Considerations of Nonlinear Dynamics of Elastic Media

Nonlinear Dynamics of Elastic Media

M. McIntyre1 and L. Hull2
1) 2)

Physics Department, University of Florida. Science Department, Crews Lake Middle School

(Dated: 20 December 2013)

Keywords: Lagrangian, Kinetic Energy, Potential Energy, Velocity, Range, Projectile, Spring Constant
I. INTRODUCTION
= 0, the solution to which is = 4 , or 45 . Therefore, for the rubber band to travel the greatest distance, it must be shot at an angle of 45 relative to level ground. The underlying physics behind the mathematical analysis is straightforward; Gravity acts as a retarding acceleration on the projectile, that causes the projectile velocity to approach zero. Here, gravity is acting only in the y direction, causing the projectile to slowly lose the positive vertical component of its velocity until it reaches zero, changes direction, and accelerates toward the ground due to gravity. The resulting trajectory, however, is parabolic, since here there is no retarding acceleration acting against the x or horizontal component of velocity. Notice that if gravity were completely removed, the projectile would continue to move in a straight line forever, never returning to ground. This is a familiar result known as Newtons 1st law of motion. Calculating the initial velocity, v0 , is possible by considering that an elastic rubber band essentially behaves as a stretched spring. Therefore, the potential energy of a stretched elastic rubber band is determined by, 1 U = 2 ks2 , where s is the displacement, or stretched length minus relaxed length, of the rubber band and k is the spring constant of the rubber band. Neglecting nonconservative forces again, which are quite small here, all of the potential energy stored in the rubber band converts to kinetic energy when released. Setting T = U , k and solving for the initial velocity yields, v0 = m s. Combining this result with the range equation yields, k 2 R() = mg s sin(2). Note that the spring constant is specic to the rubber band being used, and should be determined experimentally. This can be done simply by hanging the rubber band vertically, attaching some object of a well dened mass to the end, and measuring the displacement. For example, the spring constant of a rubber band with a test mass M attached, that causes a displacement S , is g given by k = M S .
2 2v0 g cos(2 )

This paper details the theoretical and experimental efforts by the authors to characterize and demonstrate simple projectile motion of a rubber band, and its dependence on the launch angle, . For this analysis, the rubber band will not be subject to non-conservative forces, e.g., frictional drag in air, it will be shot with some initial velocity, v0 , and the resulting motion will be in terms of the center of mass, for which the rubber band can be treated as a point object.

II.

LAGRANGIAN MECHANICS ANALYSIS

The Lagrangian is given by, L = T U , where L is the Lagrangian of the system, T is the kinetic energy of the projectile, and U is the potential energy. The kinetic energy depends on the velocity, while the potential energy depends on the position. More explicitly, t), y ( t), t] = T [x( t), y ( t), t] U [x(t), y (t), t]. L[x(t), y (t), x( Because the x and y positions of the projectile do not depend on one another, they are decoupled, and thus their equations of motion, i.e., how the projectile moves through space in each direction, can be found separately. The equations of motion are found by integrating d L L d L L y = dt y and x = dt x for the x and y directions, respectively. For the system under consideration, the Lagrangian is 1 given by, L = 2 mx 2 + 1 2 mgy , where m is the mass 2 my of the rubber band, and g is the gravitational constant. Performing the integrals, ( x = 0) dt and ( y = g ) dt, and noting that the initial velocities are given by, x 0 = v0 cos() and y0 = v0 sin(), yields the x and y positions as a function of time, x = v0 tcos() 1 2 and y = 2 gt + v0 sin(). The range R, or maximum distance of travel in the x direction, of the rubber band is found by setting y = 0, solving for t, and plugging back in to the equation of v0 motion in the x direction. This yields t() = 2g sin(), and R() = g0 sin(2), noting that both t and R are dened explicitly as a function of , the launch angle of the rubber band. Determining the angle at which the rubber band travels furthest boils down to an optimization of R(). The () = optimization is done by solving the equation R () = 0. Computing the rst derivative yields, R
v2

Considerations of Nonlinear Dynamics of Elastic Media

III. EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

2 malization to the experimental data and plotting it with the simplied calculation data.

The general behaviour of the range function R() can be found by making several simplications. Setting the constants k = m = g = s = 1, yields the plot in Fig. 1.

IV.

CONSIDERATIONS

1.0 0.8 R() [-] 0.6 0.4 0.2

Calculation

0.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 [rad]
FIG. 1. Simplied rubber band trajectory as a function of the launch angle, from 0 to . 2

Notice that when the range is a maximum, the launch angle in radians is, = /4 0.785. Fig. 2 shows the experimental data. This plot was generated by taking the mean value of the range for each trial and at each angle, and including the standard error of the whole data set.
Experimental 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 00.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 [rad]

This paper neglects non-conservative forces, primarily because their eects are small due to the velocity and mass of the projectile, as well as the medium in which it travels. None the less, they do have detectable eects. There are two main non-conservative forces at work; Energy dissipation as a result of heating and cooling as the rubber band is stretched and released, and air resistance forces acting on the rubber band. Unfortunately, to include the eect of air resistance in the trajectory calculation is not a trivial task. Factoring both linear and quadratic air resistance terms yields two couple second order non-linear dierential equations given by, mx (t) = cx (t) x (t)2 + y (t)2 bx (t) and my (t) = mg cy (t) x (t)2 + y (t)2 by (t). There is no analytical solution to these equations, but they can be solved numerically given a set of specic initial conditions. Applying the following boundary conditions, x0 = y0 = 0, x 0 = v0 cos(), y 0 = v0 sin(), and using any given numerical code, can provide the solution.

R() [cm]

FIG. 2. Experimentally measured range data, using a rough launch angle approximation.

Its clear to see that the experimental data was not taken over a full range of angles, and as a result does not show the optimal angle for maximum range that occurs at 4 . Fortunately, the data is linearly increasing overall, with the exception of two anomalous data points. Its roughly safe to conclude that the laws of physics have been validated by the experimental data. Clearer graphical can be produced by applying a histogram nor-

Considerations of Nonlinear Dynamics of Elastic Media

V. NONLINEAR RESPONSE

Elastic or rubber bands are nonlinear springs, meaning that their behaviour is not governed strictly by Hookes law, but requires higher order correction at sucient displacements. The potential energy of a nonlinear spring is given by, u U = 0 F (u )du , Nonlinear oscillators are governed by Dungs equation given by, x + kx + cx + g (x) = F cost, which can then be modied for springs not subject to a restoring force to yield the equation, x + kx + cx + x3 = 0. Nonlinear spring equations can be approximated by, F (u) = k (u)u, where k (u) = dF du .