Return to the central of this site.

Return to "The Whiplash-injury" main Page.

Retur til "Whiplash-skader" Hovedside.

EXTRACT B.

For the table of contents of the EXTRACT of the compendium.

Return to EXTRACT A

Part A: Static and dynamic mechanics.

Chapter A.2 The mechanics of an impact.

1. The impulse and the moving mass.

In an impact the items involved will change their velocities dependent of their masses, their velocities when the impact starts, their ability to absorb energy and the direction of the forces acting on the items.

When a body m1 with a velocity V01 strikes another body m2 with a velocity lower than V01. Both bodies will be affected by the same impulse. Both the force and the time the force acts towards the bodies are equal, giving the bodies a change in their velocities as:

dV = F/m * t.

m = mass of the body

2. The laws of constancy of energy and moving mass during an impact.

The Law of conservation of Energy:

An important law of physics to have in mind is:

THE SUM OF ENERGY IS CONSTANT AND CAN ONLY BE TRANSFORMED INTO ANOTHER STATE OF ENERGY, EITHER KINETIC OR THROUGH DEFORMATION TO END AS AN INCREASE OF TEMPERATURE OF THE BODY ITSELF AND/OR IT'S SURROUNDINGS.

The law of the conservation of the moving masses during an impact:

THE TOTAL QUANTITY OF THE MOMENTUM (Sum of product (m * v) ) IS THE SAME BEFORE AND AFTER THE IMPACT.

3. The two phases of the impact

Phase A:

This phase lasts from the impact starts until the bodies have reached their maximum deformation. At this moment the bodies have obtained an equal velocity Vu. I will call this moment Tu.

The energy absorbed by deformation at Tu is equal to the change in the quantity of the kinetic energy.

Phase B:

In this phase the impact might be ended or it proceeds until the bodies are apart, depending on the mechanical properties of the objects as the force between the bodies are reduced.

4. The elastic and non elastic impacts.

We are talking about two theoretical outer limits of elasticity: Absolute elastic and Absolute non elastic or Plastic. (The elastic abilities of a body means it's ability to regain it's structure when the pressure is released.)

In an absolute non elastic impact or plastic impact the body will remain laying quite still on the ground after falling down.

In an absolute elastic impact it should jump up again with the same speed and up to the same level.

In the plastic case all the energy used for deformation when the velocity of the two bodies are equal, will remain as deformation and further to be transformed into an increase of temperature. In the elastic case all the energy absorbed by deformation will be transformed back into kinetic energy, giving the body the same velocity but in the opposite direction.

In fact all impacts between real bodies will have an elasticity between those theoretic limits. The changes in velocity and the deformation during Phase A is independent of the bodies elasticity. If the bodies are absolutely non elastic (plastic) the impact are ended at Tu. Now the two bodies are moving with the same velocity in the same direction.

If the bodies have any degree of elasticity, and every real body has, the impact will continue into Phase B depending on the elasticity of the bodies involved. If all deformation at Tu are transformed back into kinetic energy as an absolute elastic impact, the bodies would obtain a change of velocity twice as high as during Phase A .The time the impacts lasts will be twice as well as the distance the bodies run from the moment of striking until they are released.


For the Next page.

Return

Return to the central of this site.

Return to "The Whiplash-injury" main Page.

Retur til "Whiplash-skader" Hovedside.

The contents of, or any part of this compendium, are not allowed to be made public or copied without my permission.

 

Glesvær Teknikk og Media, ing. Kjell O. Pettersen, 5381 Glesvær. Tlf.: 56 31 78 48 E-post: post@glestek.no
Internet hjemmeside: http://www.glestek.no