TransWikia.com

Center of rotation (rigid body)

Engineering Asked by Federico Toso on December 22, 2020

I know the meaning of (instantaneous) “center of rotation” and “center of zero acceleration” for a rigid body. I know that they do not coincide (in general) and that their positions change with the motion of the rigid body.

Then I know that for each point of the body we can define an instantaneous “center of curvature” related to the trajectory. My question is, how are these centers of curvature related to the “center of rotation” and “center of zero acceleration” of the whole rigid body? Is there any relation among them, in the most general case?

One Answer

Thought experiment -

Given a free body $B$ that is being acted on by forces, find its instantaneous center of rotation $P1$ and its instantaneous center of zero acceleration $P2$.

Does this let us solve for the center of curvature for any point $P$ on the body?

To do so, we need the acceleration vector at $P$ and the velocity vector at $P$. That lets us define the osculating circle to the path of $P$ at that instant.

Given the coordinates of $P$, we know the direction of the velocity vector is perpendicular to the segment $P$ to $P1$, but what is it's magnitude? We need the magnitude of the velocity at some other point (not $P$) to calculate it. The only other point is $P2$. But we know only it's velocity direction also, not it's magnitude. Similarly, we know the direction of the acceleration vector is perpendicular to the segment $P$ to $P2$, but not it's magnitude, and we don't know the acceleration magnitude of $P1$ either, so we can't derive it.

So knowing the ICR and center of zero acceleration does not provide sufficient constraints to determine the ICC. We know the vector towards the ICC will be co-linear with segment $overline{PP1}$. But we don't know the distance.

Answered by Phil Sweet on December 22, 2020

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question

Get help from others!

© 2024 TransWikia.com. All rights reserved. Sites we Love: PCI Database, UKBizDB, Menu Kuliner, Sharing RPP