AE 352: Aerospace Dynamics II, Fall 2008

Example 2

Problem 1. Consider the standard pendulum of length l , mass m. (a) Find the virtual displacement of the tip of the pendulum. Solution. Using the standard polar coordinates attached to the pendulum, the position of the mass is: r = l er (1) Now, we want to nd r. The standard formula we have for this is: r = r (2)

Applying this to equation (1), and noting that l is not a function of , while er is a function of , we have: er (3) r = l Now, we can write our moving unit vectors in terms of xed cartesian unit vectors: er = sin i cos j e = sin i + cos j So the virtual displacement becomes: r = l cos i + l sin j = l e (5) (4)

This is a bit tricky.

(b) Find the velocity and acceleration of the mass. Solution. To calculate the velocity v, we can use RAT or differentiate the position vector r. If we differentiate, we get: v = l er = l e (6)

To calculate the acceleration a, we can use RAT or differentiate the velocity vector. Either way, we get a = l e l 2 er (7)

(c) Find the equation of motion for the pendulum using DAlemberts principle. Solution. DAlemberts principle for a single particle is (F ma) r = 0 (8)

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AE 352: Aerospace Dynamics II, Fall 2008

where F are the applied external forces. After drawing a free body diagram, we should get F = mg sin e + mg cos er . Note that we are ignoring the tension in the pendulum rod (which we should have drawn in the FBD) it is not an external, applied force. Plugging F, a, r into equation (8), we get (mg sin e + mg cos er ml e + ml 2 er ) l e = 0 Taking the dot product, we get (ml + mg sin )l = 0 (10) (9)

And nally, assuming arbitrary virtual displacements (i.e. can be anything), we see that the terms in parenthesis must be equal to zero, and we have: ml + mg sin = 0 g + sin = 0 l which is the standard differential equation of motion for a pendulum. or (11)

(12)

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