MEE311: MECHANICS OF MACHINES 1

LECTURE NOTES

PART 4

KINEMATICS OF MECHANISMS
4.1 Acceleration Analysis of 4-Bar Mechanism – Graphical Method

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY OF BENIN

COURSE LECTURERS:
ENGR. DR. E. G. SADJERE
DR. I. B. OWUNNA

JANUARY 2021
4.1 Acceleration Analysis of 4-Bar Mechanism – Graphical Method
Just like the velocity analysis, the acceleration of the 4-bar linkage can be determined graphically. To do
this and like in the case with the velocity analysis, we will use relative acceleration; but, in addition, we
have to make recourse to the use of unit vectors in the normal and tangential coordinate system, as we have
in section 2.3 in the acceleration analysis of rotating reference frames. A quick recap on the relative
acceleration principle.
Relative Acceleration of Particles in Mechanism
Given two particle P and Q, then,

𝒂𝑃 = 𝒂𝑄 + 𝒂𝑃⁄ 4.1
𝑄

The particles are expected to be in different links.

Relative Acceleration of Particles in a Common Link

Figure 4.1 Particles on the same link

(a) Path of P relative to Q (b) Path of Q relative to P

Figure 4.1 shows two particles P and Q in the same rigid link. The two particles are constrained by the fixed
distance PQ between them; hence, they will move in circular paths relative to each other. In other words,
when Q is the fulcrum, P will make a circular arc about Q and vice versa. Therefore, since the path of P
relative to Q is circular, the acceleration vector 𝒂𝑃𝑄 may be represented by the normal and tangential
components, 𝒂𝑛 𝑡
𝑃𝑄 and 𝒂𝑃𝑄 respectively (see section 2.3). Because the path of motion is circular, the normal
is along the radius joining P to Q, i.e., PQ, and the acceleration is towards Q or towards the radius of
curvature and the tangent is perpendicular to the radius PQ in a direction defined by the angular acceleration.
If the link is designated as link 3, say, then, for the circular path of P relative to Q, the angular velocity 𝜔𝑅
is the absolute angular velocity 𝜔3 of link 3.
The magnitudes of the normal and tangential accelerations are:
2
𝑉𝑃𝑄
|𝒂𝑛𝑃𝑄 | = 𝑅𝜔32 = (𝑃𝑄)𝜔32 = 𝑃𝑄
4.2

2
𝑉𝑃𝑄
|𝒂𝑡𝑃𝑄 | = 𝑅𝛼3 = (𝑃𝑄)𝛼3 =
𝑃𝑄
4.3

Figure 3.14b is the relative acceleration vectors 𝒂𝑛 𝑡

𝑄𝑃 and 𝒂𝑄𝑃 of Q relative to P where the magnitudes
and senses of ω3 and α3 remain the same as in Figure 3.14a. It is noted that 𝒂𝑛𝑄𝑃 = −𝒂𝑛𝑃𝑄 and 𝒂𝑡𝑄𝑃 =
−𝒂𝑡𝑃𝑄 , where the minus signs indicate “opposite in sense”.
The procedure for the acceleration analysis will be illustrated with the 4-bar linkage shown in Figure 3.15.
The harrowing part of this exercise is that the acceleration can only be determined after the position and
velocity analyses are carried out.
Sample Problem
A 4-bar linkage is frozen at the phase shown in Figure 3.15. Link 4 is a block sliding along the curved
surface shown. When the mechanism is in the phase shown, the driver, link 2 has an angular acceleration
𝜔2 = 30 𝑟𝑎𝑑/𝑠𝑒𝑐 and 𝛼2 = 240 𝑟𝑎𝑑/𝑠𝑒𝑐 2 in the directions given. Determine the acceleration 𝒂𝐵 of point
B, the acceleration 𝒂𝐶 of point C, the angular acceleration α3 of link 3, angular acceleration α4 of link 4
and the relative acceleration α34.

Figure 4.2: Four-bar Linkage for Acceleration Analysis

Solution
First, we will determine the velocities using the following relative velocities.

I 𝒗𝐵 = 𝒗𝐴 + 𝒗𝐵𝐴 4.4

II 𝒗𝐶 = 𝒗𝐴 + 𝒗𝐶𝐴 4.5

III 𝒗𝐶 = 𝒗𝐵 + 𝒗𝐶𝐵 4.6

The following are what we know.

𝑣𝐴 ≡ direction perpendicular to O2A; magnitude = O2Aω2 = 10.2 x 30 = 306 cm/sec

𝑣𝐵 ≡ direction perpendicular to O4B; magnitude unknown
 𝑣𝐵𝐴 ≡ direction perpendicular to BA; magnitude unknown
𝑣𝑐 ≡ direction unknown; magnitude unknown
𝑣𝐶𝐴 ≡ direction perpendicular to CA; magnitude unknown
𝑣𝐶𝐵 ≡ direction perpendicular to CB; magnitude unknown
We have drawn our mechanism using a scale of 1:2 with mm as our unit. We then procced to draw
the velocity diagram using the details known, starting with velocity 𝑣𝐴 , which is perpendicular to
link 2 and has a magnitude of 306 cm/sec. A scale 1:3 was used. We proceed as discussed in section
3.3.3 to complete the velocity diagram. The links were measured and converted back to velocities.

Figure 4.3: Solution with position diagram and velocity polygon

These are:
Parameter Polygon Length Velocity Original Velocity

𝑣𝐴 ≡ 102 mm = 306 cm/sec = 306 cm/sec

𝑣𝐵 ≡ 122 mm = 366 cm/sec = 366 cm/sec
𝑣𝐵𝐴 ≡ 76 mm = 228 cm/sec = 230 cm/sec
𝑣𝑐 ≡ 77 mm = 231 cm/sec = not given
𝑣𝐶𝐴 ≡ 38 mm = 114 cm/sec = 113 cm/sec
𝑣𝐶𝐵 ≡ 58 mm = 174 cm/sec = 175 cm/sec

Determination of Acceleration
Acceleration is determined by using the following relative acceleration relations:

IV 𝒂𝐵 = 𝒂𝐴 + 𝒂𝐵𝐴 4.7

𝒂𝑛𝐵 + 𝒂𝑡𝐵 = 𝒂𝐴𝑛 + 𝒂𝐴𝑡 + 𝒂𝑛𝐵𝐴 + 𝒂𝑡𝐵𝐴 4.8

We will now check for what we know.

2
𝑣𝐵 3662
𝑎𝐵𝑛 ≡ Magnitude = = = 6598; direction from B towards O4
𝑂4 𝐵 20.3

𝑎𝐵𝑡 ≡ Magnitude unknown: direction perpendicular to 𝒂𝑛𝐵

2
𝑣𝐴 3062
𝑎𝐴𝑛 ≡ Magnitude = = = 9180; direction from A towards O2
𝑂2 𝐴 10.2

𝑎𝐴𝑡 ≡ Magnitude = (𝑂2 𝐴)𝛼2 = (10.2) ∗ 240 = 2448; direction perpendicular to 𝒂𝐴𝑛
2
𝑛 𝑣𝐵𝐴 2302
𝑎𝐵𝐴 ≡ Magnitude = = = 2605; direction from B towards A
𝐵𝐴 20.3
𝑡
𝑎𝐵𝐴 ≡ Magnitude unknown; direction perpendicular to 𝒂𝑛𝐵𝐴

Construction

With the known information, we now start construction from the fully defined of 𝒂𝐴𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝒂𝐴𝑡 . We
followed the following steps.
Step 1: Draw a line parallel to O2A (using parallel transfer); mark out an acceleration polygon origin Oa and
measure length equivalent to 𝑎𝐴𝑛 = 9180 to scale in the direction A towards O2. The scale for our
construction is scale 1:100 and the length will be 91.8mm. With this large scale, the accuracy of our
construction will be very limited.
𝑡 𝑛 𝑡
Step 2: Draw 𝒂𝐴 perpendicular to 𝒂𝐴 at the last marked point and mark out the magnitude of 𝒂𝐴 = 2448
or 24.5mm in our drawing. This point is marked A and when connected to Oa gives the acceleration 𝑎𝐴 .
Step 3: Steps 1 and 2 are repeated for 𝒂𝑛 𝑡
𝐵 and 𝒂𝐵 in appropriately defined directions parallel to and from
B towards O4 and perpendicular to 𝒂𝑛
𝐵 respectively.

Figure 4.4: Acceleration Polygons

However, since the magnitude 𝒂𝑡𝐵 is unknown, point B cannot be fixed just yet

Step 4: Steps 1 and 2 are repeated for the relative acceleration components 𝒂𝑛
𝐵𝐴 + 𝒂𝑡𝐵𝐴 starting from the
known point A and with 𝒂𝑛 𝑡 𝑛
𝐵𝐴 parallel to BA from B towards A and 𝒂𝐵𝐴 perpendicular to 𝒂𝐵𝐴 . The latter
vector, 𝒂𝑡𝐵𝐴 will intersect the previous line 𝒂𝑡𝐵 at point B. this completes the construction according to
Eqn. 3.16b.

Step 5: Lines from the origin Oa are drawn to various points to measure absolute velocities including 𝒂𝐴 ,
𝒂𝐵 , and 𝒂𝐵𝐴 . All lines of the acceleration polygon are measured and converted to acceleration of the
respective points as shown below.

Parameter Polygon Length Velocity Original Velocity

𝑎𝐴 ≡ 94.5 mm = 9450 cm/sec2 = Not given

𝑎𝐵 ≡ 71.5 mm = 7150 cm/sec2 = 7040 cm/sec2
𝑎𝐵𝐴 ≡ 131.5 mm = 13550 cm/sec2 = Not given
𝑎𝐵𝑡 ≡ 28 mm = 2800 cm/sec2 = 2470 cm/sec2
𝑡
𝑎𝐵𝐴 ≡ 130 mm = 13000 cm/sec2 = 12900 cm/sec2
𝑎𝐵𝐴 12,900
𝛼3 ≡ = = 635 rad/sec2 (ccw)
𝐵𝐴 20.3
𝑡
𝑎𝐵 2470
𝛼4 ≡ = = 122 rad/sec2 (cw)
𝑂4 𝐵 20.3

𝛼34 ≡ 𝛼3 − 𝛼4 = 635 − (−122) = 757 rad/sec2 (ccw)

The sense of the angular acceleration can be determined from that of the driver. The angular acceleration of
𝑛
the driver is counter clockwise (ccw) and the normal and tangential components are indicated as 𝒂𝐴 and
𝒂𝐴𝑡 with their senses. This sense of rotation can be compared to fix other angular accelerations.
The effect of large scale 1:100 can be seen in the large discrepancy in some of the results. Small scales are
advised and this is achieved by using large size paper.

Acceleration of other points

The coupler of the sample problem is triangular and has a vertex point C. To determine the acceleration of
point C, we consider the relative accelerations connecting the acceleration at point C to other points with
known accelerations. We use here:

V 𝒂𝐶 = 𝒂𝐴 + 𝒂𝑛𝐶𝐴 + 𝒂𝑡𝐶𝐴 4.9

VI 𝒂𝐶 = 𝒂𝐵 + 𝒂𝑛𝐶𝐵 + 𝒂𝑡𝐶𝐵 4.10

Usually, the relative acceleration equations to be used should be those that contain the parameter under
consideration.
Now, let’s see what we know.

𝑎𝐶 ≡ Magnitude unknown; direction unknown

2
𝑛 𝑣𝐶𝐴 1132
𝑎𝐶𝐴 ≡ Magnitude = = = 1252 cm/s2; direction from C towards A
𝐶𝐴 10.2
𝑡
𝑎𝐶𝐴 ≡ Magnitude unknown; direction perpendicular to 𝒂𝑛𝐶𝐴
2
𝑛 𝑣𝐶𝐵 1752
𝑎𝐶𝐵 ≡ Magnitude = = = 2014 cm/s2; direction from C towards B
𝐶𝐵 15.2
𝑡
𝑎𝐶𝐵 ≡ Magnitude unknown: direction perpendicular to 𝒂𝑛𝐶𝐵
The construction of the acceleration diagram for this section can be continued from Figure 4.4(i), the
diagram in the previous section, but for the sake of clarity another drawing Figure 4.4 (ii) was drawn. To do
this, the triangle OaAB is redrawn from Figure 4.4(i), after which the diagram was continued as in previous
section starting with the completely defined parameters.
𝑛
Step 6: Draw the acceleration vector 𝑎𝐶𝐴 with the calculated length 1,252 (12.5mm in drawing). This
should be parallel to CA and start from A. This may be drawn by parallel transfer as before.
𝑡 𝑛
Step 7: Draw the acceleration vector 𝑎𝐶𝐴 perpendicular to 𝑎𝐶𝐴 . The terminal point is undefined at this point.
𝑛
Step 8: Draw the acceleration vector 𝑎𝐶𝐵 with the calculated length 2,014 (20.mm in drawing) parallel to
𝑛
CB and starting from B. Note the direction of 𝑎𝐶𝐵 as towards B in the position diagram.
𝑡 𝑛 𝑡
Step 9: Draw the acceleration vector 𝑎𝐶𝐵 perpendicular to 𝑎𝐶𝐵 . This line will intersect the 𝑎𝐶𝐴 line at C.
Triangle ABC is the acceleration image of link 3. Acceleration of any point on the link can be determined
by locating the corresponding point on the acceleration polygon like point D, which is the mid-point of AC
in link 3. The accelerations are determined by measuring the appropriate lengths in the acceleration polygon
and converting them to acceleration units. The full work is illustrated in Figure 4.5.
Some acceleration values on link 3 are:
Parameter Polygon Length Velocity Original Velocity

𝑎𝐶 ≡ 102.5 mm = 10,250 cm/sec2 = Not given

𝑎𝐷 ≡ 53 mm = 5300 cm/sec2 = Not given
𝑎𝐶𝐴 ≡ 66.0 mm = 6600 cm/sec2 = Not given
𝑛
𝑎𝐶𝐴 ≡ 12,7 mm = 1270 cm/sec2 = Not given
𝑡
𝑎𝐶𝐴 ≡ 65 mm = 6500 cm/sec2 = Not given
𝑎𝐶𝐵 ≡ 95.5 mm = 9550 cm/sec2 = Not given
𝑛
𝑎𝐶𝐵 ≡ 20 mm = 2000 cm/sec2 = Not given
𝑡
𝑎𝐶𝐵 ≡ 95 mm = 9500 cm/sec2 = Not given
Figure 3.17: Solution with Acceleration Polygon