Skip to main content

Chapter 5 Kinematic Screw of a Rigid Body

This chapter is devoted to the properties of the velocity field \(P\in \cB \mapsto \vel_{P\in \cB/\cA}\) of a rigid body \(\cB\text{.}\) Using screw theory of Chapter 4, these properties stem from those of screws, since, as demonstrated in Section 3.6, the velocity field defines a screw, which we will call kinematic screw. We will show that, in general, a rigid body can always be characterized as being in instantaneous helical motion (as far as its velocity field is concerned) about an axis, called instantaneous screw axis, directed along the body’s angular velocity.
We will also study the acceleration field \(P\in \cB \mapsto \ba_{P\in \cB/\cA}\text{.}\) Although it does not, in general, define a screw, it is still characterized by a simple structure.