Engineering Mechanics l

TEGT 3592

Distributed forces: centroids and

centre of gravity
Lecturer
Dr. M. F. ERINOSHO
(Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering,
University of Namibia) 1
Course Outlines
 Distributed forces: centroids and centre of gravity
 Types of distributed forces
 Center of gravity and centroids
 Centroids of lines, areas, and volumes
 Centroids of plane area
 Centroids of composite areas
 Moments of inertia of plane areas
 Parallel-axis theorem for moments of inertia

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 Distributed forces: centroids and centre of gravity

A uniformly distributed load is a load that is distributed

or spread across the whole region of an element.

Force is applied to the tire over its entire area of contact

is term distributed force.
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 Types of distributed forces

(1) Line distributed force: This is distributed along a line.

The intensity of this force is expressed as force per unit
length of line (N/m).

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(2) Area distributed force: These forces are distributed
over an area. The intensity of these forces is expressed
as force per unit area. This intensity is called pressure for
the action of fluid forces and stress for the internal
distribution of forces in solids.

The basic unit for pressure or stress in SI is the Newton

per square meter (N/m2), which is called Pascal (Pa).

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(3) Volume distributed force: These forces are distributed
over the volume of a body and are called body forces.

- Examples of body forces are gravitational attraction

and the weight.
- The intensity of gravitational force is the specific
weight ϒ= ρg,
Where ρ is the density of the body and g is the
acceleration due to gravity.

- The unit is N/m3 in SI units.

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 Center of gravity and Centroids

Gravity pulls each and every particle of a body vertically

downwards.

The center of gravity (G) is a point which locates the

resultant weight of a system of particles or body.

Similarly, the center of mass is a point which locates the

resultant mass of a system of particles or body. Generally,
its location is the same as that of G.

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To determine the location of the center of gravity of any
body, we apply the principle of moments to the
gravitational forces.

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Principle of moments about the y-axis:

For all three coordinates of the center of gravity G

we get:

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With W = mg and dW = gdm, we get:

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 Centroids of Lines, Areas, and Volumes
 Calculation of centroids:

1. Lines:
Consider a wire or rod of length L, with constant
cross-sectional area A and constant density ρ.

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The element shown above has a mass
dm = ρ AdL.
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The coordinates of the centroid are given by:

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2. Areas:
When a body of density has a small but constant
thickness t as shown, it can be treated as a surface area
A.
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The mass of an element becomes

dm = ρ tdA.

If ρ and t are constant over the entire area, then the

coordinates of the centroid may be given as:

The integral ∫ x dA is known as the “first moment of the

area A with respect to the y-axis” and is denoted by Qy.
Qy = ∫ x dA
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 3. Volumes:

- For a general body of volume V and density ρ, the

element has a mass dm = ρ dV.
- If ρ is constant over the entire volume, then the
coordinates of the centroid may be given as:

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Determination of Centroids by Integration

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 CENTROIDS OF COMPOSITE AREAS

•.
.

•.
 CENTROIDS OF COMPOSITE AREAS con’t

 The areas and first moments of composite areas may be

calculated by summing the corresponding properties of the
component parts.

Let us assume that a composite area is divided into a total of n

parts, and let us denote the area of the ith part as Ai.

Then we can obtain the area and first moments by the

following summations:
Replacing the above integrals by the corresponding
summations, we obtain the following formulas for
the coordinates of the centroid of the composite
area:
 . Example
 Consider the L-shaped area as shown in the
figure below
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Example

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Divide the component into two (1) and (2). Then draw a
table to input the values.

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Example

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For instance, consider the area shown in the figure below.
We can analyze this figure as a composite area by
subtracting the properties of the inner rectangle efgh from
the corresponding properties of the outer rectangle abcd.

b c
f g
= -
a d e h

From another viewpoint, we can think of the outer

rectangle as a “positive area” and the inner rectangle as a
“negative area” as illustrated above.
QUIZ

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 Example

Locate both the x and y centroids

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You can break this figure up into a series of shapes
and find the location of the local centroid of each.

First, you can develop a rectangle on the left side of

the diagram, and you can label that as area 1, A1

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A right triangle will complete the upper right side of the
figure, label it A3.

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A second rectangle will be placed in the bottom of the
figure, we will label it A2.

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Finally, you will develop a negative area to remove the
quarter circle in the lower left hand corner, label it A4.

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ID Area (in2) Xi (in) Xi*Area (in3)
A1 2 0.5 1
A2 3 2.5 7.5
A3 1.5 2 3
A4 -0.7854 0.42441 -0.33333
5.714602 11.16667

1.9541

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Calculate the area moments about the x-axis

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ID Area (in2) Yi (in) Yi*Area (in3)
A1 2 1 2
A2 3 0.5 1.5
A3 1.5 1.33333 2
A4 -0.7854 0.42441 -0.33333
5.714602 5.166667

0.904117

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 MOMENTS OF INERTIA OF PLANE AREAS
 As shown in the figure below, the moments of inertia of a plane area with respect
to the x and y axes, respectively, are defined by the integrals

Where x and y are the coordinates of the differential element of area dA.

 Because the element dA is multiplied by the square of the distance from the
reference axis, moments of inertia are also called second moments of
area.
 To illustrate how moments of inertia are obtained by integration, we will consider a
rectangle having width b and height h as shown below.

 The x and y axes have their origin at the centroid C. For convenience, we use a
differential element of area dA in the form of a thin horizontal strip of width b and
height dy.

 Therefore, dA = b dy
Since all parts of the elemental strip are the same distance from the x axis, we can
express the moment of inertia Ix with respect to the x axis as follows:

With respect to y axis

PARALLEL-AXIS THEOREM FOR MOMENTS OF INERTIA
 The parallel-axis theorem gives the relationship between the moment of inertia
with respect to a centroidal axis and the moment of inertia with respect to any
parallel axis.

However,
 The moment of inertia of an area with respect to any axis in its plane is equal to the
moment of inertia with respect to a parallel centroidal axis plus the product of the
area and the square of the distance between the two axes.

The moment of inertia IBB about the base

of the rectangle by using the parallel-axis
theorem:
 Example
• Consider the I-beam section shown below.

• To calculate the vertical centroid (in the y-direction) it can be split into 3 segments
as illustrated:
Now to calculate the total moment of inertia of the section, we need to use
the "Parallel Axis Theorem":
The moment of inertia of a rectangular area about its centroid axis is

Using the "Parallel Axis Theorem" and find the total moment of inertia of the I-
beam section:
Thank you

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