THE EVOLUTION OF A ROTATIONAL MOTION OF AN ELASTIC- RIGID-BODY ABOUT A FIXED-POINT IN A GRAVITATIONAL-FIELD

The rotational motion of a rigid dynamical system including a three di mensional elastic part about a fixed point is studied. The system is u nder the action of a general gravitational field. The stability anlysi s is carried out by expanding the displacement of the deformable part in terms of orthonormalized functions with the independent coefficient s. Results are obtained easily based on Routh's equation and Andoyer v ariables. The system is found to be stable provided that the dissipati on energy is minimum corresponds to the case of axially symmetric defo rmation. On the other hand, the system is unstable, when the angular m omentum vector is parallel to the equatorial plane, (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.