121 Impulse response, analytical methods
of the as may be discontinuous at some time t
1
. This allows for the sudden appearance of
a constraint or a sudden change in its motion. For example, the sudden appearance of a
fixed constraint would be represented by the sudden change of the a
ji
coefficients for that
constraint from zero to nonzero values, whereas a
jt
remains equal to zero. On the other
hand, a sudden change in a
jt
represents a change in the velocity of a moving constraint.
We shall assume that a sudden change in a constraint is not accompanied by an applied
impulse
ˆ
Q
i
at exactly the same time. Thus, we assume that
ˆ
Q
i
= 0(i = 1,...,n) (2.328)
Usually the sudden change in the values of the a
ji
or a
jt
coefficients results in
ˆ
C
i
constraint
impulses. An exception occurs when a constraint suddenly disappears, that is, when its as
suddenly go to zero. In this case, there are no constraint impulses.
In general, for impulsive constraints, (2.323) becomes
n
i=1
n
j=1
m
ij
(
˙
q
j
−
˙
q
j0
)δw
i
= 0 (2.329)
where the virtual velocities δw
i
satisfy (2.319). The Lagrange multiplier form, given by
(2.327), becomes
n
j=1
m
ij
(
˙
q
j
−
˙
q
j0
) =
m
k=1
ˆ
λ
k
a
ki
(i = 1,...,n) (2.330)
When one uses (2.329) and (2.330) a question arises concerning which of the discontinuous
values of the as are to be used in the associated constraint equations. The initial velocities
˙
q
j0
must satisfy (2.324) where the as are evaluated at t
−
1
, that is, just before the discontinuity.
On the other hand, the as are evaluated at t
+
1
for constraint equations involving
˙
q
j
, δw
i
, and
for the coefficients of
ˆ
λ
k
.
For the case in which a constraint suddenly disappears, we see from (2.330) that, since
there are no constraint impulses, the
˙
qs are continuous, that is,
˙
q
j
=
˙
q
j0
.
Example 2.13 Three particles, each of mass m, are rigidly connected in the form of
an equilateral triangle by massless rigid rods of length l (Fig. 2.15). The system moves
downward with velocity v
0
in pure translational motion and particle 1 hits a smooth floor
at y = 0 inelastically. We wish to solve for the velocities of the particles immediately after
impact. Assume that particle 1 is directly below particle 3 at the time of impact.
We wish to illustrate the use of the general equations (2.323) and (2.327) for this
system which has three ordinary holonomic constraints and one impulsive holonomic
constraint. Let us specify the configuration of the system by the Cartesian coordinates
(x
1
, y
1
, x
2
, y
2
, x
3
, y
3
). The values of these coordinates at the time of impact are
x
1
= x
3
, x
2
− x
1
=
√
3
2
l, y
1
= 0, y
2
=
1
2
l, y
3
= l (2.331)
The corresponding velocities just before impact are
˙
x
10
=
˙
x
20
=
˙
x
30
= 0,
˙
y
10
=
˙
y
20
=
˙
y
30
=−v
0
(2.332)