Engineering Mechanics

ENGG1802

Dynamics
Kinematics of Particles
Plane Curvilinear Normal and Tangential Coordinates
and Polar Coordinates

Week 10 Lecture 2
Examples
Example: Problem 2/115 (Meriam and Kraige Engineering Mechanics Dynamics 5th Edition Wiley and Sons.)
To simulate condition of “weightlessness” in its cabin, a jet transport airplane travelling at 800
km/h on a sustained vertical curve as shown. At what rate  in degrees per second should the
pilot drop his longitudinal line of sight to effect the desired condition. The manoeuvre takes place
at a mean altitude of 8 km and the gravitational acceleration may be taken as 9.79 m/s2. What is
the radius of curvature at this point?

v
t
at

an
n
The “weightlessness” will happen when: man=mg
(we will see this in more detail in kinetics of particles)
800
v  222.2 m / s V2
3.6 an   V   2

a n  V 9.79  222.2 
Image and actual flight chart by:
180
INCREDIBLE ADVENTURES   0.04406 rad / s  0.04406  2.52 deg/ s

V2 (222.2) 2
an    5043.2 m
 9.79
 Example: Problem 2/157 (Meriam and Kraige Engineering Mechanics Dynamics 7th Edition Wiley and Sons.)
A robot arm is elevating and extending simultaneously. At a given time,
  30  ,  10 deg/ s  constant , l  0.5 m, l  0.2 m/s l  0.3 m/s 2
a) Compute the magnitudes of the velocity (v), acceleration (a), of the gripped part P.
b) Express a and v in terms of unit vectors i and j

Acceleration in polar coordinates Velocity in polar coordinates

 r
a  (r  r )e r  (r  2r )e
2 v  r e r  r e

ar  r  r 2 vr  r
a  r  2r v  r
2 2
a  ar  a
2 2
v  vr  v

Angles need to be expressed in radians, r is measured wrt O:

  30  r  l  0.75  1.25 m

  10 deg/ s  10( )  0.1745 rad/s r  l  0.2 m/s
180
  0 r  l  0.3 m/s 2
Substitute into the velocity equations in polar coordinates:
2 2
vr  r  0.2 m/s v  vr  v  0.296 m/s
v  r  (1.25)(0.1745)  0.218 m/s v  0.2 e r  0.218 e m/s

Substitute into the acceleration equations in polar coordinates:

a  0.338e r  0.0698e m / s 2
ar  r  r 2  0.3  1.25(0.1745) 2  0.338 m/s 2
a  r  2r  (1.25)(0)  2(0.2)(0.1745)  0.0698 m/s 2 2 2
a  a r  a  0.345 m/s 2
 Example: Problem 2/157 (Meriam and Kraige Engineering Mechanics Dynamics 7th Edition Wiley and Sons.)
A robot arm is elevating and extending simultaneously. At a given time,
  30  ,  10 deg/ s  constant , l  0.5 m, l  0.2 m/s l  0.3 m/s 2
a) Compute the magnitudes of the velocity (v), acceleration (a), of the gripped part P.
b) Express a and v in terms of unit vectors i and j

v  0.2 e r  0.218 e m/s

a  0.338e r  0.0698e m/s 2  r
j
Part b) To express V and a in terms of unit vectors i-j, we first
e
resolve e and er in x and y directions to write them in terms of i-j.
By definition e er , i and j all have a unit (one) length:
er

e r  (1)(cos  )i  (1)(sin  ) j  i cos 30   j sin 30 

i
e  (1)(sin  )i  (1)(cos ) j  i sin 30   j cos 30 
Substitute into expression obtained for V and a to obtain the answers:

v  0.064 i  0.289 j m/s

a  0.328 i  0.1086 j m/s 2