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MECH 102: DYNAMICS OF RIGID BODIES

Introduction to Dynamics
DYNAMICS – a chapter of mechanics dealing with the behavior of material objects under the action
of external forces. Deals with the accelerated motion of a body.
THE MAIN BRANCHES OR TWO PART OF DYNAMICS
1) Kinematics – is the study of the geometry of motion. Treats only with geometrical aspects of
the motion
2) Kinetics – deals with the relationships between the forces acting on the body and the resulting
motion.
ORGANIZATION OF DYNAMICS:

A particle – is a mass point; it possesses a mass but has no size.

(Example: Earth around the sun – consider the earth as a particle, because its diameter is
much smaller than the dimension of its orbit.
Rigid bodies – if the distance between any two material points of the body remains constant, that is, if
the body does not deform.
The study of dynamics always begins with the fundamentals of kinematics.
Kinematics divided into two parts:
1. Absolute Motion – is used when the motion is described with respect to a fixed reference
frame (coordinate system).
2. Relative Motion – describes the motion with respect to a moving coordinate system.
Three Main Methods of Kinetics Analysis:
1. Force – Mass – Acceleration (FMA) Method – is a straight forward application of the Newton-
Euler Laws of Motion which relate the forces acting on the body to its mass and acceleration.
These relationships called the equations of motion, must be integrated twice in order to obtain
the velocity and the position as functions of time.
2. Work – Energy Method and
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3. Impulse – Momentum Method – are integrated forms of Newton-Euler Laws of Motion. The
equations of motion are integrated with respect to position or time. In both methods the
acceleration is eliminated by the integration. These method can be very efficient in the solution
of problems concerned with velocity – position or velocity – time relationships.
RECTILINEAR KINEMATICS: Continuous Motion
The Kinematics of a particle is characterized by specifying, at any given instant, the particle’s
position, velocity and acceleration.
POSITION:
Position coordinate S is used to specify the location of the particle at any given instant.
The magnitude of S is the distance from O to the particle, usually measured in meters or feet
and the sense of direction is defined by the algebraic sign on S.
DISPLACEMENT:
The displacement of the particle is defined as the change in its position.
VELOCITY:
If the particle moves through a displacement ΔS during the time interval Δt, the average
velocity of the particle during this time interval is
ѵAvg = ΔS / Δt
If we take smaller and smaller values of Δt, the magnitude of ΔS becomes smaller and smaller.
Consequently, the instantaneous velocity is a vector defined as
ѵ = ds / dt
Since Δt or dt is always positive, the sign used to define the sense of the velocity is the same
as that of ΔS or ds.
SPEED:
The magnitude of the velocity and it is generally expressed in units of m/s, or ft/s.
AVERAGE SPEED: (ѵsp)avg
The total distance traveled by the particle ST, divided by the elapsed time Δt
(ѵsp)avg = ST / Δt
ACCELERATION:
Provided the velocity of the particle is known at two points, the average acceleration of the
particle during the time interval Δt is defined as
aavg = Δѵ / Δt
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Δѵ = difference in the velocity during the time interval Δt

= ѵ’ – ѵ
The instantaneous acceleration of time t is a vector that is found by taking smaller and smaller
values of Δt corresponding smaller and smaller values of ΔѴ, so that
 a = dѵ / dt; dt = dѵ/a dt = ds / ѵ
dt = dt dѵ/a = ds/ѵ ads = ѵdѵ
Substituting Ѵ=ds/dt
a = d2s/dt2
Both average and instantaneous acceleration can be either positive or negative. In particular, when
the particle is slowing down, or its speed is decreasing, the particle is said to be decelerating. In this
case, ѵ’ is less than ѵ and so Δѵ = ѵ’ – ѵ will be negative.
Consequently, a will also be negative, and therefore it will act to the left in the opposite sense to ѵ.
Also, note that when the velocity is constant, the acceleration is zero, since Δѵ = ѵ – ѵ = 0
Unit commonly used to express the magnitude of acceleration are m/s 2 or ft/s2
CONSTANT ACCELERATION a = ac
When the acceleration is constant, each of the three kinematic equation ac = dѵ / dt, ѵ = ds/dt,
and acds = ѵdѵ can be integrated to obtain formulas that relate ac, ѵ, s and t.
VELOCITY AS A FUNCTION OF TIME:
Integrating ac = dѵ / dt, assuming that initially ѵ = ѵo when t = 0

POSITION AS A FUNCTION OF TIME:

VELOCITY AS A FUNCTION OF POSITION