‫‪“ CORIOLIS ACCELERATION AND ITS‬‬

‫” ‪APPLICATION‬‬

‫اعداد الطالب ‪ /‬مصطفى عبد الكريم نور‬

‫المرحلة ‪ /‬الثالثة‬

‫الفرع ‪ /‬طائرات‬

‫قسم الهندسة الميكانيكية‬

‫‪1‬‬
Introduction
Machines and mechanisms running at a high speed are considered by a
kinematic analysis of their velocities and accelerations, and subsequently
analyzed as dynamic systems in which forces due to accelerations are
analyzed using the principles of kinetics. Force and stress analysis is based
on the acceleration analysis of links and points of interest in the mechanism
or machine. In classical mechanics there are many ways to derive equations
of accelerations. The Coriolis acceleration is the product of the linear motion
of an object on the rotating table Textbooks in classical mechanics calculate
the Coriolis acceleration and a force for common case as follows :
ac = 2Vω

Fc = 2mVω

where ac is the Coriolis acceleration, ω is the angular velocity of the disc,

and V is the linear velocity of the object travelling on the table, m is the mass
of the object, and Fc is the Coriolis force. Equation 1 is a classical formula.
The components of the angular velocity ω and the linear velocity V are
applied for both uniform and accelerated motions of machine elements.
However, this approach is not logically correct, because any differences in
motions of elements of mechanisms should be reflected in the equations that
describe these motions. For example, mechanisms, which have Coriolis
effects, can have the linear and rotating motions that are uniform and/or
accelerated. Some textbooks derive Coriolis acceleration and its force on a
base of the uniform velocities. An object of the mass m travels from the
.centre O towards B on the edge of a rotating disk as shown in Figure 1

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 Figure 1. Sketch for calculation of the Coriolis acceleration .

the following analysis of the accepted motions of the object m on a

rotating disc shows the following circumstances (Fig. 1) :

a) The motion of the object m and the rotation of the disc are independent
and no forces are acting between the object m and the disc.
b) The linear motion of the object m and the rotary motion of the disc are
uniform, hence the relative trajectory of a motion OC of the object m on the
rotating disc is the Archimedes curve. The principle of the Archimedes
curve states that any point of the curve gives uniform velocities of
components and without acceleration.
c) The distance BC is a result of uniform motions and calculated by the
equation BC = ω*(OB)* Δt = VtB*Δt, where VtB is the constant tangential
velocity of the point B.

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d) The distance BC is the length between the point B of disc and the point C
of the Archimedes curve as calculated by Eq. (2), which expresses the
rotation of the disc with acceleration that contradict to the accepted initial
conditions.
e) These circumstances show that Eq. (2), which describes the motion with
acceleration cannot be used for analysis and for the following derivation of
the Coriolis acceleration.

Three types of motions for Coriolis acceleration :

a) uniform motions of the object and the table
b) uniform motion of the object and the accelerated rotation of the table
c) accelerated motion of the object and the uniform rotation of the table

Analytical approach :
(1) Coriolis effect for uniform motions of the object and the rotating
table.
The object m travels on the rotating disc and its trajectory represented by
the line OA (Fig. 1). Rotation of the disc on the angle γ changes the vector
velocity direction V of the object m on the vector velocity direction VA. This
change in the direction of the vector velocity is represented by the vector Vγ,
whose expression is represented by the following equation:
Vγ = -Vsinγ
where γ is an angle of rotation of a disc, other components are as
specified above. The magnitude of the vector velocity Vγ depends on the
change in the object’s radius location on the disc.

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(2) Coriolis effect for the uniform motion of the object and the
accelerated rotation of the table .
Rotation of the disc is variable and an angular acceleration changes the
magnitude of the vector velocity Vγ = aγt of the object m (Fig. 1). The
distance AB can be calculated by the equation of a variable motion AB =
act2/2, and distance OB by the equation of a uniform motion OB = Vt. The
angle γ of triangle AOB is small, then AB = OBsinγ, and accepted sinγ = γ .
After substituting defined magnitudes of the triangle sides

where γ = ɛt2/2 is an angle of rotation of a disc with acceleration ɛ, other

components are as specified above. After substitution and the following
transformation give equation of the Coriolis acceleration and its force for the
uniform motion of the object and the accelerated rotation of the table
ac = -Vtɛ
Fc = mVtɛ

(3) Coriolis effect for the accelerated motion of the object and the
uniform rotation of the table .

Rotation of the disc is uniform and a vector of the object is variable. The
equation of the vector velocity Vγ = aγt of the object m (Fig. 1). The distance
AB can be calculated by the equation of a variable motion AB = act2/2, and
distance OB by the equation of an accelerated motion OB = at2/2. If angle γ
of triangle AOB is small, then AB = OBsinγ, and accepted sinγ = γ . After
substituting defined magnitudes of the triangle sides,

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 where γ = ωt is a variable angle of uniform rotation of a disc, other
component are as specified above, a is an acceleration of the object; other
components are specified above. The following transformation gives
equation of the Coriolis acceleration and its force for the uniform motion of
the object and the accelerated rotation of the table .
ac = -aωt

Fc = maωt

(4) Coriolis effect for the accelerated motions of the object and rotating
table .

Rotation of the disc is accelerated and a vector of the object is variable.

The magnitude of the vector velocity Vγ = aγt of the object m (Fig. 1). The
distance AB can be calculated by the equation of a variable motion AB =
act2/2, and distance OB by the equation of an accelerated motion OB =
at2/2. The angle γ of triangle AOB is small, then AB = OBsinγ, and accepted
sinγ = γ. After substituting defined magnitudes of the triangle sides

where γ = ɛt2/2 is the angle of rotation of the table with acceleration,

other components are as stated. After substituting and the following
transformation give the equation of the Coriolis acceleration and its force for
the uniform motion of the object and the accelerated rotation of the table

ac = -aɛt2/2

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Fc = maɛt2/2

Table 1: Coriolis Acceleration for Uniform and Accelerated Motions of the

Object and the Rotating Table .

Application to rotating fluids and to Earth.

The equations of motion appropriate to the atmosphere and ocean differ

from that considered up to now in two significant ways. First, it isn’t just the
reference frame that rotates, but the entire Earth, ocean and atmosphere,
aside from the comparatively small (but very important!) relative motion of
winds and ocean currents. One consequence of the solid body rotation of the
Earth is that the horizontal component of the centrifugal force on a particle
that is stationary in the rotating frame is canceled by a component of the
gravitational mass attraction. Thus the centrifugal force does not appear in
the rotating frame dynamical equations for the atmosphere and oceans, a
welcome simplification (Section 1 ). Second, because the Earth is nearly
spherical, the rotation vector is not perpendicular to the plane of horizontal
motions except at the poles. This causes the horizontal component of the
Coriolis force to vary with latitude (Section 2 ). Finally, in this section we

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also make the case that the rotating frame equations of motion are indeed
simpler than the inertial frame equations when applied to geophysical
flows. (Section 3 ).

(1) Cancelation of the centrifugal force .

FIGURE (A) The gravitational acceleration due to mass attraction is

shown as the vector g_ that points to the center of a spherical, homogeneous
planet. The centrifugal acceleration, C, associated with the planet’s rotation
is directed normal to and away from the rotation axis. The combined
gravitational and centrifugal acceleration is shown as the heavier vector, g.
This vector is in the direction of a plumb line, and defines vertical. A
surface that is normal to g similarly defines a level surface, and has the
approximate shape of an oblate spheroid (the solid curve). The ellipse of this
diagram has a flatness F = 0.1 that approximates Saturn. Earth’s flatness is
much less, only about 0.0033, but highly significant. Figure (B) The
displacement of Earth’s surface that is required to give a horizontal
component of gravitational mass attraction that just balances the horizontal
component of centrifugal force due to Earth’s rotation. This displacement
added onto a sphere gives an excellent approximation to the actual shape of
the Earth, nearly an oblate spheroid (this displacement is the distance
between the sphere and the ellipse at left). The displacement at the equator
(colatitude = 90 degrees) shown here, 21.5 km,

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Figure : (B) and (A) .

(2) Coriolis force for motions in a thin, spherical shell

The application of the Coriolis formalism to geophysical flows requires a

further small elaboration because the rotation vector makes a considerable
angle to the vertical except at the poles. An Earth-attached coordinate
system is usually envisioned to have ex in the east direction, ey in the north
direction, and ez in the radial direction. The rotation vector thus makes an
angle Ω with respect to the local horizontal x0, y0 plane, where ᷁Ø is the
latitude of the coordinate system and thus

then the Coriolis force is

2×V0 = (2 cos (Ø)W0 − 2 sin (Ø)V 0)ex + (2 sin (Ø )U0 − 2 cos (Ø )W0)ey
+ 2U0 sin (Ø ) ez.
Large scale geophysical flows are very flat in the sense that the horizontal
components of wind or current are very much larger than the vertical
component, U0 / V 0 _ W0 .

(3) Inertial circles

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 An air or water mass moving with speed V subject only to the Coriolis
force travels in a circular trajectory called an 'inertial circle'. Since the force
is directed at right angles to the motion of the particle, it moves with a
constant speed around a circle whose radius is given by:

where f is the Coriolis parameter 2Ωsin ƍ , introduced above (where ƍ is

the latitude). The time taken for the mass to complete a full circle is
therefore 2π/f The Coriolis parameter typically has a mid-latitude value of
about 10−4 s−1; hence for a typical atmospheric speed of 10 m/s (22 mph) the
radius is 100 km (62 mi), with a period of about 17 hours. For an ocean
current with a typical speed of 10 cm/s (0.22 mph), the radius of an inertial
circle is 1 km (0.6 mi). These inertial circles are clockwise in the Northern
Hemisphere (where trajectories are bent to the right) and anticlockwise in
the Southern Hemisphere. If the rotating system is a parabolic turntable, then
f is constant and the trajectories are exact circles. On a rotating planet, varies
with latitude and the paths of particles do not form exact circles. Since the
parameter f varies as the sine of the latitude, the radius of the oscillations
associated with a given speed are smallest at the poles (latitude = ±90°), and
increase toward the equator

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Figure (2) Cloud formations in a famous image of Earth from Apollo 17,
makes similar circulation directly visible .

References :-

 [1] PJohn Marshall; R. Alan Plumb (2007). p. 98. Amsterdam:

Elsevier Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-558691-7.
 [2] Gregory R. D., (2006). Classical Mechanics, Cambridge
University Press, New-ork.
 [3] Hibbeler R. C., (2005). Engineering Mechanics. Dynamics. 7 th
ed. Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
 [4] Myszka D.H., (2005). Machines and Mechanisms. Applied
Kinematic Analysis Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
 [5] Norton R.L., (2002). Design of Machinery, 3rd. ed. McGraw Hill,
New-York, 2004.
 [6] Soutas-Little R. W., Inman D. J., and Balint D. S., (2008).
Engineering Mechanics Dynamics Computational Edition, Cengage
Learning, Toronto, ON
 [7] Syngley J., and Uicker J. J., (2003), Theory of Machines and
Mechanisms, third ed. McGraw- Hill Book Company, New-York.
 [8] Taylor J. R., (2005). Classical Mechanics. University Science
Books, Sausalito California.

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