Ahmed Basil Haider 10/15/2023

Duhok Polytechnic University

Highway and Bridge Engineering Department
Engineering Mechanics – Statics
First Year

CHAPTER ONE

General Principles

Ahmed Basil Haider

First Semester 2023 – 2024

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

1 Introduction

• Mechanics is the physical science which deals with the effects of forces on objects.

• Mechanics is a study of the effects of forces on bodies.

• The principles of mechanics have wide application in engineering.

• In general, mechanics can be subdivided into three branches:

rigid-body mechanics, deformable-body mechanics, and fluid mechanics.

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Ahmed Basil Haider 10/15/2023

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1 Introduction
Rigid-body
Mecahnics

Deformable-body
Mechanics Mechanics

Fluid Mechanics

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

1 Introduction

• In this course, we will study rigid-body mechanics since it is a basic requirement for the

study of the mechanics of deformable bodies and the mechanics of fluids.

• Furthermore, rigid-body mechanics is essential for the design and analysis of many types

of structural members.

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2 Rigid Body

• Anybody which does not undergo deformation (change in length or change in area or change in

shape) under the action of forces is said to be rigid body.

• In fact, actual structures are never absolutely rigid; they deform under the loads to which they are

subjected. However, because these deformations are usually small, they do not appreciably affect

the conditions of equilibrium or the motion of the structure under consideration therefore they are

negligible.

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

2 Rigid Body

• Particle: a relatively small or the smallest discrete portion or amount of something.

• A particle has a mass, but negligible size and shape.

• A rigid body can be considered as a combination of a large number of particles in which

all the particles remain at a fixed distance from one another, both before and after

applying a load.

• We may consider the steel railroad wheel as a rigid body

since it does not deform very much under load.

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3 Rigid Body Mechanics

• Rigid-body mechanics is divided into two areas: statics and dynamics.

• Statics is the study of bodies that are at rest or move with a constant velocity (in equilibrium).

• Dynamics is the study of bodies that have accelerated motion. For an accelerating system, the
velocity of the system is not constant.

• We can consider statics as a special case of dynamics, in which the acceleration is zero.

• However, statics deserves separate treatment in engineering education since many objects are
designed with the intention that they remain in equilibrium.

• Thus, this course is designed to understand statics and how it is applied in an engineering
framework.

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

4 External and Internal Effects

• We can separate the action of a force on a body into two effects, external and internal.

• Forces external to a body can be either applied forces or reactive forces.

• The effects of force internal to the material are the resulting internal forces and

deformations distributed throughout the material.

• The relation between internal forces and internal deformations depends on the material

properties of the body and is studied in strength of materials.

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4 External and Internal Effects

• Attention in engineering mechanics is directed primarily to the external effects of forces on a rigid
body.

• The external effect of a force on a body is either to accelerate the body or to develop resisting
forces (reactions) on the body.

• When the forces acting on a body is balanced, the body is in equilibrium, and the problem is one
of statics.

• When the force system has a resultant different from zero, the body will be accelerated and the
problem is one of dynamics.

• When the internal effects of a force system on a body are to be considered of when the changes in
shape of the body are important, the problem becomes one of mechanics of materials.

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

5 Basic Quantities

The following four quantities are used throughout mechanics:

• Length: is used to locate the position of a point in space and thereby describe the size of a
physical system.

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5 Basic Quantities

• Time: the principles of statics are time independent, this

quantity plays an important role in the study of dynamics.

• Mass: is a measure of a quantity of matter in a substance.

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

5 Basic Quantities

• 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 considered as a "push" or "pull" exerted by one body on another. A force is

characterized by its point of application, its magnitude, and its direction.

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6 Scalars and Vectors

• All physical quantities in engineering mechanics are measured using either scalars or
vectors.

• Scalar: is any physical quantity that can be completely specified by its magnitude.
Examples of scalar quantities include length, mass, and time.

• Vector: is any physical quantity that requires both a magnitude and a direction for its
complete description.

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

7 Vector Operations

• Multiplication and Division of a Vector by a Scalar: if a vector is multiplied by a

positive scalar, its magnitude is increased by that amount. When multiplied by a negative
scalar it will also change the directional sense of the vector.

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7 Vector Operations

• Vector Addition: all vector quantities obey the parallelogram law of addition.

• We can also add B to A, using the triangle rule, which is aspecial case of the parallelogram
law.

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

7 Vector Operations

• As a special case, if the two vectors A and B are collinear, i.e., both have the same line of action, the
parallelogram law reduces to an algebraic or scalar addition R = A + B, as shown in Figure below.

• Vector Subtraction: The resultant of the difference between two vectors A and B of the same type
may be expressed as R' = A - B = A + (–B). Subtraction is therefore defined as a special case of
addition.

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8 Newton’s Three Laws of Motion

• Engineering mechanics is formulated on the basis of Newton’s three laws of motion. They
may be briefly stated as follows:

• First Law: a particle originally at rest, or moving in a straight line with constant velocity,
tends to remain in this state provided the particle is not subjected to an unbalanced force,
as shown in the Figure.

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

8 Newton’s Three Laws of Motion

• Second Law: a particle acted upon by an unbalanced force (F) experiences an

acceleration (a) that has the same direction as the force and a magnitude that is directly
proportional to the force, as shown in the Figure below. If (F) is applied to a particle of
mass (m), this law may be expressed mathematically as:

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8 Newton’s Three Laws of Motion

• Third Law: the mutual forces of action and reaction between two particles are equal,
opposite, and collinear, as shown in the Figure.

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

9 Newton’s Law of Gravitation

• Newton's Law of Gravitation states that every particle attracts every other particle in the
universe with a force directly proportional to the product of the masses and inversely
proportional to the square of the distance between them.

• Gravitational Force means the force of attraction between any two masses.

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10 Weight

• A particular case of great importance is that of the attraction of the earth on a particle
located on its surface.

• The force F exerted by the earth on the particle is defined as the weight W of the particle.

• Suppose we set M equal to the mass of the earth, m equal to the mass of the particle, and r
equal to the earth’s radius R. Then, introducing the constant

• g is called the acceleration due to gravity.

• g = 9.81 m/s^2 and g = 32.2 ft/s^2

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

10 Weight

• Mass is the quantity of matter in a substance.

• Weight is the force of gravity.

• According to the law of gravitation, the Earth pulls on all objects with a force of gravity
downward toward the center of the Earth.

• The magnitude of the force of gravity can be found by multiplying the mass of the object
by the magnitude of the acceleration due to gravity.

• Weight refers the gravitational force with which the Earth attracts the masses towards its
center.

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11 Units of Measurement

• SI units: The International System of units. Abbreviated SI is a modern version which has
received worldwide recognition.

• The SI system defines

length in meters (m),

time in seconds (s),

mass in kilograms (kg).

• In the SI system the unit of the force called a newton (N), Newton is a derived unit.

(N= kg.m/s2)

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

11 Units of Measurement

• U.S. Customary: In the U.S. Customary system of units (FPS)

length is measured in feet (ft),

time in seconds (s),

force in pounds (lb),

The unit of mass, called a slug, is derived from F = ma.

• Hence, 1 slug is equal to the amount of matter accelerated at when acted 1 ft/s2 when
acted upon by a force of

(1 𝑠𝑙𝑢𝑔 = 1 𝑙𝑏.𝑠2/ft ).

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By: Ahmed Basil Haider

11 Units of Measurement

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

12 Conversion of Units

1 m = 3.2808 ft

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13 Prefixes
• When a numerical quantity is either very large or very small, the units used to define its size
may be modified by using a prefix.

• Some of the prefixes used in the SI system are shown in Table 1–3. Each represents a
multiple or submultiple of a unit which, if applied successively, moves the decimal point of a
numerical quantity to every third place.

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

14 General Procedures for Analysis

The most effective way of learning the principles of engineering mechanics is to solve problems. To be
successful at this, it is important to always present the work in a logical and orderly manner, as suggested by
the following sequence of steps:

• Read the problem carefully and try to correlate the actual physical situation with the theory studied.

• Tabulate the problem data and draw any necessary diagrams.

• Apply the relevant principles, generally in mathematical form. When writing any equations, be sure they are
dimensionally homogeneous.

• Solve the necessary equations, and report the answer with no more than three significant figures.

• Study the answer with technical judgment and common sense to determine whether or not it seems
reasonable.

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By: Ahmed Basil Haider

Example 1

By: Ahmed Basil Haider

Example 2

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