ME 101: Engineering Mechanics

A. Narayana Reddy

Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati,
Guwahati - 781039, India.

Class time table and venue

Course
ME 101: Engineering Mechanics (3 1 0 8)
3 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour and 8 credits.
Venue
Division-I: L1, Division-II: L2, Division-III: L1, Division-IV: L2
Day
MONDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY

Division - I & II
2:00 PM to 2:55 PM
4:00 PM to 4:55 PM
3:00 PM to 3:55 PM

III & IV
11:00 AM to 11:55 AM
9:00 AM to 9:55 AM
10:00 AM to 10:55 AM

Tutorial schedule for all the groups

Wednesday: 8:00 AM to 8:55 AM (T1 at L1, T2 at L2, T3 at L3, T4 at L4, T5
at 1006, T6 at 1G1, T7 at 1G2, T8 at 1207, T9 at 2101, T10 at 2102, T11 at
3202, T12 at 4001, T13 at 4G3, T14 at 4G4)
Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

2 / 18

Syllabus
Statics
Basic principles: Equivalent force system, equations of equilibrium, free
body diagram, static indeterminacy.
Structures: Difference between trusses, frames and beams, 2D truss, method
of joints, method of section, simple beam, types of loading and supports,
shear force and bending moment diagram in beams.
Friction: Dry friction, description and applications of friction in wedges,
thrust bearing (disk friction), belt, screw, journal bearing (axle friction),
rolling resistance.
Virtual work and energy method: Principle of virtual work (PVW),
applications of PVW, mechanical efficiency, work of a force/couple (springs
etc.), potential energy and equilibrium, stability.
Center of gravity and moment of inertia: First and second moment of area,
radius of gyration, parallel axis theorem, product of inertia, rotation of axes
and principal moment of inertia, mass moment of inertia.
Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

3 / 18

Syllabus
Dynamics
Kinematics of particles: Rectilinear motion, curvilinear motion, use of
Cartesian, polar and spherical coordinate system, relative and constrained
motion, space curvilinear motion.
Kinetics of particles: Force, mass and acceleration, work and energy,
impulse and momentum, impact problems, system of particles.
Kinematics and kinetics of rigid bodies: Translation, fixed axis rotational,
General plane motion, Coriolis acceleration, work energy, power, potential
energy, impulse-momentum and associated conservation principles, Euler
equations of motion and its application.
You can also find the syllabus on the following Dept. of Mechanical
Engineering, IITG website.
http://www.iitg.ernet.in/mech/files/courses/ME101.pdf
Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

4 / 18

Text/Reference Books

I. H. Shames, Engineering Mechanics: Statics and dynamics, 4th Ed, PHI,

2002.
F. P. Beer and E. R. Johnston, Vector Mechanics for Engineers, Vol I - Statics,
Vol II Dynamics, 9th Ed, Tata McGraw Hill, 2011.
J. L. Meriam and L. G. Kraige, Engineering Mechanics, Vol I Statics, Vol II
Dynamics, 6th Ed, John Wiley, 2008.
R. C. Hibbeler, Engineering Mechanics: Principles of Statics and Dynamics,
Pearson Press, 2006.

Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

5 / 18

Marks distribution:
End semester
Mid semester
Quiz
Tutorial
Class participation

40%
20%
10%
20%
10%

75% attendance is mandatory

Tutorial problems should be solved and submitted to the respective tutor on
every Wednesday from 8:00 to 8:55 AM.

Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

6 / 18

Mechanics is the oldest branch of physical sciences.

Principle of lever and Buoyancy were discovered by Archimedes (287 212 BCE).
Mechanics deals with action of forces on a body with state of rest or
motion.
Branches of mechanics
Rigid-body mechanics
Deformable-body mechanics or solid mechanics
Fluid mechanics
Rigid-body mechanics
Statics
Dynamics

Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

7 / 18

Why to study mechanics?

Mechanics is a basic requirement for deformable-body mechanics and fluid
mechanics. It is also a foundation of most other engineering sciences.
Few motivating examples:
Example - 1: Rotating top

(a)

(b)

Why inclined axis of rotating top becomes vertical?

Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

8 / 18

Example - 2: cyclone rotation

The image is taken from http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/2014/10/10/verysevere-tropical-cyclone-hudhud-targets-india/

Why large cyclone is always counterclockwise direction in Northern
Hemisphere?
Example - 3: Foucaults pendulum (67 m long wire with suspended weight of
28 Kg) was developed by a French physicist Leon Foucault in 1851.
Does oscillation of Foucaults pendulum affected by the spin of earth?
Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

9 / 18

Rigid body
Rigid body does not deform under action of forces!
Fundamental concepts
Length (Space): needed to locate position of a point with reference point
or origin. Also useful in describing the geometric properties of physical
systems such as rigid body, deformable body, fluid.
Time: measure of succession of events. Essential quantity for dynamics.
Mass: measure of quantity of matter in a body. Also measure of inertia
of body, i.e., the resistance offer to the change in velocity.
Force: represents action of one body on another by physical contact or
without physical contact. It is characterized by its magnitude, direction
and point of application.
Examples of forces: A body can apply force on another body through
physical contact, gravitational force, electromagnetic forces.
Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

10 / 18

Fundamental Principles
Simon Stevin (1548-1620) developed theory about the parallelogram law of
forces

R
P
A

Q
Parallelogram Law

Experimental Verification of the Parallelogram Law

Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

11 / 18

Fundamental principles

Principle of transmissibility:

Principle of Transmissibility
Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

12 / 18

Fundamental principles

Newtons First Law: Every particle continues in its state of rest or

uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled by an unbalanced
external force.
Newtons Second Law: A particle will have an acceleration proportional
to a nonzero resultant applied force. Mathematically, F = ma.
Newtons Third Law: The forces of action and reaction between two
particles have the same magnitude and line of action with opposite sense.
Newtons Law of Gravitation: Two particles are attracted with equal
and opposite forces,
F=G

Mm
GM
, W = mg, g = 2 .
2
r
r

(1)

Significance of Newtons first law and inertial frame of reference.

Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

13 / 18

Newtonian Mechanics
Absolute concepts
Space, time and mass are absolute concepts and also independent of each
other.
Rest mass and inertial mass of a body are same. In other words, the rest
mass of a body is equal to moving mass with respect to every observer.
(Not true in theory of relativity!)
Difference between mass and weight
Mass is the property of matter containing in a body and it does not
change with location in a space.
Weight refers to the gravitational attraction between a body and the
earth. Therefore, the magnitude of attraction force depends on the
elevation at which the body is placed (i.e., the spatial location of the
body with respect to the earth).
Weight of a body is the gravitational force acting on it.
Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

14 / 18

Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics

Equilibrium
The body is said to be in equilibrium if the body is either at rest or moving
with a constant velocity.

Statics
Statics deals with the equilibrium of
bodies under action of forces.

Dynamics
Dynamics deals with motion of bodies
(accelerated motion).

Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

15 / 18

Idealizations
Particle
A particle consists of mass with negligible dimensions.
Orbit

Sun

Earth Example: Size of the earth is

insignificant compared to the
dimensions of orbit. So, the earth can
be considered as particle in modelling
of orbital motion.

Rigid body
A combination of large number of particles is said to be rigid body if the
distance between any two particles remain constant before and after
application of forces.
Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

16 / 18

Idealizations

Concentrated force
A concentrated force represents the effect of a loading which is assumed to
act at a point on a body. This idealization is applicable when area over which
load is acting is very small compared to the overall size of the body.

Example: Contact
force between wheel
and ground.

Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

17 / 18

Units of some quantities and prefixes

Quantity
Mass
Length
Time
Force

Multiple

Submultiple

Dimensional symbol
M
L
T
F
1 000 000 000
1 000 000
1 000
0.001
0.000 001
0.000 000 001

SI unit
Kilogram
Meter
Second
Newton

Exponential form
109
106
103
10-3
10-6
10-9

SI unit symbol
kg
m
s
N (= kg.m/s2 )
Prefix
giga
mega
kilo
milli
micro
nano

SI symbol
G
M
k
m

Usually, capital letter K is used to represent Kelvin scale of temperature. So,

avoid using capital letter K for prefix kilo. In fact, kilo symbol in Kilogram
is the lower case letter k.
Lecture 1

A Narayana Reddy

Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati

18 / 18