© Dr.

Lizhi Xu, educational purposes only

Lecture 6:
Planar Kinematics of A Rigid Body

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Previously, we treat objects as particles. (neglect their dimensions and spin)

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In reality, their dimensions and spin might matter a lot.

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A rigid body is a system of particles for which the distances between

particles remain unchanged.

• Need to consider dimensions.

• Assume no deformation.

The rigid body model is very useful for studying general motion of an
object with considerable size and rotation.

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Translation of A Rigid Body

Every line segment on the body remains parallel to its original direction.

rectilinear translation curvilinear translation

r'B/A
A
rB/A
rA
z B
rB

x O y
rB = rA + rB/A time-derivatives: vB = vA aB = aA

Translation of a rigid body can be treated similarly to the motion of a particle.

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Rotation about A Fixed Axis

Any point P located in the body travels along a circular path.

in radians!
angular position (between a fixed reference line and r): θ

angular displacement: dθ

angular velocity:

angular acceleration:

All points on the body share the same set of dθ, ω and α.

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Rotation about A Fixed Axis

For any point P,

position (relative to a point on the rotation axis):

velocity:

speed:

is the distance to the rotation axis

acceleration:

Euler centripetal
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How about a general planar motion?

All the points on the body move parallel to a fixed plane, but
there could be both translation and rotation.

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Case Study: A Rolling Wheel

t1 t2

C1
C1

z C2 C2

x y

A circular rigid body with a radius of r is rolling on a flat surface without

slipping. It has a constant angular velocity with a magnitude of ω. Find the
velocities and accelerations of A and B at t1 and t2 = t1 + Δt.
A:

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Case Study: A Rolling Wheel

t1 t2

C1 a Δθ

z C2

x y

A circular rigid body with a radius of r is rolling on a flat surface without

slipping. It has a constant angular velocity with a magnitude of ω. Find the
velocities and accelerations of A and B at t1 and t2 = t1 + Δt.

B:

(a is along the radial direction pointing to the center) 99

 © Dr. Lizhi Xu, educational purposes only

Case Study: A Rolling Wheel

t1 t2

C1

z C2

x y

A circular rigid body with a radius of r is rolling on a flat surface without

slipping. It has a constant angular velocity with a magnitude of ω.

Find the velocity of C at t2. (zero)

How about velocity of any point on the rigid body at t2?

Take C as the reference point, it will become SIMPLE!

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Instantaneous Center of Rotation

ω
For a rotating rigid body, you can always find
an instantaneous center (IC) of zero velocity.

At this instance, the motion appears as if the

rigid body is just rotating about the IC.

B2 Can show that ω of a rigid body is an intrinsic

parameter and independent of point of
z reference. (ω about the IC is the same as the
angular velocity about the centroid.)
y IC
x

Using IC as the point of reference, you can easily identify the velocity
of any point on the rigid body.

For acceleration analysis, be careful since aIC is not zero!

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How to Find the Instantaneous Center of Rotation

vD
𝑨

IC
𝑫

𝑩
D

For a rigid body with a planar motion, if you know the directions of the
velocities of two points on the body, you can try to find the IC.
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Key Points on Rigid Body Kinematics:

• Rigid bodies have dimensions, but do not deform.

• General (planar) motion of a rigid body can be decomposed into

a translation of an arbitrary point on the body & a rotation about
this point (axis).

• For a rotating rigid body, you can always find an instantaneous

center of rotation (with zero velocity).

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