ME221 (02) Lecture #18

Centroids
Center of Mass

Announcements

Homework Assignment - #8 Posted!

due Wednesday, February, 19th

Second exam coming soon Monday, 2/24

Review: Distributed Forces & Centroids

Distributed Forces need to find an equivalent system to use to represent them

resultant force integral of the loading function

point of application of resultant force must preserve the moment of

the distributed force

just like before ....

First step FR = F
Second step MRA = MA + Mcouple

we used this relationship to

determine where the resultant
force would act

Review: Distributed Forces & Centroids

point of application of resultant force must preserve the moment of
the distributed force
just like before ....

Second step MRA = MA + Mcouple

we used this relationship to determine where
the resultant force would act

x
MRO = MO
FR d = (x dF)

FR xrc( x=) := x dF

Review: Distributed Forces & Centroids

point of application of resultant force must preserve the moment of

the distributed force
x MRO = MO

FR xrc( x=) := x dF

but .... FR = w( x) dx
therefore .....

x w( x) dx

xc =

w( x) dx
can you see how I got dF ?

Review: Distributed Forces & Centroids

point of application of resultant force must preserve the moment of
the distributed force
x it turns out that the equation for the location of the
resultant force has a geometric meaning as well ....

x w( x) dx x dA

xc = =

w( x) dx . dA

centroid
of an area
therefore .....
the resultant force acts at the centroid of the area of the loading function
Example Finding the Centroid of an Area

Determine the vertical

distance (y) to the centroid of
the area of the triangle

x b
=
(h y) h

b
dA = (x) dy = ( h y ) dy
h

y dA y b ( h y ) dy
h
yc ( y ) := = (1/3) h
=

b ( h y ) dy
dA h

Centroid of an Area Double Integration

Example Finding the Centroid of a Volume

Determine the vertical

distance (y) to the centroid of
the paraboloid of revolution

disk shaped element

thickness = dy

Volume : dV = (r2) dy = (z2) dy

Note: z2 = 100 y

y dV

yc =

. dV

Example Finding the Centroid of a Volume

Volume : dV = (r2) dy = (z2) dy

y dV


y ( )
z
2
dy

yc = =

2
. dV z dy

100

y ( 100 y ) dy

0
yc =
100

100 y dy yc = 66.7 mm

0

Centroid of a Volume Triple Integral

 Centroid of a Volume Triple Integral

Centroid of a Volume Triple Integral

(oops!)
Center of Gravity / Center of Mass

a distributed mass
may also be treated as an equivalent
lumped mass concentrated at a point

nice back to point objects

Center of Mass the point in space where the mass of all of the
particles can be considered to be concentrated

xcm =
mixi ycm = .... zcm = ....
mi

Center of Gravity / Center of Mass

a collection of particles
may be treated as an equivalent
lumped mass concentrated at a point

.... Just shifts from summation to integration .....

x dm
in a volume, we can rewrite dm dm = dV
xcm =

. dm

if =constant .... then the center of mass is at the centroid

Center of Gravity / Center of Mass

Center of Gravity:
the point in space where the weight may be
considered to be concentrated

position of a force just like what we went

through with distributed forces
- each little force is dmg

back to ... FR and MR ... and conserving the external effects

FR d = (x dF) moment of all of

moment of
the resultant the gravitational
forces
FR xrc( x=) := x dF

Center of Gravity / Center of Mass

x g dm

xcg =

g dm

if g is a constant across the body, then .....

same as center of mass

when is g not the same value across the length of an

object?
 Reminders
Homework Assignment #9
Blackboard : posted
Due Friday, February 21st

Second Exam Monday, February 24th (a week from today)