Title
Hamilton’s Principle as Variational Inequality for Mechanical Systems with Impact
Abstract
The classical form of Hamilton’s principle holds for conservative systems with perfect bilateral constraints. Several attempts have been made in literature to generalise Hamilton’s principle for mechanical systems with perfect unilateral constraints involving impulsive motion. This has led to a number of different variants of Hamilton’s principle, some expressed as variational inequalities. Up to now, the connection between these different principles has been missing. The aim of this paper is to put these different principles of Hamilton in a unified framework by using the concept of weak and strong extrema. The difference between weak and strong variations of the motion is explained in detail. Each type of variation leads to a variant of the principle of Hamilton in the form of a variational inequality. The conclusion of the paper is that each type of variation leads to different necessary and sufficient conditions on the impact law. The principle of Hamilton with strong variations is valid for perfect unilateral constraints with a completely elastic impact law, whereas the weak form of Hamilton’s principle only requires perfect unilateral constraints and no condition on the energy.
Year
DOI
Venue
2009
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00332-009-9048-z
Journal of Nonlinear Science
Keywords
Field
DocType
Unilateral constraint,Principle of d’Alembert–Lagrange,Weierstrass–Erdmann corner conditions,Non-smooth dynamics,Contact,37J55,70H25,47J20,49J52
Mathematical analysis,Variational principle,Maxima and minima,Hamilton's principle,Hamiltonian optics,Mathematics,Mechanical system,Variational inequality,D'Alembert's principle
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
19
6
0938-8974
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
2
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
R. I. Leine1585.33
U. Aeberhard200.34
Christoph Glocker3284.64