BITS Pilani

Pilani Campus

Mechatronics
ES ZG511 Mechatronics
BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus Sangmeshwar Kendre
Lecture No. 4.

Contents Definitions of important terms

Definitions of important terms System:

Fundamental Principles of Mechanical Systems A combination of components acting together to perform
Mechanical System Building Blocks a specified objective. The components or interacting
Laws elements have cause-and-effect (or input-output)
relationships.
Building up a mechanical system
Example:
Simulation using Simulink and Simscape
A system is a direct-current (DC) motor where a voltage
input causes angular velocity (the output) of the
mechanical load attached to the shaft.

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Dynamic systems: Modeling:

A system where the current output variables (or dynamic The process of applying the appropriate fundamental
variables) depend on the initial conditions (or stored physical laws in order to derive mathematical equations
energy) of the system and/or the previous input that adequately describe the physics of the engineering
variables. The dynamic variables of the system (e.g. system. Dynamic systems are represented by
displacement, velocity, voltage, pressure) vary with time. differential equations.
Example: Example
DC motor example, the angular velocity of the motor is DC motor example, the electrical circuit is modeled by
the dynamic variable and the circuit voltage is the input. voltage law and mechanical motion is
modeled by using second law.

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Mathematical model: Simulation:
A mathematical description of a dynamic The process of obtaining the dynamic
behavior, which is usually a set of linear or nonlinear response by numerically solving the governing modeling
ordinary differential equations. equations. Simulation involves numerical integration of
Example the differential equations and is performed by
DC motor example, the mathematical model consists of digital computers and simulation software.
differential equation for the electrical current and a
differential equation for mechanical motion.

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Fundamental Principles of Mechanical Systems

System analysis: Laws of Motion:

The use of analytical calculations or numerical three laws of motion for particles can be stated as
simulation tools to determine the system response in follows:
order to assess its performance. Repeated analysis First law: A particle remains at rest or moves with a
aids the design process where the constant velocity along a straight line if the sum of the
configuration or parameters are altered to improve forces acting on it is zero.
performance or meet desired constraints. Second law: The rate of change of the linear momentum of
Example a particle is equal to the sum of the forces acting on it.
DC motor example, we might apply a constant voltage input
Third law: The forces exerted by two particles upon each
and determine the characteristics of the angular velocity
other, which are called the action and reaction forces, are
response by using analytical calculations or numerical
simulations. If the angular velocity response is inadequate, equal in magnitude, opposite in direction, and collinear.
we could alter the parameters in order to improve
performance.
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In the above-mentioned laws of motion, inertia frames of If the mass is constant, Equation (1) becomes
reference are considered. ------(2)
An inertial frame of reference is one in which first
Where is the acceleration of the particle. Equation
law of motion is valid.
(2) is a commonly used expression of second
Mathematically, second law is expressed by
law, which indicates that the acceleration of a particle of
-----(1) constant mass is proportional to the resultant force.
where and are the mass and velocity of the particle, Also, first law can be viewed as a special example
respectively; is the resultant or sum of all forces acting of the second law with vanishing linear momentum or
on the particle; and is the linear momentum of the acceleration
particle. second law is also applicable to rigid
and flexible bodies.

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Mechanical System Building Blocks Springs

The models which represent mechanical systems have The stiffness of a spring is described by
springs, dampers and masses as basic building blocks. the relationship between the forces
used to extend or compress a spring
Springs: represent stiffness of system and the resulting extension or
Dampers: represent the forces opposing the motion compression
In the case of a spring where the
Masses: represent the inertia or resistance to acceleration
extension or compression is
Any mechanical system does not to be made of springs, proportional to the applied forces, i.e. a
dampers and masses. linear spring
But it should have the properties of stiffness, damping and
inertia where k is a constant.
The bigger the value of , the greater
The building blocks having stiffness, damping and inertia the forces have to be to stretch or
can be considered to have force as input and displacement compress the spring and so the
as output. greater the stiffness.
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Any mechanical element that undergoes a change in shape when

Figure shows three cases of springs in deformation: (a) a
subjected to a force can be characterized by a stiffness element,
spring with a fixed end; (b) a spring of two movable ends in
provided only that an algebraic relationship exists between the
elongation and the force. tension; and (c) a spring of two movable ends in
compression.
The most common stiffness element is the spring, although most
mechanical elements undergo some deflection when stressed.
A translational spring or linear spring is a spring of
negligible inertia, with its internal force (spring force) given
by law
------(1.1)
where is a spring coefficient, in N/m, and is the elongation of the
spring. The is also the relative displacement of the two ends of the
spring.

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Damper / Dashpot

In case (a), the spring force and the displacement The dashpot building block
(elongation) are in the relation represents the types of forces
experienced when we endeavour to
----(2)
push an object through a fluid or
where the relative displacement move an object against frictional
In case (b), the spring force of the tensioned spring is given forces.
by The faster the object is pushed, the
, for ----(3) greater the opposing forces
become.
In case (c), the spring force of the compressed spring is of
The dashpot which is used
the form
pictorially to represent these
, for ----(4) damping forces which slow down
moving objects consists of a piston
moving in a closed cylinder
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 Movement of the piston requires the fluid on one side of the
piston to flow through or past the piston.
The relationship between the displacement of the piston,
This flow produces a resistive force.
i.e. the output, and the force as the input is a relationship
In the ideal case, the damping or resistive force is depending on the rate of change of the output.
proportional to the velocity of the piston. Thus

wherer is a constant. The larger the value of c, the

greater the damping force at a particular velocity.
Since velocity is the rate of change of displacement of the
piston, i.e = dx/dt, then

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Figure shows three cases of dampers in deformation: (a) a In case (a), the damping force is related to the velocity at
damper with a fixed end; (b) a damper of two movable ends the right end of the damper by
in tension; and (c) a damper of two movable ends in ----(2.1)
compression. In which,
In case (b), the damping force of the tensioned damper is
given by
, for ----(2.2)
In case (c), the damping force of the compressed damper is
of the form
, for ----(2.3)

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Friction

Forces that are algebraic functions of the relative velocity where has units of newton-seconds per meter (N·s/m)
between two bodies are modeled by friction elements. and where .
A mass sliding on an oil film that has laminar flow, as The direction of a frictional force will be such as to oppose
depicted in Figure, is subject to viscous friction and obeys the motion of the mass.
the linear relationship For Eq.(2.4) to apply to Figure, the force exerted on the
----(2.4) mass M by the oil film is to the left. (By Newton's third law,
the mass exerts an equal force f to the right on the oil film.)
The friction coefficient is proportional to the contact area
and to the viscosity of the oil, and inversely proportional to
the thickness of the film. A heavier mass would further
compress the oil film, making it thinner and increasing the
value of .

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 Sometimes the frictional forces on adjacent bodies that The viscous friction described by Eq.(2.4) is a linear
have relative motion are small enough to be neglected. element, for which the plot of versus is a straight line
This might be the situation, for example, if the bodies are passing through the origin as shown in figure.
separated by bearings. The diagrams for such cases often
show small wheels between the two bodies, as illustrated in
Figure, in order to emphasize the lack of frictional forces.

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Examples of friction that obey nonlinear relationships are Drag friction is caused by resistance to a body moving
dry friction and drag friction. through a fluid (such as wind resistance) and can often be
The former is modeled by a force that is independent of the described by an equation of the form
magnitude of the relative velocity, as indicated in figure and
that can be described by equation as depicted in figure

Various other nonlinearities may be encountered in friction

elements.
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Mass

The mass building block Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity, i.e. dv/dt, and
exhibits the property that the velocity is the rate of change of displacement , i.e.
bigger the mass, the greater v = dx/dt. Thus
the force required to give it a
specific acceleration.
The relationship between the
force and the acceleration
is second law)
, where the constant of
proportionality between the
force and the acceleration is
the constant called the mass
m.
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Energy / Power

Energy is needed to stretch the spring, accelerate the mass

and move the piston in the dashpot/damper.
Incase of spring and mass energy is stored whereas in case
of dashpot / damper it is dissipated.
The spring when stretched stores energy, the energy being
Energy stored in the mass when it is moving with a velocity
released when the spring springs back to its original length.
v, the energy being referred to as kinetic energy, and
The energy stored in a spring for an extension , it is given released when it stops moving.
by
The kinetic energy of the mass is given by

Since

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D' Alembert's law

There is no energy stored in the dashpot. It does not return D' Alembert's law is just a restatement of Newton's second
to its original position when there is no force input. law governing the rate of change of momentum.
The dashpot dissipates energy rather than storing it, the For a constant mass, we can write
power P dissipated depending on the velocity v and being
given by
where the summation over the index includes all the external
forces acting on the body.
The forces and velocity are in general vector quantities, but
they can be treated as scalars provided that the motion is
constrained to be in a fixed direction, Rewriting (1) as

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Suggests that the mass in question can be considered to be The Law of Reaction Forces:
in equilibrium -- that is, the sum of the forces is zero In order to relate the forces exerted by the elements
provided that the term is thought of as an additional of friction and stiffness to the forces acting on a mass
force. or junction point, we need Newton's third law
regarding reaction forces.
This fictitious force is called the inertial force or
force, and including it along with the external forces allows Accompanying any force of one element on another,
us to write the force equation as one of equilibrium there is a reaction force on the first element of equal
magnitude and opposite direction.

----(3)
This equation is known as law.

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 System model

The Law for Displacements: The system model must incorporate both the element laws
and the interconnection laws.
If the ends of two elements are connected, those ends
are forced to move with the same displacement and The element laws involve displacements, velocities, and
velocity. accelerations.
Because the acceleration of a point is the derivative of the
velocity, which in turn is the derivative of the displacement,
we could write all the element laws in terms of and its
derivatives or in terms of .
It is important to indicate the assumed positive directions for
displacements, velocities, and accelerations.
We shall always choose the assumed positive directions for
to be the same, so it will not be necessary to
indicate all three positive directions on the diagram.
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Free-Body Diagrams

We normally need to apply D' Alembert's law, given by After the free-body diagram is completed, we can apply
Eq.(3), to each mass or junction point in the system that Eq.(3) by summing the forces indicated on the diagram,
moves with a velocity that is unknown beforehand. again taking into account their assumed positive senses.
To do so, it is useful to draw a free-body diagram for each Normally all forces must be added as vectors, but in our
such mass or point, showing all external forces and the examples the forces in the free-body diagram will be
inertial force by arrows that define their positive senses. collinear and can be summed by scalar equations.
The element laws are used to express all forces except
inputs in terms of displacements, velocities, and
accelerations.
We must be sure that the signs of these expressions are
consistent with the directions of the reference arrows.

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Example Solution

Draw the free-body diagram and apply D' Alembert's law to The horizontal forces, which are included in the free-body
write a modeling equation for the system shown in Figure. diagram, are
The mass is assumed to move horizontally on frictionless the force exerted by the spring
bearings, and the spring and dashpot are linear. the force exerted by the dashpot
the inertial force
the applied force

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 The choice of directions for the arrows representing , , If the spring undergoes an elongation , then there must be
and is arbitrary and does not affect the final result. a tensile force on the right end of the spring directed to
However, the expressions for these individual forces must the right and a reaction force on the mass directed
agree with the choice of arrows. to the left.
The use of a dashed arrow for the inertial force In other words, if is positive, the spring is stretched, and it
emphasizes that it is not an external force like the other therefore pulls mass to the left, as seen in Figure.
three.
We next use the element laws to express the , , and
in terms of the element values , , and and the system
variables and .
In Figure, the positive direction of and is defined to be to
the right, so the spring is stretched when is positive, and
compressed when is negative.
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Mass Spring Damper System

Similarly, when the right end of the dashpot moves to the right Example:
with velocity , a force is exerted on the mass to the left. Consider the simple mass spring damper system subjected to an input
The inertial force must have its positive direction force f, as shown in figure
opposite to that of dv / dt.
D' Alembert's law can now be applied to the diagram in Figure,
with due regard for the assumed arrow directions.
If forces acting to the right are regarded as positive, the law
yields
1. Apply second law to derive the differential equation of motion.
Replacing by and by , and rearranging the terms, we can 2. Find the displacement output x(t) of the system subjected to an applied
rewrite this equation as force f(t) = 10u(t), where u(t) is the unit-step function. The parameter
values are m = 1 kg, b = 2 N·s/m, and k = 5 N/m. Assume zero initial
conditions.

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Solution: 2. We start with building a Simulink block diagram by using the

1. Let us choose the displacement of the mass as the coordinate x. The mathematical model obtained. Solving for the highest
free-body diagram of the mass is shown in Figure derivative of the output x gives

which can be represented using the block diagram shown in

Figure. Two Integrator blocks are used to form the velocity
and the displacement x, both of which are fed back to form the
Applying second law in the x direction gives
acceleration . Note that a step input causes the motion of the
system. Double-click the block with the name Step, and type 0
which can be rearranged into the standard input output differential equation
form for the Step time and 10 for the Final value to define the input
f(t) = 10u(t).

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Open Matlab or Login into online Matlab: Click on Simulink to start Simulink

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New Simulink window opens. Click on Blank model to create a A new Simulink model window opens
new model.

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Click on library Browser to add components Library Browser opens

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Select block from library browser and drag into workspace. Simulink Model

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Double-click the block with the name Step, and type 0 for the Open the Simscape > Foundation Library > Mechanical >
Step time and 10 for the Final value to define the input f(t) = Translational Elements library.
10u(t). After simulation Simulink model Result

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Drag the Mass, Translational Spring, Translational Damper, Orient the blocks as shown in the following illustration. To
and two Mechanical Translational Reference blocks into the rotate a block, select it and press Ctrl+R.
model window.

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Connect the Translational Spring, Translational Damper, and Mass blocks to one of the To add the representation of the force acting on the mass, open the Simscape > Foundation
Mechanical Translational Reference blocks as shown in the next illustration. Library > Mechanical > Mechanical Sources library and add the Ideal Force Source block to
your diagram.

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Add the sensor to measure speed and position of the mass. Place the Ideal Translational Now you need to add the sources and scopes. They are found in the Simulink libraries. Open
Motion Sensor block from the Mechanical Sensors library into your diagram and connect it as the Simulink > Sources library and copy the Step block into the model. Then open the Simulink
shown below. > Sinks library and copy Scope block.

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Every time you connect a Simulink source or scope to a Simscape diagram, you have to use Complete Simscape model
an appropriate converter block, to convert Simulink signals into physical signals and vice
versa. Open the Simscape > Utilities library and copy a Simulink-PS Converter block and two
PS-Simulink Converter blocks into the model. Connect the blocks as shown below.

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Double-click the block with the name Step, and type 0 for the Kind Courtesy of reference books/papers/links:
1. Mechatronics -- W. Bolton -- Pearson
Step time and 10 for the Final value to define the input f(t) = 2. Introduction to Mechatronics and Measurement Systems -- D.G. Alciatore, M.B.
10u(t). After simulation Simscape model Result Histand -- Tata McGraw Hill

Thank you

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