RESULTANT OF COPLANAR FORCES

GENERAL FORCE SYSTEM

THEORY

THEORY:
A force system in which the forces are neither parallel nor concurrent to
each other is called as General force system.

Steps for solving sums on General force systems :

1)
2)

Draw diagram.
Resolve and find

3)
4)

Find Resultant R and .

Apply Varignons theorem if location of resultant is asked.

Fx

and

Fy

Types of Loads :
If you would observe, previously all the forces are shown as acting at a
single point, e.g. at points C and D,

But in reality such kind of forces does not exist.

Forces acting at a point are called as concentrated forces or point
forces.
For example,
1)
The forces acting on tyres of a car when touching the road are shown
below diagrammatically
R is reaction of the road on car shown as a
point force because as compared to the huge
dimension of the car. The forces acting on the
surface between tyre and road cover a small area.
Hence the small area can be considered as a
point with respect to car.
2)
Take the example of a nib of a pen. In reality the nib also covers some
area on the paper when we write.
But for analysis we can assume that a point force is acting on the paper
through the nib.
If the forces are acting on a beam, then the forces are called as loads.
Note: A beam is used in construction for supporting weight of upper floors. It is
horizontal.

RESULTANT OF COPLANAR FORCES

GENERAL FORCE SYSTEM

THEORY

There are two more types of loads other point load or concentrated load.

1)

Uniformly Distributed Load (UDL) : A load which is uniform over the

length of the beam is called as UDL. It is represented as,

Length of beam is also called as span of beam.

From fig. (ii), we can see that UDL is a rectangle of length l and height
w N/m. Therefore, Area of rectangle will give the total load acting on the beam,
i.e. (w l) N. This total load will act at the centroid of rectangle, i.e. at a distance
l
of from end of a beam of length l.
2

Example :
a)
b)

A fish tank kept on a table. Water in the fish tank occupies the entire
volume of the tank. Water is uniformly spread over tank.
A bridge supported on beams.

2)

Uniformly Varying Loads (UVL) : A load which continuously goes on

increasing / decreasing uniformly is called as uniformly varying load or UVL.

A pile of sand is an example of UVL.
The load goes on increasing and reaches a highest point, i.e. 0 to
W N/m.
e.g.

Here load is increasing / decreasing uniformly (represented by a line).

Consider one half of beam above;
Total load is area under curve, i.e. area
of triangle.

RESULTANT OF COPLANAR FORCES

Total load is

F 1 l wI
H2 K

GENERAL FORCE SYSTEM

THEORY

N and this acts at the centroid of triangle i.e.

l
3

from the perpendicular side.

Above shows how a UVL will be converted into point force for easier
analysis.
Hence in our problems we will convert an UDL or UVL in a point force using
above method.