Assignment 0 Review and application of concepts of Mechanics (Statics)

1. From the mechanics point of view, define the concepts of particle, rigid body, and
deformable body
2. By your own words, explain both the First and Third Laws of Newton, by means of a free
body diagram give an example for each law.
3. Explain the concept of Force and describe the two types of forces: surface and body
forces, give and describe one example for each of them.
4. Solve the problem depicted in fig. 1: The space shuttle is subjected to thrust from different
engines while in orbit, four of the thrusters act in a period of time as shown and a fifth
thrust of 850 N is applied upwards at the right end and symmetric to the 850 N applied at
the left rear end. Compute the resultant force and the resultant moment about point G,
express the result in vector notation.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

5. Describe and explain 5 different types of constraints or surface contacts for 2D structures
and 5 for 3D structures, by means of a free body diagram draw all motion constraints and
the reactions produced by the selected constraints.
6. Solve the problem in fig. 2: The rudder assembly of a RC airplane has the configuration
depicted in fig. 2; while performing a yaw maneuver, the 15 orientation shown in the
figure produce a net aerodynamic pressure on the rectangular rudder area of P0 = 4E-5
N/mm2. Determine the required force P in the control rod DE and the reactions at the
hinges A and B. Assume the aerodynamic pressure to be uniform over the rudder section.

Assignments
AEMatrixanalysisofstructures