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Division of Engineering
Brown University
Figure 5.1: Deformations experienced by an aircraft are small relative to its motion.
As an example, the flutter of an aircraft wing during the course of a flight is clearly negligible relative to the motion of the aircraft as a whole. On the other hand, if one was interested
in stresses induced in the wing as a consequence of the flutter, these deformations become of primary importance.
In the following, we will restrict attention to the planar motion of rigid bodies. In particular, we will take all rigid bodies to be thin slabs with motion constrained to lie within the plane
of the slab. Unless otherwise indicated, we will assume basis vectors of the form {i, j, k}, such that i and j lie in the plane, with k is the plane normal.
Before we can proceed to this, however, we need to be able to analyze motion relative to a set of translating axes.
In the following we will restrict our attention to moving reference frames that translate but do not rotate.
Consider two particles A and B moving along independent trajectories in the plane, and a fixed reference O. Let and be the positions of particles A and B in the fixed reference.
Instead of observing the motion of particle A relative to the fixed reference as we have done in the past, we will attach a non-rotating reference to particle B and observe the motion of
A relative to the moving reference at B. Let i and j be basis vectors of the moving reference, then the position vector of A relative to the reference at B, denoted is,
where the subscript stands for "A with respect to B" or "A relative to B". Observe that, as the moving frame does not rotate, basis vectors i and j do not change in time. Therefore,
taking time derivatives, we obtain simply,
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which can be interpreted as the velocity of A relative to B. Now we can express the absolute position vector of A as,
Differentiating the equation in time to obtain expressions for the absolute velocity and acceleration of particle A:
or the absolute velocity of A equals the absolute velocity of B plus the velocity of A relative to B, , and similarly for the acceleration. The relative terms are the velocity or
acceleration measured by an observer attached to the moving reference at particle B.
Translation, rectilinear and curvilinear: Motion in which every line in the body remains parallel to its original position. The motion of the body is completely specified by the motion
of any point in the body. All points of the body have the same velocity and same acceleration.
Rotation about a fixed axis: All particles move in circular paths about the axis of rotation. The motion of the body is completely determined by the angular velocity of the rotation.
General plane motion: Any plane motion that is neither a pure rotation nor a translation falls into this class. However, as we will see below, a general plane motion can always be
reduced to the sum of a translation and a rotation.
We proceed by demonstrating that every motion of a planar rigid body is associated with a single angular velocity and angular acceleration , describing the angular displacement
of an arbitrary line inscribed in the body relative to a fixed direction.
Consider a rigid body undergoing plane motion. The angular positions of two arbitrary lines 1 and 2 attached to the body are specified by and measured relative to any
convenient fixed reference direction. These are related to the intermediate angle shown as,
Observe that as the body is rigid, requiring that the distance between each pair of points on the two lines 1 and 2 is constant, angle must be invariant. Differentiating the relation
above with this in mind,
These hold for arbitrary lines attached to the body, implying in turn that the body can be associated with a unique angular velocity , defined as,
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for an arbitrary line attached to the body. Arguing analogously, the body can be associated with a unique angular acceleration defined as,
Consequently, we have the property that all lines on a rigid body in its plane of motion have the same angular displacement, the same angular velocity and the same angular
acceleration .
Next, consider the motion of a rigid body over the interval as shown, with arbitrary point taken as reference. Clearly, the motion can be consider to occur in two stages: a
translation with reference taking arbitrary line to an intermediate position ; and a rotation about point taking to its final position . This corresponds to a
decomposition of the motion into the sum of a translation and a rotation. While the translational motion is described by the velocity and acceleration of the reference point, the
rotational motion is characterized by the unique angular velocity and angular acceleration associated with the body. Thus, we have the property that the motion of a rigid body
can be decomposed into a translation of an arbitrary point within the body, followed by a rigid rotation of the body about this point. Further, the motion of an arbitrary point within the
body is determined completely once the translational quantities and , and rotational quantities and are known.
Consider a rigid body moving in the plane with angular velocity and angular acceleration , and two arbitrary points A and B of the body. We will examine the motion of this body
in both, the fixed reference O shown, as well as relative to a non-rotating reference attached to point B. Proceeding, we express the absolute position of point A in terms of the absolute
position of point B as,
where is the position of A relative to B. An analogous expression for absolute velocities follows by taking time derivatives,
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Now, as the body moves, point A traces a circular path of radius relative to point B, keeping the distance between the two unchanged. The angular velocity of this motion is
simply the angular velocity of the rigid body. Then, using results derived previously for the time derivatives of rotating vectors we have:
or,
Observe that the expression reflects the decomposition of rigid body motion referred to previously. With B chosen as reference, the velocity of A is the vector sum of a translational
portion and a rotational portion .
Proceeding to derive expressions for the acceleration of an arbitrary point of a rigid body, we differentiate the equation for velocities to obtain,
or,
Thus, like the absolute velocity, the absolute acceleration of point A is the vector sum of a translational portion and a rotational portion .
Consider an arbitrary point A of a rigid body rotating with angular velocity and angular acceleration about axis O. Let and be unit vectors tethered to point A as shown,
with tangent and normal to the path of A. Then, using the kinematical relations for general rigid motion with axis O taken as reference, we obtain expressions for the velocity
and acceleration of point A:
where is the position vector of A relative to the axis. Now, as the motion is planar, the angular velocity and angular acceleration have the form,
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or,
where can be recognized as the normal or centripetal acceleration, and is the tangential acceleration.
Figure 5.1.9: Velocities and accelerations associated with fixed axis rotation.
To help develop some intuition, we turn to examine the structure of the velocity and acceleration fields over the rotating body. For velocities we have simply,
or the velocity of a point in the body is perpendicular to the line connecting the point to the axis of rotation, with magnitude proportional to its distance from the axis. The acceleration,
on the other hand, is composed of the two pieces:
while the centripetal acceleration is directed towards the axis, the tangential acceleration is along , towards the axis of rotation.
alternately,
Figure 5.1.10: Alternate angular conventions for use with planar rotations.
In either case, must be tangent to the path of the point of interest and point in the direction of increasing .
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Observe that when polar coordinates are used, the coordinates of a point of a rotating body are determined by its angular displacement alone:
Therefore, in order to describe the motion of A, all that is necessary is a determination of for all time during the motion. Now, as angular velocity and angular acceleration
describe the rotation of any line in the body, we have the relations
Given or , therefore, techniques developed previously can be applied to integrate these to determine and the motion of A.
An example of this form of contact is that between gears in a gear train: spur, bevel, helical or worm gears. In our consideration of planar motion, however, we are limited to analyzing
contact between gears that have a common axis of rotation.
Consider the motion of instantaneously contacting points A and B, each on one of a pair of interlocking gears. Applying our contact relationship to A and B, we have
or,
However, as we have,
where , and , are the radii and angular velocities of the two gears, respectively. Taking time derivatives, we obtain a relationship between the accelerations of points A and
B,
or the ratio of angular velocities of a pair of gears is inversely proportional to the ratio of their radii.
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Contact of this form is encountered in belt, rope, and chain drives of all kinds, as well as between rack and pinion gears.
As before, consider the motion of instantaneously contacting points, A on the rotating body, and B on the translating one. As the two points must have identical absolute velocities, the
velocity of point B must be directed along , tangent to the path of A. Additionally,
We proceed by returning to the equations we had derived for the arbitrary motion of a rigid body. Recall that these related the velocity and acceleration of a point A in the body
to the translational motion of an arbitrary reference point B ( and ), and the absolute rotational motion of the body ( and ) as,
As in the case of fixed axis rotation we simplify these expressions by introducing a set of n-t coordinates. Unlike those used previously, however, the coordinates introduced here refer
to the motion of A relative to the reference at B. Therefore, is directed towards point B, the center of the relative motion, and is directed along , tangent to the path of A
relative to B.
which can be recognized as a superposition of translational and rotational components, each of which we understand very well.
or,
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with normal and tangential accelerations of the form,
Therefore, like the velocity, the acceleration of A is a superposition of translational and rotational components. While the normal component is directed along , towards the axis of
the rotational motion of A relative to B, the tangential component is directed along , tangent to the path of A relative to B.
alternately,
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