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Moment of Inertia

The moment of inertia of a rigid body measures how widely distributed its mass is. It represents the body's resistance to changes in rotational motion. The moment of inertia of a box with respect to the x-axis can be calculated using a triple integral in Cartesian coordinates, with the limits of integration defined by the box's dimensions in each direction. After integrating first with respect to x, then y, then z, the final expression for the box's moment of inertia is its mass multiplied by the sum of b^2 and c^2, divided by 12.

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60 views

Moment of Inertia

The moment of inertia of a rigid body measures how widely distributed its mass is. It represents the body's resistance to changes in rotational motion. The moment of inertia of a box with respect to the x-axis can be calculated using a triple integral in Cartesian coordinates, with the limits of integration defined by the box's dimensions in each direction. After integrating first with respect to x, then y, then z, the final expression for the box's moment of inertia is its mass multiplied by the sum of b^2 and c^2, divided by 12.

Uploaded by

SACHIN
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 PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MOMENT OF INERTIA

The moment of inertia of a rigid body is a measure of how much the mass
of body is spread out. It is a measure of the rigid body's ability to resist
change in rotational motion.

Calculation: The moment of inertia of a rigid body, B, about an axis is

2
where: dm is an element of mass of the body,
r dm
r is the perpendicular distance from the axis to
any arbitrary mass element of the body (think of the
Pythagorean Theorem to see r^2 in the integrand),
and the integral is over the mass of the whole body.
See Figure 1

mi
r
z
y
x
y
x

Figure 1: Position of an element of mass of a rigid body.

Example: Find the moment of inertia of the box in Figure 2 with respect to
the x axis.

y
x
Figure 2: Box (like the beam in our catapault)

Dimensions of box: a in the x direction (i.e. -a/2 < x < a/2)


b in the y direction (i.e. -b/2 < y < b/2)
c in the z direction (i.e. -c/2 < z < c/2)
Origin of coordinate system placed at center of box, which will be the
center of gravity of the box, assuming constant density.


Ix =
2 2
r dm = r dV density*volume = mass so dm = dV

set up triple integral in


= 2
r dx dy dz Cartesian coordinates to do
volume calculation
Box

c b a
2 2 2
=
( 2 2
)
y + z dx dy dz
c b a

2 2 2

Limits of integration defined by where the box "lives" in the 3D


coordinate system. Recall that we are finding the moment of inertia with
respect to the x-axis, and we need to define r, the distance between any
point in the box and the x-axis. Referring to Figure 1, above, we know
that r^2=y^2+z^2, by the Pythagorean Theorem.

c b
2 2

(
2 2
y +z x ) a
dy dz Integrating
= 2
first with

a respect to x
2
c b

2 2
c b
2 2

=
2 2
(
a y + z dy dz )
c b

2 2

c
2

1 3 2
a y + yz
b
dz Integrating
3 2
now with
=
b respect to y
2
c

2

c
2
b2 2
= ab + z dz
12
c
2

2
= ab b z + 1 z3 c
Integrating
12 3 2
finally with
c respect to z
2

= abc b2 + c2
12
( )

(
= m b2 + c2
12
) since mass = density*volume

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