He that gathers in summer is a wise son: but he that sleeps in harvest is
a son that causes shame. (Proverbs 10: 5)
1 Dynamics
Dynamics is a field of mechanics. It mainly deals with the motion of a particle or a body when it undertakes forces. Mechanics which is the oldest field of physics deals with the motion and/or deformation of a body undergoing force.
Motion Force
Deformation
Body
Forces can be classified using several categories. For mechanics, it can be classified into 3 kinds: body forces (like gravitational force and magnetic force), surface forces (like contact force and pressure) and line forces (like surface tension).
There are many kinds of forces in physical systems. In most mechanical systems, body forces like gravitational and magnetic forces play the most important role. However, the importance changes as the size of the body changes. In micro electro mechanical systems (which are often called MEMS), for instance, the surface forces like electro static force and squeeze film damping force are more important than the body forces. As the body size decreases the body forces become insignificant whereas the surface forces become important. Since the inertia force is a body force, the dynamic effect becomes insignificant for micro systems. If the body size decreases more (Nano size: 3 1 10 ~10 m
) the molecular force like Van der Waals force becomes important. If the body size decreases even more, nuclear forces become the most significant forces. In common mechanical engineering problems, body and surface forces are usually considered as the most important ones.
What kinds of forces do a submarine and its crew undertake respectively?
2 Motion is defined as the position and/or orientation change of a body while deformation is defined as the relative distance change between two points in a body.
Example of motion Example of deformation
Force Force Rotation
In summary, if a body without deformation (which is often called a rigid body) moves, it is considered as a motion. If three points in a body is fixed in space while other points of the body move, then the body is deformed.
In general, the motion and deformation may occur simultaneously. Very often, they cannot be even separated. In undergraduate courses, however, they are not considered simultaneously. The motion is only considered in dynamics while the deformation is only considered in mechanics of material. Initial F i n a l
Initial F i n a l
3 Mechanics can be classified into solid mechanics and fluid mechanics. Thermodynamics is not a field of mechanics.
The motion of a particle in fluid is quite different from that in solid. Therefore, the method of analyzing the motion of a particle in solid is quite different from that of a particle in fluid. The motion of a particle in fluid is observed by restricting the volume of observed space (which is often called the control volume) while the motion of a particle in solid is observed by following the particle through the motion. The method of observation for fluid is often called the Eulerian approach while that for solid is called the Lagrangian approach. Even for solid mechanics, if the deformation becomes very large, the Eulerian approach is often employed.
The solid mechanics includes the following undergraduate courses. Dynamics: The body is considered as perfectly rigid so that it undergoes no deformation. In this course, the motion of the rigid body, inertial property of the body and the applied force are the main subjects of interest. The most important physical law for this course is the Newtons law. The law of contact is also considered. Kinematics of mechanism: The motion of a mechanism that consists of rigid links is the main subject of interest in this course. Physical laws are not considered and the motion of geometry is the principal subject. The knowledge of this course is useful to analyze and synthesize a mechanism. Dynamics of mechanism: The inertial property of the links that consist of a mechanism is considered in this course. So the force and moment applied to the system is considered and the information is very useful for the strength design of a mechanism. Vibration: Oscillation of a particle or a body is studied in this course. For the undergraduate vibration course, only linear equation model is analyzed. Nonlinear oscillation is not considered. Natural frequencies and mode shapes are obtained in this course. Mechanics of material: The relation between force and deformation is the principal concern of the course. The most important physical law for this course is the Hookes law.
Dynamics and mechanics of material are basic course in mechanics. Kinematics and dynamics of mechanism and vibration can be studied with the basic knowledge of the two courses: Dynamics and mechanics of material.
4 Why do we learn dynamics?
The reason to learn dynamics is as follows:
The basic concepts and principles of mechanics are studied through this course. For instance, the familiar concepts of position, velocity and acceleration are first studied. Then, advanced concepts of orientation, angular velocity and angular acceleration are also studied in this course. Inertial concepts like moment of inertia and inertia matrix are also introduced in this course. Some concepts like kinetic energy, potential energy, impulse and momentum that are not familiar to ordinary people are also introduced in this course. Law of motion and its integral principles like work and energy principle and impulse and momentum principle are also studied in this course.
More advanced reason to learn dynamics is to analyze and design a mechanical system. Lets take a look at a 4-bar linkage mechanism.
If we provide an input motion to link 1, we can obtain output motion from link 3. By analyzing the relation between the two link motions, we can estimate the performance of the mechanism. If we want to find a mechanism that can provide a specific output motion, we need to decide the link lengths. To guarantee the durability of the mechanism, we also need to obtain the forces acting on the links during the motion. With the forces, one may carry out a strength design of the mechanism.
Think how to design a windshield wiper of an automobile. 1 2 3 4
5 Outline and Contents of the Course
Dynamics consists of two parts: kinematics and kinetics. In kinematics, only the motion like position, velocity, acceleration, orientation, angular velocity and angular acceleration are considered. So the geometry of motion is the principal subject in kinematics. In kinetics, law of motion or its integral principles like work & energy principle and impulse & momentum are considered.
Kinematics is the most important subject in dynamics. In most cases, kinematics is not well understood by undergraduate students. That is why they often think dynamics is a difficult subject to study.
In this class, the motion of particles will be first studied. Then, the motion of rigid bodies will be studied. Different from particles, rigid bodies may undergo rotational motion.
Text chapters to be covered Kinematics of Particles 11, 12, 13 Kinetics of Particles
Systems of Particles 14 (Only a part of the chapter)
Kinematics of Rigid Bodies 15, 16, 17, 18 Kinetics of Rigid Bodies
The law of motion of a rigid body is same as that of a particle if the rigid body undergoes only translational motion. So, the contents of chapter 11, 12 and 13 may be employed for the translational motion analysis of rigid bodies. As you may find later in chapter 14, the motion of a particle is governed by the same equation that governs the motion of a rigid body undergoing only translational motion.