Lecture

Solid Mechanics: Kinematics

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Description

This lecture introduces the concept of rigid body mechanics, emphasizing the need to consider the spatial mass distribution for solids in motion. It covers the definition of a solid's position using independent coordinates, the derivation of velocity for any point on the solid, and the calculation of acceleration. The instructor explains the importance of understanding the motion of a solid relative to an inertial reference frame, detailing the evolution of a solid in a reference frame and the formulas for angular velocity. The lecture concludes with the formula for the acceleration of any point on the solid, highlighting the implications of the assumption of a rigid body on the terms in the acceleration formula.

In MOOC

Undeformable Solid Mechanics

This section deals with the mechanics of the undeformable solid. Whereas the entire course so far has been concerned with material points, we go beyond this model by considering any mass distribution that is totally rigid, i.e., undeformable. From the point of view of the art of modeling a physical system, we learn here how things get complicated when we refine a model. For most students, this is the chapter that brings them face to face for the first time with a so-called tensorial physical property: angul

Official source

Related concepts (25)

Rigid body

In physics, a rigid body, also known as a rigid object, is a solid body in which deformation is zero or negligible. The distance between any two given points on a rigid body remains constant in time regardless of external forces or moments exerted on it. A rigid body is usually considered as a continuous distribution of mass. In the study of special relativity, a perfectly rigid body does not exist; and objects can only be assumed to be rigid if they are not moving near the speed of light.

Angular velocity

In physics, angular velocity (symbol ω, sometimes Ω), also known as angular frequency vector, is a pseudovector representation of how the angular position or orientation of an object changes with time, i.e. how quickly an object rotates (spins or revolves) around an axis of rotation and how fast the axis itself changes direction. The magnitude of the pseudovector, , represents the angular speed (or angular frequency), the rate at which the object rotates (spins or revolves).

Kinematics

Kinematics is a subfield of physics, developed in classical mechanics, that describes the motion of points, bodies (objects), and systems of bodies (groups of objects) without considering the forces that cause them to move. Kinematics, as a field of study, is often referred to as the "geometry of motion" and is occasionally seen as a branch of mathematics. A kinematics problem begins by describing the geometry of the system and declaring the initial conditions of any known values of position, velocity and/or acceleration of points within the system.

Rigid body dynamics

In the physical science of dynamics, rigid-body dynamics studies the movement of systems of interconnected bodies under the action of external forces. The assumption that the bodies are rigid (i.e. they do not deform under the action of applied forces) simplifies analysis, by reducing the parameters that describe the configuration of the system to the translation and rotation of reference frames attached to each body. This excludes bodies that display fluid, highly elastic, and plastic behavior.

Inverse kinematics

In computer animation and robotics, inverse kinematics is the mathematical process of calculating the variable joint parameters needed to place the end of a kinematic chain, such as a robot manipulator or animation character's skeleton, in a given position and orientation relative to the start of the chain. Given joint parameters, the position and orientation of the chain's end, e.g. the hand of the character or robot, can typically be calculated directly using multiple applications of trigonometric formulas, a process known as forward kinematics.

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