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Principle of Virtual Work and D'Alembert's Principle

1. D'Alembert's principle and Lagrange's equations were formulated to eliminate constraint forces from equations of motion, dealing only with known applied forces. 2. D'Alembert's principle states that a system of particles in equilibrium is equivalent to each particle experiencing both the actual applied forces and a "reversed effective force" equal to the rate of change of its momentum. 3. When expressed in terms of virtual displacements, D'Alembert's principle eliminates constraint forces from the equations of motion, achieving the goal of dealing only with known applied forces.

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Kristine Rodriguez-Carnicer
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435 views10 pages

Principle of Virtual Work and D'Alembert's Principle

1. D'Alembert's principle and Lagrange's equations were formulated to eliminate constraint forces from equations of motion, dealing only with known applied forces. 2. D'Alembert's principle states that a system of particles in equilibrium is equivalent to each particle experiencing both the actual applied forces and a "reversed effective force" equal to the rate of change of its momentum. 3. When expressed in terms of virtual displacements, D'Alembert's principle eliminates constraint forces from the equations of motion, achieving the goal of dealing only with known applied forces.

Uploaded by

Kristine Rodriguez-Carnicer
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

4 D’ Alembert’s Principle and Lagrange’s Equation

Purpose:
- Formulated to make the forces of constraint disappear as they are
unknown a priori

- We want to deal only with known applied forces

- Scalar quantities over vectors


1.4 D’ Alembert’s Principle and Lagrange’s Equation

Definitions
• Virtual displacement of a system refers to a change in configuration
of the system as the result of any infinitesimal change of the
coordinates ri , consistent with the forces and constraints imposed on
the system at a given instant.

• Actual displacement, dr of a system occurs in a time interval dt,


during which the forces and constraints may be changing.
1.4 D’ Alembert’s Principle and Lagrange’s Equation

Suppose the system is in equilibrium; i.e. the total force, Fi on each particle vanishes:

Fi = 0.

The virtual work of the force Fi in the displacement ri also vanishes. The sum of these
vanishing dot products over all the particles must be zero.

෍ 𝑭𝑖 ∙ 𝛿𝒓𝑖 = 0 (1.40)
𝑖
1.4 D’ Alembert’s Principle and Lagrange’s Equation

Decompose Fi into the applied force Fi(a), and the force of constraint, fi

(𝑎)
𝑭𝑖 = 𝑭𝑖 + 𝒇𝑖 (1.41)

Work done by Fi

(𝑎)
෍ 𝑭𝑖 ∙ 𝛿𝒓𝒊 + ෍ 𝒇𝒊 ∙ 𝛿𝒓𝒊 = 0 (1.42)
𝑖 𝑖
1.4 D’ Alembert’s Principle and Lagrange’s Equation

We now restrict to systems for which the net virtual work of the forces of constraint is zero.
 Holds true for rigid bodies and valid for a number of other constraints

Example:
1. Particle constrained to move on a surface – force of constraint is perpendicular to the
surface while the virtual displacement is tangent to it
fi
𝒇𝒊 ∙ 𝛿𝒓𝒊 = 0
ri

• Not true if sliding friction is present! Such systems must be excluded.


• Rolling friction do not violate this condition since the forces act on a point that is
momentarily at rest and can do no work in an infinitesimal displacement consistent with
the rolling constraint.
Principle of Virtual Work

We therefore have as the condition for equilibrium of a system that the


virtual work of the applied forces vanishes:

(𝑎)
෍ 𝐹𝑖 ∙ 𝛿𝒓𝒊 = 0 (1.43)
𝑖

Equation 1.43 satisfies our needs in that it does not contain the fi but it deals only with
statics; we want a condition involving the general motion of the system…
D’ Alembert’s Principle:

A device first thought of by James Bernoulli and developed by D’ Alembert:

𝑭𝑖 = 𝒑ሶ𝑖  𝑭𝑖 − 𝒑ሶ𝑖 = 0 Where:


−𝒑ሶ𝑖 - ‘reversed effective force’

The particles in the system will be in equilibrium under a force equal to the
actual force plus a ‘reversed effective force −𝒑ሶ𝑖 .
From equation 1.40 (virtual work of Fi)

෍ 𝑭𝑖 − 𝒑ሶ𝑖 ∙ 𝛿𝒓𝒊 = 0 (1.44)


𝑖

(𝑎)
෍ 𝑭𝑖 − 𝒑ሶ𝑖 ∙ 𝛿𝒓𝒊 + ෍ 𝒇𝒊 ∙ 𝛿𝒓𝒊 = 0
𝑖 𝒊
D’ Alembert’s Principle
Restrict to systems for which the virtual work of the forces of constraint vanishes:

(𝒂)
෍ 𝑭𝒊 − 𝒑ሶ𝑖 ∙ 𝛿𝒓𝒊 = 0 (1.45)
𝑖

The sum of the differences between the forces acting on a system of mass particles
and the time derivatives of the momenta of the system itself projected into any
virtual displacement consistent with the constraints of the system is zero.

 We now achieved our aim, in that the forces of constraint no longer appear.
 But still not in a useful form to furnish EOM of the system.
 Transform into generalized coordinates!

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