MECH 314

Dynamics of Mechanisms
February 24, 2011
4-Bar Acceleration Analysis

Problem Specification

This 4-bar mechanism example was taken from [1], Example 4.3 on pp.178-180.
The mechanism layout, with

dimensions in inches, is summarized in Fig. 1. Additionally, A(0, 0), B(2, 2 3), angular velocity AB = 94.24rdn/s
CCW and angular acceleration AB = 0 are given.
C
Acc0Al

8
vC

10

544.55"/s
v C/B 456.9"/s

4
3

E
A

377"/s

aB
35532"/s 2

aC
33576"/s 2

a Ct 20016"/s 2
a C/Bt 2048"/s 2

10

D
2

a E 2614.5/s
a F 1937.2/s 2

aF

vB

a Cn
26958"/s 2

CD
BC

1820s -2
113.8s -2

a C/Bn

11598"/s 2

aE

V BC/AD

Figure 1: 4-Bar Mechanism Acceleration Analysis

It is required to find the angular accelerations of links BC and CD, BC and CD , respectively, as well as the
accelerations aE and aF of points E and F .

Graphical Approach

Whether the problem is done graphically or with any one of a number of different computation methods the steps
are the same.
Position analysis: Find coordinates of C, E and F .
Velocity analysis: Find angular velocity BC and CD of links BC and CD.
Angular acceleration analysis: Find angular acceleration BC and CD of links BC and CD.
Non-joint acceleration analysis: Find acceleration aE and aF of points E and F .

2.1

Point Coordinates

A, B and D can be laid out immediately from given data. With centre B and rBC = 1800 and with centre D and
rCD = 1100 find the two intersections, choose the one with greater y-coordinate and measure this as C with respect
to A(0, 0). Locate E and F by measuring 100 along BC and erecting a 400 normal in a south-easterly direction, then
700 along DC and erecting a 300 normal also in a south-easterly direction. Thus the following vectors are obtained.










2
16.814
4.814
10.769
5.761
rAB =
, rBC =
, rDC =
, rBE =
, rDF =
3.464
6.427
9.891
0.166
4.981

2.2

Angular Velocities

Taking vB = rAB AB = 4 94.25 = 37700 /s lay this out as a vector in a south-westerly direction normal to
AB and consistent with its CCW rotation. Express vC = vB + vC/B by constructing a line, at the tip of vB ,
normal to BC and a line at the tail, normal to CD. This completes the velocity vector diagram and measurement
reveals vC/B = 456.900 /s and vC = 544.5500 /s as shown at upper left of Fig. 1. One may easily determine BC =
vC/B /rBC = 456.9/18 = 25.383rdn/s CCW and CD = vC /rCD = 544.55/11 = 49.505rdn/s CCW but these are
not necessary for what follows.

2.3

Angular Accelerations

The acceleration polygon on the right of Fig. 1 expresses

aB + aC/Bn + aC/Bt = aCn + aCt = aC
2
2
/rAB = 3772 /4 = 3553200 /s2 in a direction B A, vC/B
/rBC = 456.92 /18 =
The first sum above is plotted as vB
00 2
2
11598 /s in a direction C B and aC/Bt in a direction normal to BC. The second sum is vC /rCD = 544.552 /11 =
2695800 /s2 in a direction C D and aCt in a direction normal to CD. The two tangential acceleration vector
direction lines intersect on the tip of vector aC so it is measured as 3553200 /s2 while aC/Bt is measured as 204800 /s2
and aCt is measured as 2001600 /s2 . Finally BC = aC/Bt /rBC = 2048/18 = 113.8rdn/s2 CCW and CD =
aCt /rCD = 20016/11 = 1820rdn/s2 CW.

2.4

Off-Joint Point Accelerations

The acceleration field of a planar rigid body defines the acceleration of any point with respect to a point with
known acceleration as that acceleration vector plus a normal component along the line between the points and in
the direction of the one with known acceleration plus a tangential component normal to that line. E.g.,
aE = aB + BC (aB BC rBE ) + BC rBE
Without going into detailed argument one can get aE by constructing a triangle similar to BCE such that BC is
scaled to the tips of vectors aB and aC . Then the scaled location of E is at the tip of vector aE as shown in the
lower left of Fig. 1. Similarly the triangle CDF is scaled to place D on the zero point or origin of the acceleration
diagram and C on the tip of the vector aC . Then the scaled location of F locates the tip of aF . The magnitude of
these vectors, though scaled to inches, was divided by 12 to give
2

aE = 2614.50 /s , aF = 1937.20 /s

Vector Analytical Approach

The corresponding four steps, couched in analytic terms, are

Position analysis to get C, E and F ,

Velocity analysis to get BC and CD ,

Acceleration analysis to get BC and CD and
Acceleration analysis to get aE and aF .

3.1

Point Positions

The two circles to be intersected are

2
2
2
(xC rBx )2 + (yC rBy )2 rBC
= 0, (xC rADx )2 + yC
rCD
=0

Subtracting these two equations gives a line on their two points of intersection.
2
2
2
2
2
2(rADx rBx )xC 2rBy yC + rBx
rADx
+ rBy
rBC
+ rCD
=0

Eliminating yC between the second circle and the line equations produces an ugly symbolic quadratic univariate in
xC so it is better to insert values at this point.

rADx = 10, rBx = 2, rBy = 2 3, rCD = 11, rBC = 18 624x2C 14736xC + 81361 = 0
Solving for xC , taking the root with positive discriminant and substituting into the line equation gets the corresponding
yC . rCDx = xC rADx and rCDy = yC to produce the vector rDC given in the graphical treatment. It is easy to
see that
rBCx
rBCy
rBCy
rBCx
rDCx
rDCy
rDCy
rDCx
rBEx = 10
+4
, rBEy = 10
4
, rDF x = 7
+3
, rDF y = 7
3
rBC
rBC
rBC
rBC
rDC
rDC
rDC
rDC
again, giving the corresponding vectors tabulated with the graphical construction.

3.2

Angular Velocities

Since AB is given the following two simultaneous linear equations are sufficient to get the required angular velocities.
AB rBy BC rBCy + CD rDCy = 0, AB rBx + BC rBCx CD rDCx = 0

3.3

Angular Accelerations

The graphical acceleration polygon is the template for the following pair of linear simultaneous equations in BC
and CD .
2
2
2
AB
rBx BC
rBCx BC rBCy + CD
rDCx + CD rDCy = 0
2
2
2
AB
rBy BC
rBCy + BC rBCx + CD
rDCy CD rDCx = 0

3.4

Off-Joint Accelerations of Points on Links

Armed with the angular accelerations one may proceed to get the acceleration vectors aE and aF , in terms of their
components, based on the acceleration field definition of a planar rigid body.
2
2
2
2
aEx = AB
rBx BC
rBEx BC rBEy , aEy = AB
rBy BC
rBEy + BC rBEx
q
The magnitude is of course just the square-root of the sum of the squares aE = a2Ex + a2Ey .
2
2
aF x = CD
rDF x CD rDF y , aF y = CD
rDF y + CD rDF x
q
The magnitude is of course just the square-root of the sum of the squares aE = a2F x + a2F y .

Another Four-Bar Acceleration Example

Practice makes perfect. This is problem P4.24 from [1]. The dimensions have been changed to dm from in
otherwise the original specifications remain except for labeling joints ABCD and links slpq, according to the standard
adopted at the beginning of the course and that we try to maintain as closely as possible. A full graphics workup
appears in Fig. 2. The ambiguity concerning which assembly branch is intended has been settled by doing both.
One produces rather irritating graphical results because of a very small tangential acceleration vector that mars the
illustration.
(-5.373,3.485) C

159.6

105.29

q
q

0.8093rdn/s(CCW)

0.5250rdn/s(CCW)

0.4539rdn/s(CCW)

0.7382rdn/s(CCW)

a C/Dt
a Ct

10
A

B a Cn

aD
6dm/s 2
a C/Dn

s 6

a C/Dn

(4,0)

240
(-3,-5.196)

O
a Cn
a C/Dt

7.382 v C

6dm/s
vD

v C/D
q
4.085

-86.43
-32.11

5.25
vC
v C/D 7.284

P4-2412v

(4.623,-9.981)

Figure 2: Acceleration in Both Branches of a 4-Bar Mechanism

4.1

Given

All given parameters are indicated on Fig. 2 with X marks. Notice that these are link lengths s = 6, l = 4, p = 10
and q = 9. Furthermore the CCW angle between links s and l is BAD = 240 . These five parameters are sufficient
to define position because by choosing, say, origin O on A and positive x-axis along AB only the position of C, in
one assembly mode, and C 0 in the other, need to be determined. A certain amount of position analysis is inevitably
required. Notice the arrows on the position diagram indicate the vectors
rAD , rBC , rDC , rBC 0 , rDC 0
that will be used in the acceleration analysis. The only other given parameter is the angular velocity s =
1rdn/s(CCW) along with the proviso s = 0. This completely defines the entire instantaneous kinematic state
of the mechanism.

4.2

Find

The angular accelerations of links p and q and the acceleration of joint points B and C are required. We start by
doing a velocity analysis. This is done according to the vector equations
vC = vD + vC/D and vC 0 = vD + vC 0 /D

Graphically this involves laying out vD from the origin in velocity space and noting the directions of vC and vC/D
(vC 0 and vC 0 /D ) are respectively normal to p and q (p0 and q 0 ). The directions of the velocities shown determine
the sense of all of the angular velocities that are calculated by dividing each velocity magnitude by p and q. The
angular velocities are required ro determine accelerations analytically although the joint point velocities are sufficient
if one intends to proceed graphically.

4.3

Acceleration Graphically

This is a five step process to represent the equation

aC = aD + aC/D which expands to aCn + aCt = aDn + aDt + aC/Dn + aC/Dt
2
Compute magnitude aDn = vD
/rAD = 62 /6 and lay it out from origin in acceleration space in direction
opposite to A D. aD = aDn + aDt = aDn because aDt = 0 because s = 0.
2
Compute magnitude aCn = vC
/rBC = 5.252 /10 and lay it out from origin in acceleration space in direction
opposite to B C.

Strike a line at the tip of vector aCn and normal to it to represent aCt whose direction is known but its
magnitude and sense are not.
2
Compute magnitude aC/Dn = vC/D
/rDC = 7.2842 /9 and lay it out starting from the tip aD in direction
opposite to D C.

Strike a line at the tip of vector aC/Dn and normal to it to represent aC/Dt whose direction is known but its
magnitude and sense are not.
The two normals intersect on the tip of aC that begins at O in acceleration space. Notice that for the C-assembly
mode aCt is so short as to be barely visible and remains unlabeled. Acceleration equation closure of the C 0 -assembly
mode fares better and aC 0 and aC 0 /D0 can be obtained as aC 0 n + aC 0 t and aC 0 /D0 n + aC 0 /D0 t , respectively. To get
angular accelerations one computes magnitudes as
p0 = aC 0 t /rBC 0 and q0 = aC 0 /Dt /rDC 0
while paying special attention to directions of aC 0 t and aC 0 /Dt on the acceleration diagram and applying these to
the tips of vectors rBC 0 and rDC 0 , respectively, to obtain the correct sense of p0 and q0 .

4.4

Acceleration Analytically

Assuming that displacement and velocity pre-processing has been done the results, for

3
9.373
2.373
0
0

0
rAD = 1.596 , rBC = 3.485 , rDC = 8.681 , p = 0 , q =
0
0
0
0.525
0.8093
and

rAD

3
0.623
7.623
0
0
, 0q =

0
0
= 1.596 , rBC 0 = 9.981 , rDC 0 = 4.784 , 0p =
0
0
0
0.7382
0.4539

available from Fig. 2, will be used in the following pair of acceleration equations that are obtained from the vector
acceleration equations introduced with the preceding graphical approach.
 2
 
 

s rADx + q2 rDCx q rDCy p2 rBCx p rBCy = 0
 2
 
 

s rADy + q2 rDCy + q rDCx p2 rBCy + p rBCx = 0

These, upon numerical substitution, yield the required angular accelerations directly.
1.9708 8.681q + 3.485p = 0, 0.4708 2.373q + 9.373p = 0 p = 0.008069, q = 0.2303
Similarly
 2
 
 

s rADx + q20 rDC 0 x q0 rDC 0 y p20 rBC 0 x p0 rBC 0 y = 0
 2
 
 

s rADy + q20 rDC 0 y + q0 rDC 0 x p20 rBC 0 y + p0 rBC 0 x = 0
yields
1.7690 + 4.784q0 9.981p0 = 0, 0.7426 + 7.623q0 0.623p0 = 0 p0 = 1.359, q0 = 0.08631
Inserting numerical values now that all are known, including p,p0 ,q,q0 in the first and second or in the third
bracketed [] terms yields

3
2.5551
1.0166
aD = 5.196 , aC = 1.0368 , aC 0 = 5.5237
0
0
0

Conclusion

When doing four bar linkage, or slider crank, type linkage acceleration problems it is useful to remember a number
of key issues.
A lot of or a little position and velocity analysis are almost always required.
Graphical methods work with linear velocities and accelerations, simple arithmetic calculations and vector
directions given by line segments between adjacent joints. The user must be careful to keep track of the sense
of directions and rotations.
Vector analytical methods work with angular velocities and accelerations, vector additions, dot and cross
products. The user must be careful to correctly translate the vector equations into the simultaneous linear
equations that they represent, paying particular attention to multiple changes of sign that occur.
Graphical methods, if used to obtain final results, can achieve, with careful construction and measurement,
three digit precision at best. However they are more robust concerning avoidance of gross error that may
happen with a faulty sign change.
Analytical methods, aside from higher computational precision, are really the only option for automated analysis
algorithms (programming). But programs should be developed together with CAD construction (graphical)
tracking of the computational sequence. Notice that measurement, on Fig. 2, of aCt , that is barely visible,
yielded 0.081dm/s, giving a fair approximation and confirmation of p = 0.008069rdn/s.

References
[1] J.J. Uicker, Jr., G.R. Pennock and J.E. Shigley (2011) Theory of Mechanisms and Machines, 4th ed., Oxford,
ISBN 9780-19-537123-9.