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Ranjith R Tensor Applications
Ranjith R Tensor Applications
Ranjith R Tensor Applications
Internal Seminar-1
Ranjith R
M.Sc Physics (2020-22)
Let's recall,
A quantity that determines the torque needed for a desired angular acceleration
about a rotational axis; similar to how mass determines the force needed for a
desired acceleration
For bodies free to rotate in three dimensions, their moment of inertia can be
described by a symmetric 3 × 3 matrix.
I xx I xy I xz
I I yx I yy I yz
I zx I zy I zz
In this session, we’ll see where the inertia tensor, moments of inertia, and products of inertia
come from, as well as attempt to gain some intuition for what they mean.
Obtaining The Inertia Tensor
Let a system of N point particles (rigid body) undergo rotatory motion with
angular velocity .If and are the mass and position vector of the ith
particle
be its linear velocity, then total angular momentum of the system is given
by;
…..............(1)
where,
=
The next step is to compute the cross products,
Also, and
Approaching the cross product of this with position the same way, we have
The above equation can be written as follows;
….....(2)
….......(4)
All the three components of angular momentum is given by,
I xx I xy I xz
I I yx I yy I yz
I zx I zy I zz
To find the components of inertia tensor
Where,
z
Similarly ,proceeding for y-component and z-component ; we get the terms as,
I
• In symbols, it may be expressed as:
Lµ Iµv v
• As Lµ and are vectors from quotient law it follows that Iµv is a tensor of rank two.
v
The diagonal elements of the tensor( Ixx , Iyy , Izz) are called the moments of
inertia. [they represent moment of inertia of the body along an axis due to the
rotation about the same axis]
e.g., if you apply torque about the x axis, Ixx tells us how that affects the angular acceleration
about the x axis, based on the mass distribution of the object.
In the example above, the product of inertia tells us how a torque about the x axis aects angular
acceleration about the y axis, based on the mass distribution of the object. Similarly, tells us how
a torque about the x axis aects angular acceleration about the z axis.
Principal axes
In fact, for any object, it’s possible to find a set of axes for which the mass distribution is symmetric
about every axis. These are called the “principal axes,” and when you compute the elements of the
inertia tensor using the principal axes, the off-diagonal elements all come out to zero and the diagonal
elements are called 'principal moment of inertia'