Theory

Angular Moment of Inertia:

Angular moment of inertia is the measure of a body's resistance to angular acceleration, equal
to:

 The product of the mass of a particle and the square of its distance from an axis of rotation.
 The sum of the products of each mass element of a body multiplied by the square of its
distance from an axis.
 The sum of the products of each element of an area multiplied by the square of its distance
from a coplanar axis. (1)

Bifilar Suspensions:

The Bifilar Suspension is a technique that could be applied to objects of different shapes, but
capable to be suspended by two parallel equal-length cables, in order to evaluate its mass
moment of inertia I about any point within the body. In this experiment, the technique will be
applied to find the mass moment of inertia of a regular cross-section steel beam about its centre
of gravity. (2)

Description and Derivation:

Suspension Point


Reference
(neutral) axis

Chord

Axis of rotation
l
Chuck
Centre of Gravity Beam
CG (L, M, I)

b
L

Figure 1(General layout of Bifilar suspension)

Bifilar Suspension Technique
In the system shown in Figure and under equilibrium conditions, the tension force in each
chord is equal to Mg/2 and by disturbing the system with an initial angular displacement 
about the middle point in the horizontal plane, it will oscillate with a time-varying angle θ(t)
under the action of the tension forces in the chords.

Derivation

Reactions from figure;

𝑚𝑔
𝑇𝐴 = = 𝑇𝐵
2

As we know that S= r x θ,

𝐴𝐴′ = 𝑙∅𝐴 = 𝑑𝜃

Also

𝐵𝐵′ = 𝑙∅𝐵 = 𝑑𝜃

𝑑𝜃
∅𝐵 =
𝑙
From figure; Figure 2(Bifilar suspension Forces diagram)

𝑚𝑔 𝑑𝜃
𝑇𝐴 𝑠𝑖𝑛∅𝐴 = 𝑇𝐴 . ∅𝐴 = . … … … … (1)
2 𝑙

𝑚𝑔 𝑑𝜃
𝑇𝐵 𝑠𝑖𝑛∅𝐵 = 𝑇𝐵 . ∅𝐵 = . … … … … … (2)
2 𝑙

So,

𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑒 = 𝑇𝐴 𝑠𝑖𝑛∅𝐴 . 𝑑 + 𝑇𝐵 𝑠𝑖𝑛∅𝐵 . 𝑑

From Equation (1) and (2) respectively,

𝑚𝑔 𝑑𝜃 𝑚𝑔 𝑑𝜃
𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑒 = . .𝑑 + . .𝑑
2 𝑙 2 𝑙

𝜃 2
𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑒 = 𝑚𝑔. . 𝑑 … … … (3)
𝑙

𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑒 = 𝐼 ∝
 𝜃 2
𝐼 ∝= 𝑚𝑔. .𝑑 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑒𝑞. 3
𝑙

𝜃 𝐼. 𝑙
= … … … … . . (4)
∝ 𝑚𝑔. 𝑑 2

As we know that Time period will be

𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡(𝜃)
𝑇 = 2𝜋
𝐴𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛(𝛼)

𝐼.𝑙
𝑇 = 2𝜋 From eq. 4
𝑚𝑔.𝑑2

So,

𝑚𝑔.𝑑 2 𝑇 2
𝐼=
4𝜋2 .𝑙

This is the Moment of Inertia of Bifilar Suspension.

References

1. Angular Moment of Inertia. The Free Dictionary. [Online] 1st April 2019.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Angular+inertia.
2. Bifilar suspension . World Press.com. [Online] 1st April 2019.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Bifilar+suspension+and+its+derivations&oq=Bifilar+sus
pension+and+its+derivations&aqs=chrome..69i57.12334j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8.