3466. Feasibility Study for the Measurement of the Inertia Properties of Huge Bodies
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Paper
Abstract
The identification of the inertial properties of complex bodies is a well discussed issue. The importance of the accurate knowledge of these quantities for the correct simulation of mechanical systems has been recognized by many authors. In the literature, many different methods and often complicated test rigs have been proposed. In most cases these test rigs are able to identify the inertia properties of compact bodies and in only few cases body as large as ground vehicles can be measured. At the best knowledge of the authors methods for the measurement of the inertia tensor of very large rigid bodies such as airplanes and ships have not been yet proposed.
In this paper the feasibility of such measurements is discussed. The proposed method is based on the test rig for the measurement of the inertial properties of car vehicle size rigid bodies developed at the Politecnico di Milano (Technical University of Milan). This test rig is basically a three or four bar pendulums carrying the body under investigation. The body is made rotate around three axes passing nearby the body centre of gravity and the resulting highly non linear motion is recorded. By a proper identification procedure, the centre of gravity location and the inertia tensor can be assessed with a single experimental test. The absence of any dynamic excitation of the motion of the system makes this method suitable for the very large bodies discussed here.
