Rigid Body Equilibrium

For rigid bodies in two dimensions, we can write three equations of equilibrium: sum forces in two orthogonal directions and sum moments about a point.

Background

Coming into this lecture, you should be able to:

Recognize common boundary conditions for structural models
Write equations of equilibrium by summing forces and moments

New Concepts

After this lecture, you should be able to:

Identify the reactions developed at structural supports
Solve for the reactions of determinate beam and truss models

Down the Road

Beyond this course, you will see the concepts from this lecture in the following courses:

CE 382 - equilibrium
CE 383 - equilibrium
CE 481 - equilibrium

I work on problems related to modeling and nonlinear structural analysis. If these problems are relevant to a current professional project, feel free to reach out.