The motion equations of rotors,gyrostats and gyrodesics: application to powertrain-vehicle mechanical systems

The kinematics of wheels and rotors is described using a new auxiliary frame called gyrodesic frame or simply gyrodesic. By this, the absolute motion of the wheel becomes a serial composite of two motions: (1) the gyrodesic motion and (2) the wheels eigenmotion (or spin), i.e., the motion relative to the gyrodesic. The eigenmotion is described by an equation called rotor-equation. Gyrodesic coordinates turn out to be a particular useful tool in powertrain- and vehicle-dynamics as well as for general multibody systems. They allow a proper separation of the rotor- from the vehicle-equations and provide a rigorous method of coupling the powertrain-model into full spatial multibody-systems vehicle model. Some common misconceptions regarding this subject are identified and dispelled. The method is generalized to be applicable to the study of motion of general systems of rigid bodies with gyrostats or rotors as subsystems. The usefulness of the formalism is demonstrated by means of an illustrative example of non-trivial nature: the gyrostatic chain. Gyrodesic coordinates lead to a better grasp and deeper understanding of the structure of the dynamic equations of spatial vehicles in particular and of the motion of multibody-systems with rotors in general. The investigation reveals an interesting analogy to concept of parallel transport of vector fields in the sense of Levi-Civita. Dedicated to Prof. J. Wittenburg at the occasion of his 70th birthday.