Length and length-

related parameter
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OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the session, the students are hoped and expected to be able to:
▫ Describe the role of length in engineering analysis and design, as well as its units,
measurement, and calculation;
▫ Explain the meaning of radians and strain and their meaning in engineering analysis
and design;
▫ Describe the role of area in engineering analysis and design, as well as its units,
calculation, and measurement;
▫ Describe the role of volume in engineering analysis and design, as well as its units,
calculation, and measurement; and
▫ Explain the meaning of second moment of area and its role in engineering analysis
and design and its calculation.
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MOTIVATION:
▫ Suppose you want to purchase a bag
online.
▫ What are the characteristics of the bag
that you want to know?
1. Brand name.
2. Design/style.
3. Cost.
4. Dimension
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LENGTH AS A FUNDAMENTAL DIMENSION

▫ Length is one of the seven
fundamental or base dimensions
that we use to properly express
what we know of our natural world.

▫ Length is a very important

fundamental dimension, and it is
thus commonly used in engineering
products.
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LENGTH AS A FUNDAMENTAL DIMENSION

There are different types of coordinate systems such as rectangular, cylindrical,
spherical, and so on, as shown in the figure.
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MEASUREMENT OF LENGTH
▫ Early humans may have used finger length, arm span, stride length
(step length), a stick, rope, chains, and so on to measure the size or
displacement of an object.

▫ Today, depending on how accurate the measurement needs to be

and the size of the object being measured, we use other measuring
devices, such as a ruler, a yardstick, and a steel tape.
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MEASUREMENT OF LENGTH
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MEASUREMENT OF LENGTH
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NOMINAL SIZE VS ACTUAL SIZES

▫ You have all seen or used a 2 X 4 piece of
lumber.
▫ If you were to measure the dimensions of the
cross section of a 2 X 4, you would find that
the actual width is less than 2 inches
(approximately 1.5 inches) and the height is
less than 4 inches (approximately 3.5 inches).
▫ Then why is it referred to as a “2 by 4”?
▫ Manufacturers of engineering parts use
round numbers so that it is easier for people
to remember the size and thus more easily
refer to a specific part. The 2 X 4 is called the
nominal size of the lumber. You will find a
similar situation for pipes, tubes, screws,
wires, and many other engineering parts.
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NOMINAL SIZE VS ACTUAL SIZES

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NOMINAL SIZE VS ACTUAL SIZES

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NOMINAL SIZE VS ACTUAL SIZES

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RADIANS AND THE RATIO OF TWO LENGTHS

S1 S2
  
R1 R2
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RADIANS AND THE RATIO OF TWO LENGTHS

▫ Since the circumference of the circle is given by 2πr,
the measure of the angle of a full circle is

S 2 r
   2
r r
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RADIANS AND THE RATIO OF TWO LENGTHS

▫ The radian measure is used to find the area A of a
sector with θ as its central angle is given by

1
A   r 2
2
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RADIANS AND THE RATIO OF TWO LENGTHS

▫ Differentiating both sides of the equation S  r 
with respect to time, you will obtain a relation between
the linear velocity and the angular velocity ω for motion in
a circle:

v  r 
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RADIANS AND THE RATIO OF TWO LENGTHS

▫ Further differentiation of the equation v  r  
with respect to time will result to a relation between the
linear acceleration and angular acceleration for an object
moving in a circle:

a  r 
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STRAIN AS A RATIO OF TWO LENGTHS

▫ When a material (e.g., in the shape of a rectangular bar) is
subjected to a tensile load (pulling load), the material will deform.
The deformation, ΔL, divided by the original length, L, is called
normal strain, as shown in the figure. Also note that strain is the
ratio of deformation length to original length and thus is unitless.

L
▫ It is given by the equation strain 
L
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STRAIN AS A RATIO OF TWO LENGTHS

▫ Strain measurement is a key element of
materials testing.
▫ The physical properties of materials are
usually represented by a stress-strain
curve.
▫ Strain measurement also plays a vital role
in testing the durability of materials subject
to alternating strains during service (e.g.
engine parts).
▫ Devices designed to measure strain are
referred to as extensometers.
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AREA
▫ Area is a derived, or secondary, physical quantity. It
plays a significant role in many engineering problems.

▫ For example, the rate of heat transfer from a surface is

directly proportional to the exposed surface area.
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AREA
▫ Let us now investigate the relationship
between a given volume and exposed
surface area.

▫ Consider a 1 m X 1 m X 1 m cube.
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AREA
▫ Area plays an important role in
aerodynamics as well.
▫ Air resistance to the motion of a vehicle
is something that all of you are familiar
with.
▫ Engineers have learned that when
designing new vehicles, the total
exposed surface area and the frontal
area are important factors in reducing air
resistance.
drag force
drag coefficient 
1
air density air speed2 frontal area 
2
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AREA
AREA CALCULATIONS 25
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AREA CALCULATIONS

A composite surface (surface of a heat sink) that may be divided into primitive areas. Some
Useful Area Formulas
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APPROXIMATION OF PLANAR AREAS

▫ There are many practical engineering problems that
require calculation of planar areas of irregular shapes.
▫ If the irregularities of the boundaries are such that they
will not allow for the irregular shape to be represented
by a sum of primitive shapes, then we need to resort to
an approximation method.
▫ For these situations, you may approximate planar
areas using any of the procedures discussed next.
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APPROXIMATION OF PLANAR AREAS

▫ Trapezoidal Rule:
1. To determine the total area of the shape,
we use the trapezoidal approximation.
2. We begin by dividing the total area into
small trapezoids of equal height h, as
depicted in the figure.
3. We then find the sum the areas of the
trapezoids.
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APPROXIMATION OF PLANAR AREAS

▫ Trapezoidal Rule:
1. Thus, we begin with the equation

A  A1  A2  A3   An

2. Substituting for the values of each

trapezoid gives

A
h
y0  y1  h  y1  y2   h y2  y3    h  yn1  yn 
2 2 2 2
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VOLUME
VOLUME CALCULATIONS 31
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VOLUME CALCULATIONS
▫ Example
Estimate the inside volume of a soda can.
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SECOND MOMENTS OF AREAS

▫ The second moment of area, also known
as the area moment of inertia, is an
important property of an area that
provides information on how hard it is to
bend something.
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SECOND MOMENTS OF AREAS

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SECOND MOMENTS OF AREAS

▫ To better understand this important property of an
area and the role of the second moment of area in
offering a measure of resistance to bending, try the
following experiment.
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SECOND MOMENTS OF AREAS

▫ For a small area element A, located at a distance r from the axis z–
z, the area moment of inertia is defined by I z  z  r 2 A
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SECOND MOMENTS OF AREAS

▫ Now let us expand this problem to include more small area
elements, as shown in the figure. The area moment of inertia for
the system of discrete areas shown about the z –z axis is now
I z  z  r12 A1  r2 2 A2  r32 A3
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SECOND MOMENTS OF AREAS

▫ Examples of area moment of inertia formulas for some common
geometric