Engineering Curves

Chapter - 7

Engineering Curves

At the end of this chapter we will be able to:

1. Classify the types of Engineering curves.

2. Define Cycloidal curves.

3. Construct cycloid, epicycloid and hypocycloid.

4. Construct involute of circle, square, pentagon and hexagon.

5. Draw tangent and normal through any point on the above curves.

INTRODUCTION:

A curve may be basically defined as a continuous line traced out by a moving point, moving by constantly changing its direction. Some of the curves are closed (examples: circle, ellipse) and some of the curves are open (examples: parabola, hyperbola, arc of a circle). The curves which are obtained by conic sections were presented in the last chapter (ellipse, parabola and hyperbola), but in engineering applications, non-conic section curves, called as special curves or Engineering curves are also used for a particular use like arch, machine components etc., These engineering curves may also be of either closed or open type, which cannot be drawn by using a compass alone. The construction methods of important engineering curves are presented in this chapter.