General Treatment of Moments and Products of Inertia Rigid Body Dynamies: Part I A clear and comprehensive understanding of moments and products of inertia and the many important details associated with them is essential to a study of the motions of rigid bodies. Hence the subject is here treated in a separate chapter before attempting a dis- cussion of rigid body dynamics. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the definition of moment of inertia and its use in the solution of elementary problems. Body About Any Axis. 7.1 General Expression for the Moment of Inertia of a Rij Fig. 71 Referring to Fig. 7-1, it is seen that the moment of inertia Joa, of the rigid body about line Oa, is merely Io, = > m’h? where m’ is the mass of a typical particle, k the normal distance from Oa; to m’, and the summation includes all particles of the body. But f-OP, f= atty+e, OP = let mytne and P+m*+n* = 1, where lm,n ne are direction cosines of Oa:. Hence we write og =D m(8-OP) = YL milat +at+ 24/0 men’) — (te + my + nay from which PD mvte) + mL mete) + eo lm wety) — 2m Y m’ey — 2in Y m'xz ~ 2mn Y m'yz (7.2) Toa, = 117is GENERAL TREATMENT OF MOMENTS AND PRODUCTS OF INERTIA (CHAP. 7 Clearly ¥ m’(y'+2!) = Iz is the moment of inertia about the X axis, ete. Dm’xy = ly is called @ product of-inertia. ‘Thus > Ton = TP + Lym? + Ten? — Del — Bled — 2lycren (72) where, for convenience, we have written J: instead of Ir:, ete. As a matter of clarity, sum- mation rather than integral signs have been used in (7.1). For a continuous distribution of mass, b= fttsydm, ete, Relation (7.2) is very important in that it constitutes the basis for all further treatments of moments and products of inertia. Notice that I+, Izy, ete., are fixed quantities for a given body-fixed frame X,Y,Z. How- ever, they will in general have different values for different locations and/or orientations of the frame. It is important to realize that for known values of [., Iry, etc., the moment of inertia of the body about any line of given direction through O, can be computed at once by (7.2). 7.2 The Ellipsoid of Inertia. Selecting any point p1(t,, 91,21) on Od, Fig. 7-1, at a distance s; from O, it is seen that il, i = sim, z = sn, Eliminating 1, m,n, (7.2) may be written as a Jou8} = Feat + Ty + Let - Weta — Unters — Under (73) Considering any other line, say Oas, an exactly similar expression holds for Joc,83 where again s: is an arbitrary distance along Oas, measured from the origin to any point Palate, Ys, 22) on the line, Hence the form (7.8) is applicable to all lines passing through 0. Now imagining a large number of straight lines drawn in various directions through O, let us select ¢ for each line such that Joos? = 1 (74) Therefore we can write the general relation > Lat + byt + La? — Uaey — lee - Uys = 1 (75) which is the equation of an ellipsoidal surface (in general not one of revolution) oriented in some, as yet undetermined, manner with respect to X,Y,Z as indicated in the figure. It is referred to as the ellipsoid of inertia about O. ‘The above results apply to an object of any shape: a stone, a chair, a steel girder, etc. But it must not be supposed that there is only one ellipsoid per body. Indeed ellipsoids in general, each of different size and orientation, can be drawn for all points in and through- out space around every object. ‘The fact that there is an unlimited number of ellipsoids for any object is not as frightful as it may appear since, as will soon be shown, when the ellipsoid about the center of mass is known all other moments and products of inertia and ellipsoids can be computed. It should be clear that the moment of inertia about any line drawn through O is given by Ioa = 1/s* where s is now the distance from O to where the line pierces the ellipsoid. Also note that we could just as well have written (7.4) as Ios? = C = any constant, thereby giving the ellipsoid any convenient size.CHAP. 7] GENERAL TREATMENT OF MOMENTS AND PRODUCTS OF INERTIA 19 7.3 Principal Moments of Inertia. Principal Axes and their Directions. With axes X,Y,Z taken along the principal diameters 2a,2b,2c¢ of any ellipsoid, the equation of its surface has the form ca ae ae + Be + em 1 (7.6) Likewise, if X,Y, Z are taken along the principal diameters of the ellipsoid of inertia, the products of inertia are zero and thus Ret hy + het = 1 or loo = EE + Bt + Bot (77 where I2, I, I? are referred to as “principal moments of inertia”. Corresponding axes X?, ¥°, Z° are called “principal axes of inertia”. From known values of /:, I, ete. in (7.5), the directions of the principal axes as well as values of I, 13, F2 can be found as follows. It can be shown that the direction cosines Im,n of a line drawn normal to the surface ¢(t,y,2) = C are proportional to ag/az, ag/ay, a6/ae respectively, that is, ob aor or ge = HL GE = bm, P= ke n (7.8) where k is a constant. Applying these relations to the ellipsoidal surface (7.5), we have La — Iny — Inez = kl Ty ~ Tegt — = km (7.9) Tet — Test’ — Tuy = In But a principal axis is normal to the surface where it pierces the ellipsoid and at this point (distant r from the origin and having coordinates x,y,z) 1=a/r, m=y/r, n=2/r, Note carefully that r is the length of a principal radius and I,m, are here direction cosines of a principal axis of inertia. Now eliminating ¢,y,z from (7.9), multiplying through by 1,m,n respectively and adding the group, there results kip = LE + Lym? + Ln? — alm — 2aln — 2l,mn Comparing with (7.2), k = 1’r where, clearly, J” is a principal moment of inertia. Relations (7.9) can now be written as (eT) + Tem + Ion = 0 Tnl + (P-1)m + Iyn = 0 > (7.10) Tel + Tym + (P-L)n = 0 from which the three principal moments of inertia and their directions will now be obtained. In order that these equations have other than trivial solutions, it is necessary that Pade dy Tee ly P-ly Iw | = 0 (7.11) Ten In P-L An expansion of this determinant gives a cubic equation in J’. Inserting known values of I, Iz, ete., (found by computation or by experiment) and solving for the three roots, we120 GENERAL TREATMENT OF MOMENTS AND PRODUCTS OF INERTIA [HAP.7 have Ii, 72,/s, the three principal moments of inertia. (Roots of the above equation are easily found by the “Graeffe Root Squaring Method”. See Mathematics of Modern Engi- neering, by R. E. Doherty and E. G. Keller, John Wiley, 1936, pp. 98-130. This powerful method, which is applicable to equations of any degree, has many practical applications.) Inserting 1? into (7.10), these relations may be solved for relative values (only) of 11,7, 1, direction cosines of the principal axis corresponding to I?. Writing expressions thus ob- tained as cil, ev, ext (cr is some constant) we have l= eih/(clli + etm? + efn})*”, ete. Like- wise direction cosines of the remaining two principal axes follow. Note. As seen from (7.10) the relative values of 1s, m:,m are just the cofactors of the first, second and third elements respectively of the first row (or any row) of (7.12) with I; inserted; ete. (For definition of “cofactor” see Page 210, directly above (10.11).) 74 Given Moments and Products of Inertia Relative to Any Rectangular Axes with Origin at the Center of Mass, to Find: (a) Corresponding quantities referred to any parallel system of axes. (0) The moment of inertia about any given line. (¢) The ellipsoid of inertia about any point. Developments of this and coming chapters may be simplified by the following easy-to- remember notation. Plain symbols such as X,Y, Z indicate any frame (origin not at e.m.), and Is, Iz, ete., indicate corresponding moments and products of inertia. A bar over a symbol indicates a center-of-mass quantity. X,Y,2Z represents a frame with origin at c.m., and I,, Fy, ete., refer to corresponding moments and products of inertia. A superscript p indicates a “principal” quantity. X°,¥°,Z° are principal axes (origin not at c.m.), and £2,1;, 2 are corresponding principal moments of inertia. X*,¥*,Z* are principal axes through em., and J?, Iv, J? ‘are corresponding principal moments of inertia. (a) In Fig. 7-2 the origin of X,¥,Z is at em,, and that of the parallel frame X,Y,Z is at any point 0. Both frames are regarded as attached to the body. ‘The moment of inertia J; about OZ, for example, is given by fi a Ws b= Smet) ae ee But # = a+4, ete. Hence Gide x,.2 te = Ym'let a+ tay) = Lm(ei+v) +(@#@+P— Im + 28D mn + 29D myn Since 0; is at c.m. the last two terms are zero. Hence