a,, a,
Why is acceleration analysis of mechaaisms important? You already know
that to acalerate a particle of mass requires a force, and to accelerate
larger pieocs of mass such as links assembled to form a mechanism also
requires that a force or foras be applied. F o r m must be present in
systcma which have mass and which accelerate - Newton's Sccond Law of
Motion tells us that.
Ranember that the Sccond Law statcs that force is proportional to
acceleration and this means that more acceleration requires more force; M)
if a mechanism is constrained to move in such a manner that causes large
accelerationa, then large forces will be carried by at least some of the
components.
Hence you can sa that foras are preacnt in mechanisms which move and
accelerate, and therefore we have a design probkm: we must make sure
that all components arc capable of carrying the f o r m to which they are
subjected, reliably and without failure, and this is very much what
Enginering Mechanics is about.
Consider the everyday example of an internal combustion engine in a
motor car. Each piston rcciprocatcs in a cylinder, and is comected to a
rotating shaft - the crankshaft - by a comccting rod, more commonly
called a con-rod Gas pressure on the piston forces it downward, pushing
on the con-rod, which in turn pushes on the crankshaft, causing it to
rotate. The crankshaft is linked to a pair of road wheels which rotate and
push on the ground and thus the car is caused to move.
This piston, con-rod, crankshaft assembly is an example of the
slider-crank mechanism which you haw already met in Unit 6 and for
which you performed a graphical velocity analysis. Remember that you
drew velocity diagram for many mechanisms, including this one.
Now supposc we are told what gas pnsswe is applied to the piston, would
that be sufficient to estimate all the forces needed when designing the
slider-crank system?
No. We must remember that the engine is not static, components rotate
and often at very high speeds, and even if the rotational speed of the crank
is constant and of medium magnitude the acalerations caused by the
constrained motion can be very substantial, causing considerable loads to
be carried by each component (piston, con-rod and crank). These forces
can be very much greater than thosc from gas pnssure. on the piston.
So we can see that acceleration analysis is a prerequisite for estimating
forces as part of the design process, but which way shall we go about doing
this?
With the help of computers such as those available to us on our desktop
today, we could readily modd the motion of mechanisms mathematically
by a sct of equations. With appropriate boundary conditions applied, we
could find displacement, velocity, and aca1eration at various stages
throughout the motion and thus p a complete picture of the kinematics,
but perhaps without much understanding or 'feel' for what is going on.
Whilst this method is perfectly appropriate for usc by experienced
engineers, we have choscll not to adopt it in this course. Instead, we shall
use a graphical method as we did in Unit 6 for velocity analysis; for a
particular instant in the motion we shall draw an acceleration diagrmn
representing all of the acceleration components appropriate to our model.
We believe that the act of drawing these diagrams is a discipline in itscll,
which makes us think carefully about how the various components relate
to each other, and in particular we have to focus upon directions
(orientation and scnse) for all of the vectors we wish to represent by
drawing lines on paper.
19
Tbc essence of the technique is the knowledge ofthe motion of one end ofa
rigid link relative to the other end. In the casc of velocity analysis, as you
have already seem,there is only one component of velocity for one end
relative to the other, but as we shall sec, for acceleration analysis then are
in general two components.
First of all we shall consider the motion of a singk link moving in a plane,
and will formulate a set of rules for drawingits acceleration diagram. Then
we shall move on to analyse complete, though simple, planar mcchanims,
such as four-link chains and slider-crank mechanisms.
We shall not in this course deal with mechanisms containing links which
simultaneouslyslide and rotate; such mechanisms give rise to a component
of acceleration called the Coriolis oomponent T331, the third-level
Engineering Mechanics course, dcals with this and more complicated
(sometimes tlmdimcmional) Kinematic systems.
When you come to do some of the later SAQs (SAQs 12,13.14) you will
find it helpful to use the acceleration sheets (A sheets) which arc printed
separately.

It has not been possible to reprodua the scale drawings in this Unit with
100% accuracy; in general the text provides greater accuracy than the
drawings. I recommend that you aim for an accuracy of f0.5 mm and
kO.5" in drawing any line.
1 Analysis of slngle and compound
links in planar motion

1.1 Grounded link

1.1.1 Conatant angular v ~ I o o l ~
Figure 1 shows a link OB grounded at 0 and rotating at a constant
angular velocity of30 rad S-' clockwise. It could be a representation ofthe
crank of a car engine on slow tick-over.

Figure I Padrkm diagram W e : full size

SA0 1
What is the acceleration of point B relative to point O?

In this case we have only one component of acceleration and we must not
forget that it is a vector and therefore it has a direction associated with it.
Note that when I use the terms component of acceleration or acceleration
component, I am not referring to components or resolutes (another word
meaning the same as component) resolved in the X or y directions, since
thew directions are not convenient when dealing with mechanisms.
Instead, we use two other mutually perpendicular directions, one of which
is tangential to the path and the other perpendicular to the path, for the
point being considered and at the particular instant under consideration.
The special name given to that component which is in the direction
perpendicular to the path is centripetal component, and for point B is
denoted by ( 4 ) o c n

SA02
What is meant by the direction of a vector? Does it simply mean angular
orientation?

To draw an acceleration diagram for the vector representing the acceler-

ation of point B, (ZB),,,,, we start by drawing a set of coordinate axes in
the X and y directions, but note that we label these axes as a* and a,
because it is acceleration we are representing (Figure 2).
Point 0 on the position diagram (Figure I) has zero accekration since it is
grounded and so we label the origin of our axes on the accekration
diagram with lowercasc o to represent 0. Next we have to choose a a C
.. =d r 7
suitable scale, which in this case is I mm: l m s-2 and then we can draw
Jm
. s-2 7w
the vector aparallel to OB but in the sense of B towards 0 to represent b ob,, = 36 mm
(q)o.,,, which is directed towards 0 from B. Remember that centripetal
acceleration is always directed towards the centre of the circular path of
the motion.
Figure 2 shows this where point b on the acceleration diagram represents
the acceleration of point B on the position diagram, and vector
rep-ts (h),,.
Remember that points on the position diagram are marked with capital
letters, whereas lower-caac letters arc used on the acceleration din-
this is the same convention you met before for velocity diagrams.

Whilst driving along a motorway at a constant speed of 70 miks per how

a car engine's crankshaftis rotating at 4000 rev min-': it has a crank radius
of 35 mm. Draw the acceleration iagram for the crank at the instant when
it is horizontal, making an angle of 0" with the X-axia.

soMion
Note that we are not told whether rotation is clwkwiffior anticlockwise.
Figure 3 shows the position diagram of the crank.
Point B experiences centripetal acceleration of magnitude
02r=(4000 X 2 ~ / 6 0 X) ~0.035 = 6141 m S-'
"I

Flgurc 3 Position dlagram. Flgure 4 Accekratlon diagram.

Scale full sizc Scale 1 mm:mmm-'
Remembering that its direction is always towards the centre of curvature
of the motion and is not dependent on the rotational sense of the crank, we
can draw the vector Z a s shown in Figure 4. Hence

Accelerations measured relative to an inertial reference frame are called

absolute aeeeleraions. Ckn~ally,in this course the Earth is regarded as an
inertial reference frame. For this special and important case we may drop
the suffix 0, and so we could write

Both of these fonns a, and (a,), are correct, 1,=(h),

Using a scale of 1 mm :MO m S-', OS=
m.7 mm c.
It is worth noting that this value (6141 m 5 - 3 is about 626g (talrmg
g = 9.81 m S-'),and is clearly a substantial acceleration; yet some high-
performance car engines will exceed 4000 rev min-I by a considerable
margin. Remember that a. is proportional to (angular velocity)', so if
the angular velocity is doubled, a. is quadrupled1

So, we can formulate a simple rule, which we call the CEN rule, for finding
the centripetal acceleration vector. For a link BO:
1.1.2 Llnk widh angular axelendkon
You have seen one of the reasons why we need to know about acceleration;
now let us consider what happens when angular velocity is not constant.
Conditions are the same as those given in Figure 1, except that now the
angular velocity of OB is not constant; OB is accelerating clockwise with
an angular acceleration of 400 rad S-'>. Point B will now be subjected to
an additional acceleration component.

What is the name of the additional acaleration component for point B?

Calculate its value and state its direction.

On the acceleration diagram (Figure 2) we must now add this additional

component, remembering to treat it as a vector. Its angular orientation is
tangential to the path of point B, i.e. it is perpendicular to OB and
therefore it will be at right angles to ob, and adjoining the end of ob. But
what is its sense? Is it upwards to the left or downwards to the right? You
met this kind of problem in Unit 5.
Figure 5 Skctch showing direction
OB is accelerating clockwise and so when viewed from 0, point B will and sense of&.
appear to have a linear acceleration to the right as shown in Figure 5 at a
rate = K OB.Hence (a,),, = a OB.
Note that the suffix 'tau' refers to the tangential component, whose
direction is tangential to the path of point B at the instant considered.
We can summarize this as the TAN mls. For a link BC

Figure 6 is the acceleration diagram for the link OB. It shows both
components, Zc,,and oTu, for the point B, and the vector Zrepresents
the combination of these (that i s the vector sum) to give the total ob,. = l6 mm
acceleration of B relative to point 0 which is hed to Earth. Remember
that velocities and accclerations measured relative to Earth are called
absolute values. Hena vector Z represents the absolute acaleration for
point B.
Note also that the lines representing Zc,,and S,, ,,
are drawn lighter
(achieved by the use of harder grade pencils such as H or 2H instead of B
grade) than ob and that they carry arrowheads; this is to distinguish them
as being vector components. The line ob has no arrowhead because points
such as o and b arc to be interpreted as representing the dative
acceleration between 0 and B. Thus the vector Z represents the
acceleration of B relative to 0 , whereas the vector E represents the
acceleration of 0 relative to B. Figure 6 Acceleratbn dhgrm
Scale l mm: l m 8-'
What about points on OB between 0 and B? We could calculate a,, and
a,for a range of such points and plot them, but this is unnecessary.
Because both a. and a,, are proportional to r, the diitana along the
link, it foUows that intermediate points on OB will be represated by
intermediate points on ob in corresponding proportion; thus a point say C,
which is 3 along 08,is represented by that point which is 3 along ob. Unit
6 showed that this simple rule is also true for velocity analysis. It is called
the proportion rule, which we call simply the PROP rule (over page).
oc=ixob
c mpmaents C on
crank 00 where

SA0 4
Is Figure 7 a wrrcot acceleration diagram for the crank OB where point C
is positioned such that OC =4 087
Figure 7 Acceleration diagramfor
SAQ4.Scsklmm:lrnr-'

E = 16rada-'>
L = 4 rad i' >
Points G and D are
intermediate points
on crank 08

I
Figure 8 Position diagram for SA() 5

(cl
Figure 9 Possible acceIcration dbgramafor SAQ 5
SA0 S
For the link shown in Figure 8:
(a) Which of the acceleration diagrams of Figure 9 shows (i,),.,and
(Jm)om drawn c o m d y ?
(b) Which, if any, of the Figure 9 diagrams is completely correct?

1.1.3 Compound /Ink8

How do we deal with compound links - is it as simple as was the case for
velocity analysis?

SA0 I
What is a wmpound link?

Figure 10 shows a compound link OBD grounded at 0and rotating with

angular velocity 30 rad S-' ) and angular acceleration 400 rad S-'). You
can imagine this as a triangular sheet to which other links are attached at
B and D,though none is shown in the diagram. Note that these values for
angular velocity and aaelcration will apply to all of the sides of the
triangle OBD,and incidentally also to any line drawn within the boundary
of OBD.
In the case of velocity analysis we found an image of OBD in the velocity
diagram, but turned through 90". Now we will still find an image of OBD
in the acceleration diagram but the angle turned through depends on o
(angular velocity) and a (angular acceleration). Remember that by image
we mean a geometrically similar figure, i.e. one of the same shape with the
same angles between its sides. OD = 0.03 m
BD = 0.04 m
SA0 7 OB = 0.05 m
If the angular velocity of the compound link OBD were constant, what F l w 10 Position d i w m
angle would the image of OBD in the acceleration diagram be turned lull sire
through?

As in the case of velocity analysis, there is no need to calculate values for

each corner point after plotting two points, say o and b. other points could
be found using geometrical constructions from the knowledge that an
image exists.

SA0 8
Draw the acceleration diagram for the wmpound link shown in Figure 10
and determine:
(a) the angle turned through by the image of OBD
(b) the absolute acceleration of B
(c) the acceleration of B relative to D.

1.2 Llnk not grounded

1.2.1 Llnk movlng wlth angular ~ I e r a I l o n
Figure 11 shows a link BC moving in a plane with angular velocity and
angular acceleration L and not grounded at either end. Axes Oxy are 6 x 4
to Earth.
Fyar I1 Not to Y&

In general, points B and C will k connected to other Links which are not
shown, but let us mume that we have Plready analysed the system to the
M of B and that accordingly we know the acceleration of B &tin to
Earth-fixed axes. In other words, we know the absolute eccehation of B
and we have a point b already marked on the acceleration diqmm.
The problem is how to get from b to c on the acceleration diagram.
We must remember that BC is assumed to be a rigid l i and therefore the
motion of C when viewed from B oan have velocity only in the direction
perpendicular to BC, and so relative to B point C moves in a circle.
Imagine yoursclf sitting in a chair that is fixed to B with a frictionless
bearing so that you translate with B without rotating i.e. the srms of the
chair stay parallel to the Earth-6xed ysxis; you would tben sec point C
moving around you in a circulu path.
Hence it turns out that relative to B, point C has t k two compomts of
acceleration for cirml.r motion that we have alrcsdy met. nsmcly
centripetal and tangentid, and so we can write a vector equation which
exprwlles the sum of thesc two vector components as followa
-
(4). (%)no@" + ( 4 ) n t . n
This is a vector equation. The magnitude8 are given by
(IIC)B- =(
a
,
)' BC
and
(4.1
=. .
(I.C BC
whm o, is the magnitude of the angular velocity and a, is the
magnitude of the angular acceleration for link BC relative to Earth-fixed
sxw (Oxy).

In addition we know that

4 = JB +(&)B

which in words simply says that the absolute acceleration of C q u d a the

a h l u t e acceleration of B plus the acceleration of C measured from, or
relative to, B.
Note that we nad to know the angular velocity for the link to be able to
calculate the centripetal component (e),,,. This is why a velocity
analysis for a mechanism is normally the first step in performing an
a~~dloration analysis.
Let us do an example.
-
IT, in Figure 11, BC=O.Sm, B=20rads-'>, 1=600rads-'> and
in= 800 m S-' 7 40°, with CB instantaneously positioned at 160" to the
x-axis, detcrminc
(a) the acceleration of point C as secn from B,i.e. (4).
(b) the absolute acaleration of point C.

The given value for the absolute acceleration of B, I,, enablcs the vector Z6
to be plotted immditcly and thus point b can k located on the 0 a.
acceleration diagram as shown in Figure 12.

From diagram dZ = 72 mm 71S

ic = a
= 720 m P7 1S
and Nc)B = = 385 m i 2 476.

Using a scale of 1 mm to represent l0 m S-' it follows that

ob= (800/10) X 1,and so Z6= 80mmTW

hena on the scaled diagram

bce,=20mm and bc,=30mm
From point b we progress to c by plotting these two components, Em and
E,, and it doesn't matter in which order they are taken, we still end up at
the same point c; however, we normally plot centripetal components first,
because having performed a velocity aaalysis and thus knowing thc
angular velocity of each link, we are able to calculate magnittuh for ail of
the centripetal components whose dirtctions arc also known. In contrast,
for tangential components, we often only know dimtions.
Having plotted points o, b and c the diagram is wmplete, and we can
measure from it the accelerations of any of these points relative to any
other, although it is usually absolute accelerations that interest us most.

We have so far considered links which translate and rotate in planar

motion. but thosc which only slide are also of intercat.

Figure 13 shows a link B that is constrained to slide in a straight Linc on a

6 x 4 link, such as for example a piston sliding in a cylinder where thc
onginc block and cylinder would be the fixed link. For mveniena we
usually orientate our roferrma axu Oxy such that one of the a x e say the
X-& for example, h puallelto the ltraight Line path of the sliding link B.
Then the kinematiccl for B ia dc6acd by the dilplaamnt, velocity and
acceleration in the x direction alone, and this ia simpler to manage.
Furthermore it ia helpful to mark a w-caUcd coineidnt point on the 5xcd
link adjacmt to or coincident with B. Figure 13 &OM G as such a point.

Draw the accekration diagram for thc link shown in F

- 13. h w n e
thattherof~angOxyfor~poaitionanattnchedtothefined
link, with Ox p a d c l to thc direction of motion of the link B.

BoluPran
Axu oa,a, a n drawn as usual, but additional to point o which marks the
origin of the d m t i o n diagram, which is the point that rcp-ts mro
accckration, another point, g, is also marked at the origin. This is to
rcprescnt the point G which also has zcro acaieration because it is a point
on thc fued link (Fiw14).

b-line bline
0, 9 I
Point b is wrnawhere
on this line
Figwe I4 AccelerOnm d&grmJior sHdrr dFigure 13
All we know about (I,), is that its line on the accekration diagram must
pass through g, and it must be parallcl to the a. axis; we a n not told its
magnitude or wnse and so the line must be drawn both sides of the origin
as shown in Figure 14; it is labelled '6-line'. More information is required
to fix point b.
BccPwlinkB~onthefixedli~weaddthesufsxbli'to(a~),togivc
which labeh this component more clearly.
(&),.,.

For a link B diding on a fixed link, which has a coincident point G, we can
state our fourth rule, the SW h.

Again note that in the case of absolute accelcratio~we do not need a ,

mend s u e ; in this example the 0 has been dropped to give a. to denote
the absolute accckration for the point B.
We note then that for a sliding link constrained to slide on a fxcd on+ we
a n always able to draw a line on the d e r a t i o n diagram rcp-ting the
angular orientation of the relative acceleration betwan the two W (e.g.
but normally more information h n d c d to fully locate the point
on the acalcration diagram for the slidcr.
Links which dide on rotating links will not be dealt with in this wursc.
1.3 Summary d SecHon l

(8) -0
l Use capital letter6 to label key points on mechanisms.
2 Define a ~t of axes and label Oxy.
3 Spi&dc.

(b) A~fekntiondiagr8In.Y
1 Define a set ofaxcs, choosing the most convenient orientation and
labcl w.a,.
2 Draw amowbcads only on components of vectors (l,,, and ii,.,,).
3 Draw vector components lightly in pencil, and total vectors more
heavily.
U*.
(a) LinL BC which ia geaml both rotatea and mlrlrtw
CEN rule: for centripetal vector (Q).-.
magnitude = (%)' BC
angular orientatiom parallel to BC
sense: towards B
TAN rule: for tangential vector (Q),,.
magnitude = a , BC
angular orientatwtc perpendicular to BC
sense: determined by the clockwise sense of tf,

PROP rule: points on the same link a n in the same relative position
on the acceleration diagram as they arc on the position diagram. So
for a point P on link BC between B and C
BP bp
-=-
BC bc
(b) WrBnbkbdMesoaaBxdWadwMeLhu8ednddeatpoiatC
m the B x d link
SLI rule: 5 =
Angular orientation is parallel to the fixed guide or constraining link
upon which link B slides.

(P) Combination role

(&)B =(&)ace. + (&)sum
which says that the acccleration of point C relative to B is qual to the
vector sum of the two vector components, centripetal and tangential.
(b) Flmdmwlul rektive .eee*ntioo Rk
Q - l. + (&)S
which says that the absolute acceleration of C quals the absolute
acceleration of B plus the acceleration of C relative to B.