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Instability of a constrained pendulum system

Prashanth RamachandranSrinivas Gopal KrishnaY. M. Ram

Citation: American Journal of Physics 79, 395 (2011); doi: 10.1119/1.3535583


View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.3535583
View Table of Contents: http://aapt.scitation.org/toc/ajp/79/4
Published by the American Association of Physics Teachers
Instability of a constrained pendulum system
Prashanth Ramachandran
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
Srinivas Gopal Krishna
Knighthawk Engineering, Houston, Texas 77058
Y. M. Ram
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
Received 27 June 2010; accepted 19 November 2010
Linear perturbation analysis is used to determine the natural frequency of two pendulums connected
by a rod. The analysis indicates a zone of instability in what looks like a stable system. The
paradoxical phenomenon is explained, and a simple experiment confirms the instability. 2011
American Association of Physics Teachers.
DOI: 10.1119/1.3535583

I. INTRODUCTION a heavy flexible beam that is resting on frictionless point


supports. Their analysis is similar in nature to one that we do
The simple pendulums shown in Fig. 1a are in static here.
equilibrium. Under ideal conditions and perfect alignment
they will remain stationary. If the lower pendulum AB is
slightly perturbed, it will oscillate with a small amplitude II. EQUATIONS OF MOTION
about its stable equilibrium position. If the upper inverted
pendulum AB is slightly perturbed, it will fall down. The The constrained double-pendulum system consists of two
upper pendulum is in unstable equilibrium. point masses m, pin-connected by three rigid weightless links
Each one of the pendulums ABCD and ABCD, illus- of length l, as shown in Fig. 2a. The distance between the
trated in Fig. 1b, consists of two equal point masses con- pivots OA and OB is , the gravitational field is g, and the
nected by three weightless rigid rods of equal length. They angles kt, where k = 1 , 2 , 3, of the links from the vertices
are confined to motion in a plane. If we use our intuition to are defined in Fig. 2a. For convenience we define a dimen-
determine which one of the pendulum systems is in stable sionless distance d = / l. It is clear from Fig. 2a that
equilibrium, we might err. 1 d 3; d 0 indicates that two links cross each other
The formal way of determining the nature of stability of such that the pivot OB is left to the pivot OA.
equilibrium is by linear stability analysis. For similar prob- Figure 2b shows the system in equilibrium and the static
lems the analysis consists of the following steps: determine angles k of the links. We consider the in-plane motion of
the equilibrium position, determine the nonlinear differential this system. The potential energy of the system is
equations of motion, and determine of the solution of the V = mgl2 cos 1 + cos 2 2 cos 1 cos 2, 1
linearized differential equations of motion for small pertur-
bations about the equilibrium. If the dynamics of the per- and the kinetic energy takes the form
turbed system is oscillatory, the equilibrium is stable. Other-
1
wise, it is unstable. This process is demonstrated in Secs. T = ml22 21 + 22 + 2 1 2 cos2 1. 2
IIIV for a system of two pendulums connected by a rod. 2
The results in Sec. V reveal a counterintuitive result, in that The constraints are
the linear stability analysis indicates a zone of instability in
what seems to be an inherently stable configuration. The 1 = lsin 1 + sin 2 + sin 3 = 0, 3
paradoxical behavior is resolved in Sec. VI. An experiment
described in Sec. VII confirms that the equilibrium position 2 = lcos 1 + cos 2 + cos 3 = 0, 4
in the region indicated is unstable.
There is a wealth of literature concerning stability of an which imply, respectively, that the horizontal and vertical
inverted pendulum,1 linearization of pendulum motion,2 en- distances between OA and OB are and zero. The associated
ergy of interaction,3 and dynamics4 of double pendulums. Lagrangian is
Stability analysis goes back to the work of Euler on buckling L = T V mg1
mg2 , 5
of columns. The book of Ziegler5 on structural stability is
small in volume, wealthy in materials, and easy to read. Ti- and are time dependent Lagrange multipliers.
where
moshenko and Gere6 is a classic reference on elastic insta- The motion of the system is determined by the Euler
bility. Perturbation methods for vibrating systems may be Lagrange equations; see, for example, Langhaar:12
found in Meirovitch7 and Nayfeh.8 A chain of pendulums
similar to the one that we study here could represent a dis- L d L
=0 k = 1,2,3, 6
crete model of a vibrating cable. Static and dynamic analysis k dt
k
of cables is given by Irvine9 and Tadjbakhsh and Wang.10
Chen, Li and Ro11 have conducted linear stability analysis of which gives

395 Am. J. Phys. 79 4, April 2011 http://aapt.org/ajp 2011 American Association of Physics Teachers 395
Fig. 1. a Simple pendulums of point masses attached to massless rods. b
Constrained double pendulum of two masses supported by three massless
rods in plane motion.

l2 1 + 2 cos2 1 22 sin2 1
Fig. 2. Definition of a the dynamic and b the static configurations of the
2g sin 1 + g cos 1 = 0,
system.

l 2 + 1 cos1 2 21 sin1 2
d1
1g sin 2 + g cos 2 = 0,
7 1 = sin1 , 2 = ,
2 2
9
g sin 3 + g cos 3 = 0.
3 = 1, = 1, = tan 1 ,
corresponding to the static equilibrium configuration shown
Equations 3, 4, and 7 consist of five relations with five in Fig. 2b.
t, and t. They de-
unknowns: kt where k = 1 , 2 , 3,
termine the dynamics of the three links and the two Lagrange
multipliers.
IV. LINEARIZATION

To describe small oscillations about equilibrium we let


III. THE EQUATIONS OF STATIC EQUILIBRIUM kt = k + kt, k = 1,2,3,
The equations of static equilibrium are obtained from their 10
= + t,
= + t,
dynamic counterparts, Eqs. 7, 3, and 4, by setting the
time derivatives equal to zero and substituting k for k, where k, , and are infinitesimal quantities. We substi-
, and for ,
for tute Eq. 10 into Eqs. 7, use Eqs. 8, and eliminate higher
order terms in to obtain
2 sin 1 + cos 1 = 0,
l2 1 + 2 cos2 1 1g sin 1 + 2cos 1
+ g cos 1 sin 1 = 0,
1 sin 2 + cos 2 = 0,
l 2 + 1 cos1 2 2g sin 2 + 1cos 2
sin 3 + cos 3 = 0, 8
+ g cos 2 sin2 = 0, 11

sin 1 + sin 2 + sin 3 = d, 3g sin 3 + cos 3 + g cos 3 sin 3


= 0.
cos 1 + cos 2 + cos 3 = 0.
Linearization of the constraints gives
Equations 8 have the closed form solution, 1 cos 1 + 2 cos 2 + 3 cos 3 = 0, 12

396 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 4, April 2011 Ramachandran, Krishna, and Ram 396
1 sin 1 2 sin 2 3 sin 3 = 0, 13

by virtue of Eqs. 3 and 4.


Equations 1113 may be written in matrix form

M + K = 0, 14

where

= 1 2 3 T , 15


11 0 0 cos 1 sin 1
0 22 0 cos 2 sin 2
K=g 0 0 33 cos 3 sin 3 ,
cos 1 cos 2 cos 3 0 0
sin 1 sin 2 sin 3 0 0
Fig. 3. Plot of 2 versus d for the double-pendulum system. Note that in a
16 certain range of d, 2 is negative, implying an unstable state.

ii = 3 i cos i sin i i = 1,2,3, 17


1 + 2 sin3 1 g
2 = 23


.
2 cos2 1 0 0 0 cos 1 l
cos1 2 1 0 0 0 The corresponding eigenvector is
M=l 0 0 0 0 0 . 18 v = 11, 2 sin 1 ,1,1 + 2 sin3 1 ,
0 0 0 0 0 tan 1 2 cos 1 sin2 1T . 24
0 0 0 0 0

It follows from Eqs. 1418 that, similar to the vibrations V. RESULTS


of a simple pendulum, the natural frequency of small oscil-
lations in the double pendulum is independent of m and is Figure 3 shows Eq. 23 for the frequency as a function of
d. If d = 1, the slope of link 1 in the static position is 1 = 0.
proportional to g / l.
In this case Eq. 23 gives 2 = g / l. This result is expected
The solution of Eq. 14 takes the form
because both pendulums, the one consisting of link 1 with its
t = v sin t, 19 attached mass and the one consisting of link 3 with its at-
tached mass, oscillate individually about vertical axes with a
where v is a constant vector. Substitution of Eq. 19 into Eq. common natural frequency = g / l. Link 2 synchronizes the
14 gives a generalized eigenvalue problem, motion of the pendulums, but leaves their period of oscilla-
tions unchanged.
K 2Mv = 0. 20 If d = 0 the slope of link 1 in the static position is
1 = / 6. Equation 23 gives
If we use Eq. 9, Eqs. 1618 can be simplified to
g


1/cos 1 0 0 cos 1 sin 1
2 = cos/6. 25
l
0 tan 1 0 0 1 In this case the double pendulum is reduced to the physical
K=g 0 0 1/cos 1 cos 1 sin 1 , pendulum shown in Fig. 4. The natural frequency of a physi-
cos 1 0 cos 1 0 0 cal pendulum is see Ref. 13, pp. 230231
sin 1 1 sin 1 0 0
21


2 sin 1 0 0 0
sin 1 1 0 0 0
M=l 0 0 0 0 0 . 22
0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0

By equating the determinant of K 2M to zero we find that


Eq. 20, with K and M given by Eqs. 21 and 22, has one
finite eigenvalue, Fig. 4. The physical pendulum for d = 0.

397 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 4, April 2011 Ramachandran, Krishna, and Ram 397
Fig. 5. Configuration of the system for d = dC.

= Mg
I
, 26

where M is the total mass of the physical pendulum, is the


distance between the pivot O and the center of gravity G, and
I is the moment of inertia of the pendulum about its pivot O.
For the physical pendulum of Fig. 4, M = 2m, = l cos / 6,
and I = 2ml2. If we substitute these values into Eq. 26, we
obtain Eq. 25.
The frequency plot in Fig. 3 indicates that 2 can be nega-
tive, which implies that in this range there are no oscillations
about equilibrium. More precisely, the frequency plot implies
Fig. 6. a A free body diagram and b equilibrium positions.
that the system is unstable when
d dC = 1 22/3 0.5874, 27
where dC is the critical value of d that separates the zones of then the sum of the moments of all external forces about any
stable and unstable motions. If d = dC the corresponding point should vanish. Let C be the intersection of the exten-
angle of static equilibrium for link 1 is sions of links 1 and 3, and let G be the center of gravity for
1d=dC = sin1 0.51/3 52 , 28 the pendulum system, that is, G is the midpoint of link 2, as
shown in Fig. 6a. Because moment summation about C
by virtue of Eq. 9. vanishes only when G is aligned vertically with C, it follows
The configuration of the double-pendulum system for this that a necessary condition for static equilibrium is that C lies
case is shown in Fig. 5. At a glance, it appears that such a directly above or below G. It thus follows that the only pos-
configuration is stable. Could it be that the linear perturba- sible static equilibrium positions when d 0 are when link 2
tion analysis fails to properly characterize the behavior of the is horizontal, that is, the lower configuration P or the upper
system? A system with no stable equilibrium state would configuration Q shown in Fig. 6b. But if d dC, it is pos-
consist of a perpetuum mobile. sible that there is an asymmetric static equilibrium. We
solved Eq. 8 with d = 0.6 and found the two neighboring
VI. THE PARADOX RESOLVED solutions listed in Table I. The configurations associated with
these solutions, labeled P and Q, are illustrated in Fig. 7. The
Let us accept the results of the linear perturbation analysis frequency plot in Fig. 3 corresponds to configuration P in
and assume that when d dC the static configuration of the Fig. 7. The center of gravity GQ in configuration Q is lower
pendulum system with horizontal link 2 is unstable. A small than G P, which means that the non-symmetric configuration
perturbation will cause the system to move to a stable con- Q is the stable one. It follows that when the pendulums are
figuration and to oscillate about it. If our intuition regarding perturbed from configuration P, they move to stable configu-
stability did not mislead us, and the system is not strongly ration Q and oscillate about it. The plot in Fig. 3 in the range
unstable, then when the distance between the pivots OA and d dC indicates that the system has moved from configura-
OB is slightly increased, the stable static position would be tion P to Q. In summary, if d dC the pendulum system is
near the unstable configuration with horizontal link 2. stable for nonzero perturbations. If the distance between the
To examine this hypothesis we inspect the free-body- pivots OA and OB is increased beyond dC, then the equilib-
diagram for d 1 in Fig. 6a. If the system is in equilibrium, rium configuration where link 2 is horizontal is no longer

Table I. Stable and unstable configurations for d = 0.6.

1 2 3
deg deg deg

Stable configuration Q 62.78 73.40 138.00 1.2306 1.3669


Unstable configuration P 53.13 90 126.86 1.3333 1.0000

398 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 4, April 2011 Ramachandran, Krishna, and Ram 398
model. However, the two systems are statically equivalent,
and their dynamics for small perturbations are related to each
other by a scale factor. Suppose that the mass of the steel bar
is M = 2m and its moment of inertia about its center of grav-
ity is IG. Then, when the bar-string system is perturbed from
equilibrium, its total potential energy is

V = 2mgh, 29

where h is the vertical elevation of the center of gravity.


Equation 29 also describes the total potential energy of the
constrained double-pendulum system when it undergoes the
Fig. 7. Configuration P is unstable, and Q is stable.
same perturbation as the bar-string system. In addition, the
two systems have the same geometrical constraints given in
stable. If d is slightly smaller than dC, the effect of the insta- Eqs. 3 and 4. Because the equations of equilibrium are
bility is that the pendulums oscillate about a slightly per- determined by minimization of the potential energy subject
turbed asymmetric configuration. Inspection of Fig. 7 and to the constraints, we conclude that the equations of equilib-
Table I suggests that the instability is substantial. A change in rium for the two systems are the same. Consequently the two
the distance between the pivots of d dCR = 0.0126 causes a systems have the same static equilibrium configurations.
shift of 16.6 in the stable static equilibrium position of link Many problems associated with vibrations of a bar are for-
2. mulated in Ref. 14.
When the pendulum system is slightly perturbed, its ki-
netic energy is
VII. EXPERIMENT
An experiment was conducted to verify the results. Two ml2 2
small holes, a distance l = 305 mm apart, were made in a T P = mv2 + , 30
4
steel bar with dimensions of 320 18 4 mm3. Two loops
of non-extensible strings of negligible mass, each of effec- where v is the linear velocity of the center of gravity of the
tive length l, were inserted into the holes of the bar at one pendulum system, that is, the midpoint of link 2, and is the
end and in small hooks that are mounted on a smooth board
at the other end, as shown in Fig. 8. The board confines the angular velocity of link 2. The quantity v is related to by a
steel bar to be in an in-plane configuration. The board is scale factor due to the constraints. Let v = , where is the
smooth to reduce frictional effects which were not taken into proportionality constant. Then the kinetic energy for the pen-
account in the model. dulum system is


It might be argued that the bar-string system used in the
experiment differs from the constrained double-pendulum l2 2
T P = m 2 + . 31
4

Similarly, the kinetic energy for the bar-string system is


TB = m 2 +
IG 2
2m
. 32

Because the dynamic equations are obtained by minimization


of the action, V T, subject to the constraints, and because
IG ml2 / 2, the period of oscillations of the pendulum system
is larger than that of the bar-string system, but in all other
aspects the two systems are identical dynamically. We thus
expect that the bar-string and the double-pendulum systems
have the same stable or unstable equilibrium states.
When the distance between the pivots is = 165 mm, the
steel bar is approximately horizontal, as shown in Fig. 8a.
The small deviation from the horizontal position is attributed
to frictional effects and imperfections in the strings length
and leveling of the pegs. This case, where = 165 mm and
l = 360 mm, corresponds to d = 0.541 dC = 0.587. The re-
sult is in agreement with the theory. The horizontal configu-
ration of the bar is stable.
For = 210 mm the steel bar tilted at an angle of about
40 with the horizon and remained in an asymmetric equi-
librium, as shown in Fig. 8b. This case corresponds to d
= 0.688 dC = 0.587. The counterintuitive result predicted
Fig. 8. Experiments showing the a stable symmetric state and b stable by the theory has thus been confirmed. The horizontal con-
asymmetric state. figuration of the bar is unstable.

399 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 4, April 2011 Ramachandran, Krishna, and Ram 399
VIII. CONCLUDING REMARKS Am. J. Phys. 69, 755768 2001.
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3
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L. Meirovitch, Elements of Vibration Analysis McGraw-Hill, New York,
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8
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I. G. Tadjbakhsh and Y.-M. Wang, Transient vibrations of a taut inclined
zontal.
cable with a riding accelerating mass, Nonlinear Dyn. 6, 143161
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J. S. Chen, H. C. Li, and W. C. Ro, Slip-through of a heavy elastica on
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H. L. Langhaar, Energy Methods in Applied Mechanics Wiley, New
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E. I. Butikov, On the dynamic stabilization of an inverted pendulum, 1995.

Wheatstone Bridge by Leeds & Northrup. This enormous Wheatstone bridge is one of a dozen pieces of apparatus
bought by Denison University from Leeds & Northup in 1905 to replace apparatus lost in a fire. In the 1907 L&N
catalogue it is listed as a Decade Set and Wheatstone Bridge, indicating that the right-hand side can be used as a
resistance box. The resistance coils are good to 0.02%, as are the ratio coils on the left-hand side. I found that this
bridge was at the limit of my strength to lift, indicative of the amount of brass in it. It cost $275. Notes and photograph
by Thomas B. Greenslade, Jr., Kenyon College.

400 Am. J. Phys., Vol. 79, No. 4, April 2011 Ramachandran, Krishna, and Ram 400

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