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Concept of Equimomental System for Dynamic Balancing of Mechanisms

Conference Paper · March 2013

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International Conference on Automation and Mechanical Systems ICAMS2013

Concept of Equimomental System for Dynamic

Balancing of Mechanisms
Kailash Chaudhary1, Dr. Himanshu Chaudhary2
1,2
MNIT, Jaipur

Abstract

This paper presents the concept of equimomental system of point-masses for

rigid body to balance the mechanisms dynamically. The links of mechanism are
modelled as rigid bodies for kinematic and dynamic analysis. The mass and moment
of inertias of the links govern the shaking force and shaking moment transmitted to
the frame on which they are mounted. Optimization of mass and moment of inertias
methodology is used in minimizing the shaking force and shaking moment. The
formulation of optimization problem is greatly simplified using the equimomental
system of point-masses. The effectiveness of the method is illustrated with an
example.

Keywords: Equimomental system, Dynamic balancing, Shaking force, Shaking

moment, Mechanisms

1. Introduction
A rigid body can be defined as a system of particles where the distances between
particles remain essentially unchanged. However, this is an idealization as all solid bodies
change shape to some extent when the forces are applied to them. Moreover, if the
movements associated with the changes in shape are very small compared with the overall
movements of the body as a whole, then the ideal concept of rigidity is quite acceptable.
The machine mechanisms, land and air vehicles, rockets and spacecrafts, and many moving
structures can be analysed using the concept of the rigid body [1-3].
To balance a mechanism, one has to eliminate the shaking force and shaking moment
transmitted to the ground. The links of such mechanism can be modelled as rigid bodies
for simplifying the kinematic and dynamic analysis [4]. The mechanisms are to be
balanced either statically or dynamically. In some cases, static balancing can be acceptable
substitute for dynamic balancing and is generally easier to do.
Like any system of forces acting on a rigid body can be replaced by an equivalent
system of forces which produce identical motion, an equivalent mass distribution of a rigid
body can be determined. For example, spatial mass distribution of a rigid body can be
converted into a system of point-masses keeping the dynamic behaviour identical. Such
dynamically indistinguishable systems are called equimomental systems. The general
requirements for the dynamical equivalence were laid down by Routh [5]. The set of
point-masses and the rigid body are equimomental if they have the same total mass, the
same centre of mass, and the same inertia tensor with respect to the same coordinate frame
[6]. However, there is no such limit on the maximum number of point-masses. The
number of parameters related to the point-masses increase with increase of point- masses.

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It is shown that a set of seven point-masses is very effective in reducing shaking force
and shaking moment in the mechanism [7]. This set of rigidly connected seven point-mass
systems is explained in this paper to balance the mechanism dynamically.
This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 explains the equations of motion for rigid
body. Equations of motion for equimomental point-masses are re-written in section 3.
Problem of minimizing shaking force and shaking moment for a rotating link is then
formulated in Section 4. A numerical example is solved using the proposed method in
section 5. Finally, conclusions are given in Section 6.

2. Equations of Motion of Rigid Body

A link of a multi body system is modelled as the rigid body for the dynamic analysis. The
Newton-Euler equations of motion for the ith rigid body of a multibody system shown in
the Fig. 1 are expressed as [8]:

i  Ω i I ic ω i  n ic ; m i v
ic  f ic
I ic ω (1)-(2)

Where nic is resultant of pure moment and moment of external forces about the mass center,
Ci , and f ic is resultant force acting on the body at Ci. Moreover, I ic is the centroidal inertia

i are defined as the mass,
tensor with respect to Ci. In Eqs. (1) and (2), mi, ω i and ω
angular velocity and angular acceleration of the body. The three-dimensional vector v
ic
defines the linear acceleration of the mass centre

Fig. 1 Free-body diagram of the ith body

Let the ith body is connected to the previous and next bodies at Oi and Oi+1 through joints.
The reference frame OXYZ is the fixed inertial frame. Then ai can be defined as the link
length. As in linkage balancing problem, we are more interested to know the forces at the
joints, the equations with respect to mass center can be modified to find these forces
directly at the joints. The NE equations, eqs. (1) and (2), are to be expressed with

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International Conference on Automation and Mechanical Systems ICAMS2013

respect to Oi, in compact form as [7]: Mi t i Wi M i E i t i wi

(3)
Here, 6×6 matrices of extended mass, Mi, extended angular velocity, Wi, and Ei are
defined as:
0 0  ω iz ω iy ;
0 I io m i Di ; 0 0; 01 0 ; 1 <
Mi  1 <; Wi  1 i <; E i  1 <; where E i  1 ω iz 0  ω ix < ;
21  m i D i m i 1 =< 20 i = 20 0 = 1 ω (4)
2 iy ω ix 0 <=

Where Di and Ωi are the 3x3 cross-product tensors associated w ith three-dimensional
vectors di and ωi, respectively. Note that 1 and O are 3×3 unity matrix and 3×3 zero
matrix, respectively. Furthermore, the six-dimensional vectors of twist, t i, twist rate, t
i , and
wrench wi , are defined as:
0ω ;
;
0ω 0n ;
ti  1 i <; t
i  1 i <; wi  1 i <
2vi =

v
2 i= 2 fi = (5)

where ω i, vi, n i and f i, are angular velocity, linear velocity, resultant moment, and resultant
force acting on the ith body, respectively, at Oi of the body. Equation (3) is the desired NE
equations of motion of the ith body written with respect to the point, Oi. It is suitable for
finding the reaction forces at the joints. This formulation avoids the post processing for
computing the reactions.

3. Equations of Motion for Equimomental System of

Point-Masses
The Newton-Euler (NE) equations of motion for the rigid body presented in section 2 are,
now, modified for the equimomental system of point-masses. A set of n point- masses
will be dynamically equivalent to the rigid body if [4]
n n n n
, mij  mi ; , mij xij  mi xi ; , mij yij  mi yi ; , mij zij  mi zi (6)-(9)
j1 j1 j1 j 1
n n n
, mij xij yij  I ixy; , mij yij zij  I iyz; , mij zij xij  Iizx (10)-(12)
j1 j1 j 1
n n n
2 2 2 2
, mij ( yij  zij )  I ixx; , mij (zij  xij )  I iyy; 2 2
, mij (xij  yij )  Iizz
j1 j1 j 1 (13)-(15)

here mij is jth point-mass and xij, yij, zij are its coordinates where as the rigid body has
mass mi, the mass center (x,y,z) and the moment of inertias Iixx, Iiyy, Iizz and product of inertias
Iixy, Iiyz, Iizx. An equimomental system of seven point-masses as shown in Fig. 2 is used
here for the rigid body. Referring to Fig. 2, the three-dimensional vectors, dij and rij, are the
positions the point-mass, mij, from the origins Oi and Oi+1, respectively. Subscripts i and j
denote the ith link and its jth point-mass, respectively.
mi3 mi2

mi4 Oi+1 mi1

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C ri ri1
mi7
di ai di1
mi5 mi6
Oi
Fig. 2 Equimomental system of seven point-masses

Vector di locating the total mass center in terms of dij’s is obtained as:

1 7
di  , mijdij
mi j 1 (16)
Denoting dij=[d ijx, dijy, d ijz]T, the 3x3 skew-symmetric matrix, Di, associated with the vector,
di, and inertia tensor, I io , about Oi, in terms of the point-mass parameters are
represented as:

0 7 7 ;
1 0  , m ij d ijz , m ij d ijy <
1 j 1 j 1 <
1 1 7 7 <
Di  1 , m ij d ijz 0  , m ij d ijx < ;
m i 1 j 1 j 1 <
1 7 7 <
1  , m ij d ijy , m ij dx 0 <
2 j 1 j 1 =

0 7 2 2
7 7 ;
1 , m ij ( d ijy  d ijz )  , m ij d ijx d ijy  , m ij d ijx d ijz <
1 j 1 j 1 j 1 <
1 7 7 <
I io 1 2 2
, m ij ( d ijz  d ijx )  , m ij d ijy d ijz <
1 j 1 j 1 <
1 7
2 2 <
1 sym , m ij ( d ijx  d ijy ) <
2 j 1 =

(17)
Equations (16) and (17) define the mass matrix, Mi, of the ith body in terms of the
parameters of the equimomental seven point-masses. Putting this mass matrix Mi in the
Eq. (3) will give the modified NE equations of motion for equimomental point- mass
system.

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4. Problem Formulation for Minimizing Shaking

Force and Shaking Moment for a Rotating Link
Based on the analysis presented in sections 2 and 3, the problem for minimizing the shaking
force and shaking moment for a rotating link is formulated in this section. The single link
mechanism under consideration is shown in Fig. 3.

Rigid link
#1 C
Y C
n01 d1

O #0
Z X O f01
Revolute joint Rotation Axis

Fig. 3 Single link mechanism Fig. 4 Free-body diagram

The rigid link is connected to frame through a revolute joint and rotating about X axis. The
fixed inertial frame, OXYZ, is located at the joint between link and frame. The path of
centre of mass of the link lies in YZ plane for complete cycle. The resultant moment about
the origin, O, and the resultant force acting at O on the link are shown in Fig. 4. Here
the frame and the link are numbered as ≠0 and ≠1, respectively, for the analysis purpose.
f01 and n01 are moments and forces applied by the frame on the link at the joint. Without
losing generality, the external forces like gravity and dissipative forces are not considered
here. As discussed in previous sections, this link can be treated as dynamically equivalent
system of seven point-masses. A body fixed frame, o1x1y1z1 is suitably chosen for finding
mass centre and inertias. The point-masses and their locations are shown in Fig. 5.

m13 m12

Y1
m14 O1 X1 m11
Z1 m17

m15 m16
Fig. 5 Equimomental seven point-masses

The positions of point-masses in body fixed frame, o1x1y1z1, are given by three- dimensional
position vectors, dij [dijx,dijy,d ijz]T, for j=1,…,7. These position vectors are transferred into
fixed inertial frame, OXYZ using two rotation matrices, Qθ and Qα about axis Z and X
respectively, defined as:
0C θ  Sθ 0; 01 0 0 ; 0C θ  SθC α SθSα ;
1 < 1 < 1 <
Q θ  1 Sθ Cθ 0 <; Q α  10 Cα  Sα <; Q i  Q θQ α  1 Sθ C θC α  C θSα <
12 0 0 1 <= 12 0 Sα C α <= 12 0 Sα C α <=
where Cθ=cosθ and Sθ=sinθ, while θ and α are the angles of rotation about Z and X axes,
respectively. Knowing the rotation matrix, Qi, the three-dimensional position vector d1j and

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International Conference on Automation and Mechanical Systems ICAMS2013

3x3 inertia tensor, I io for point-masses in frame o1x1 y1z1 can be transformed into that of
OXYZ as:
d1j OXYZ  Qi d1j o x y z ; I 
1 1 11
o o
 T
i OXYZ  Qi Ii o1x1y1z1 Qi

The NE equations of motion of the link in the given mechanism as explained in Eq. (3)
will be written as: M 1t 1 W1M1E1t1 w1
(18)
The terms associated with Eq. (18) for single link mechanism are determined from Eq.
(4) and Eq. (5) for i=1. For the problem under consideration:

ω1  ωix ωiy ωiz T
  ωix  
0 0 ; v1  vix viy viz  0 0 0 ;
T T (19)
T n1  n01 and f1  f01

Shaking force is defined as the reaction of the resultant inertia forces, whereas shaking
moment about any particular point is the reactions of the resultant inertia couples and the
moment of the inertia forces about that point [9]. For the mechanism under consideration, the
shaking force and shaking moment with respect to the joint are obtained as:
f sh  f 01 ; n sh  n 01 (20)
where three-dimensional vectors, fsh and nsh , represent shaking force and shaking moment
while three-dimensional vectors, f01 and n01 are the vector components of w 1. In this case,
both shaking force and shaking moment transmitted to the frame are to be minimized, so
the combined objective function is used for the optimization problem. For a combined
objective function, its quantities are normalised with respect to the reference link parameters,
which are defined as [9]:

fsh nsh
fsh  ; nsh  (21)
maω2 ma2ω 2
The parameters m, a and ω represent mass, length and angular velocity of the link
respectively. The normalization of dynamic quantities allows one to consider the quantities of
different dimensions during optimization [10]. The root mean square (RMS) values of
the normalized shaking force and shaking moment are used for the minimization purpose.
Considering the RMS values of the normalized shaking force and shaking moment, an
optimality criterion is proposed as:
z  w1f sh,rms  w2 n sh,rms (22)
where w1 and w2 are the weighting factors. The seven point-masses parameters for the link
are design variables for the optimization. The task here is to find the values of these
variables to minimize the function, z.

5. Numerical Example
The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown using a cylindrical shaped link made
of steel, whose parameters are given in table 1. The body fixed frame o1x1 y1z1 is chosen
such that x1 coincides with the axis of the cylinder. Mass and inertias of the normalized link
are given in Table 2. MATLAB programs were developed for finding seven point-masses
dynamically equivalent to the link. The resulting point- masses and their locations are
shown in the Table 3.

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Table 1: Parameters for rigid link in spatial motion

Parameter Description Value

m, a, R mass, length and radius of link 61.23 kg, 1 m and
0.05 m
ωx, α angular velocity and angle of rotation of link 100 radians/sec,
about X axis of inertial frame variable (0 to 360°)
θ angle between x1 and X 45°
Ixx moment of inertia of the link about the x-axis 0.0765 kg-m2
of body fixed frame o1 x1 y1 z1
Iyy= Izz moment of inertia of the link about the y-axis 20.4483 kg-m2
and z-axis of body fixed frame o1 x1 y1 z1
Ixy=Iyz=Iz polar moment of inertias of the link 0
D distance of centre of mass from the origin of xc=0.5 m,yc= zc=0
body fixed frame o1 x1 y1 z1
Table 2: Mass and inertias of the normalized link

m dx dy dz Ixx Iyy Izz Ixy Iyz Izx

(kg) (meter) 2
(kg-meter )
1 0.5 0 0 0.0765 20.4483 20.4483 0 0 0
Table 3: Equimomental point-masses of the normalized link

m1 =m5 m2=m6 m3=m7 m4 Dx dy=dz

(kg) (meter)
0.25 0.2165 0.03349 0 0.5774 0.0250

T he point-masses are the design variables in this case and the optimization problem is
solved using ‘‘fmincon’’ function of the optimization toolbox of MATLAB (Fig. 6). The
comparison of original and optimum values of shaking force and shaking moment
components and resultant are shown in Fig. 7 and 8, respectively. (discontinuous curves
represent optimum values while continuous curves represent original values)

Design Variables: Point-masses

(DV) ( m 1,…,m7)

M i n i m i z e z  w1f sh,rms  w2 n sh,rms

Subject to mo ≤ m ≤ 5mo

Solution for DVs using fmincon

Function of MATLAB Optimization
Toolbox

Fig. 6. Flowchart of MATLAB Algorithm

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X Component Y Component Z Component
















 


 


  
              

 
 


X Component Y Component Z Component

Fig. 7. Comparison of Normalized Shaking Force and Shaking Moment









 

 

 

 

         


 


Fig. 8 Comparison of Normalized Resultant Shaking Force and Shaking Moment

The resultant of the original as well as optimum shaking force and shaking moment values
are shown in Table 4. Similarly, optimized balance mass, its location, and moment of
inertia are given in Table 5.
Table 4: Comparison of the RMS values of the normalized shaking force and the shaking
moment
Original Value Optimized Value
Shaking Force 0.3536 1.4895 x 10-6
Shaking Moment 0.1664 0.2496

Table 5: Mass and inertia properties of the counterweight

M dx dy=dz Ixx Iyy= Izz Ixy Iyz Izx

(kg) (meter) 2
(kg-meter )
0.50 -1.00 0 -0.000625 0.1670 -0.0046 -0.000206 -0.0046
From results, it is clear that x components of shaking force and shaking moment are zero
for complete cycle as link is rotating about x axis. The optimum shaking force values for
y and z components as well as resultant is reduced and reaches to zero. However,
optimum shaking moment values are increased slightly as single link is considered in this

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problem. The reduction in shaking moment can be achieved for the mechanisms using this
method. This methodology will be extended for the slider crank mechanism.

6. Conclusions
This paper presents a method for balancing the mechanism using the concept of the
equimomental system for rigid body. The dynamic equations of motion are formulated
systematically in the parameters related to the equimomental point-masses. Using these
equations, the optimization problem is formulated for the balancing of shaking force and
shaking moment of a rigid link in spatial motion. The proposed method is illustrated using a
single link mechanism. The method completely balanced the shaking force transmitting to
the frame. Further, the shape optimization may be used to find the shape and size of the
counterweight.

References
[12] J. L. Meriam, Engineering Mechanics, Vol. 2, Dynamics, 3rd Edition, John Wiley
& Sons, 1996.
[13] Irving H. Shames, Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics,4th edition,
Pearson, 2011.
[14] R. L. Norton, Kinematics and Dynamics of Machinery, Tata Mcgraw Hill, 2009.
[15] H. Chaudhary and S. K. Saha, “Equimomental systems and its applications,”
in Proc.of 8th Biennial ASME Conference on Engineering Systems Design and
Analysis, Torino, Italy, July 4-7, 2006.
[16] Routh,E.J., 1905, Treatise on the Dynamics of a System of Rigid Bodies,
Elementary Part I, Dover Publication Inc., New York, pp. 3, 28.
[17] Chaudhary H. and Saha S. K., March 2008, “Balancing of shaking forces and
shaking moments for planar mechanisms using the equimomental systems”
Mechanism and Machine Theory, 43, No. 3,pp. 310–334.
[18] Chaudhary H. and Saha S. K., April 2008, “An optimization technique for the
balancing of spatial mechanisms,” Mechanism and Machine Theory, 43,No. 4,pp.
506–522
[19] Perviz E. Nikravesh, Computer-aided analysis of mechanical systems, Prentice Hall,
Englewood cliffs, New Jersey, 1988.
[20] Lee, T. W., and Cheng, C., 1984, “Optimum Balancing of Combined Shaking
Force, Shaking Moment, and Torque Fluctuations in High Speed Linkages,”
ASME Journal of Mechanisms, Transmissions, and Automation in Design, 106(2),
242-251.
[21] Walker, M. J., and Hains, R. S., 1982, “A Study of Counterweight Synthesis for a
6-bar Chain,” Mechanism and Machine Theory, 17(5), pp. 327-334.

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