ANALYZING THE PROBABILITIES OF NATURAL RESTING FOR A COMPONENT WITH AVIRTUAL RESTING FACE

This paper introduces a new approach to predicting the natural resting behavior of a part of irregular prismatic cross-sectional shape. The methods proposed by Boothroyd, Redford, Poli, and Murch (1972) and Boo throyd and Ho (1977), successfully analyzed parts whose centers of gra vity were located at the geometric center. The hypothesis presented he re employs the centroid solid angle of parts of irregular cross-sectio nal shape with virtual resting faces, such as the L-section. It postul ates that the probability of the respective natural resting surfaces o f a part coming to rest is directly proportional to the centroid solid angle and inversely proportional to the height of the center of gravi ty from that surface. The proposed hypothesis is compared with the Ene rgy Barrier Method and experimental results obtained from drop-tests o f the L-shaped part. The theoretical results agree well with the exper imental results, with the maximum deviation not exceeding 6 percent.