Ridged chain

[ValeryOchkov]

It is one animation of the task "Pendulum-chain" for my article "Games with Chain".

See please the Russian variant of the article. and Mathcad 15 sheet in attach!

But I have some question:

1. Do you know some descriptions and solutions of this problem?

2. Can you help me to use not a X-Y plot but a polar plot for the solution and for an illustrations?

3. Can we think about a symbolic solution?

4. Can we have better initial conditions for the not crazy numerical solution and for more nice moving of the Pendulum-chain?

Thank you!

[DJF]

This is probably of no help, but I did recently see a demonstration of MapleSim where they built a 3-bar pendulum model and got the symbolic solution.  

[ValeryOchkov]

Thanks DJF!

I see only this:

3-bar Pendulum with Mathcad animation

[ValeryOchkov]

4-bar Pendulum

[DJF]

I was unclear.  They demo'd it to me in a meeting.  So it does what you are after (unless it bonks out with 7 bars).  So, I think it's the right tool for the job, but I'm assuming you don't have a copy.  (I don't either, but it is fairly impressive from what I've seen.)

[ValeryOchkov]

5 bar pendulum with energies control

[ValeryOchkov]

An Error in numerical  solution!

Potential energy of 7 masses + Kinetic Energy must be constant - see pls above the animation of 5-bar pendulum!

[ValeryOchkov]

One good trick for an animation acceleration

[ValeryOchkov]

The 6-bar pendulum

[ValeryOchkov]

Other initial conditions: