Chapter 3

Virtual Displacement and

Virtual Work

3.1 D'Alembert's Principle

Introduction. Newton's Second Law tells us that the only way the mo-
tion of a particle system can be affected is by the application of forces.
Thus it is the application of forces that restrict the motion so that all
specified constraints are satisfied. It is natural to call such forces con-
straint forces. We have seen that in certain simple problems a hallmark
of constraint forces is that they do no work, and we wish to exploit
this fact to obtain a formulation of dynamics devoid of constraint forces.
A problem arises, however, because some constraint forces do in fact
do work. To circumvent this problem, we define a new type of dis-
placements, called virtual displacements, and a new type of work, called
virtual work, and define constraint forces as those that do no virtual
work.

Problem of Dynamics. The problem to be addressed in most of the

rest of this book is the strictly Newtonian problem of the first kind: Given
bounded functions EF8 (u 1, ··, UN, ur, ··, UN,t) and initial conditions
u 8 (0) and u8 (0) find the functions u 8 (t) that satisfy
ffi 8 U8 = L F8 (U~t ··, UN, UI, ··, UN, t) ; s = 1, ··, N (3.1)
and the constraint equations
N
L ArsdUs + Ardt = 0 ; r = 1, ··, L <N (3.2)
8=1

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Displacements. We now make the following definitions. ( 1) Ac-

tual displacements u 8 (t) are those that satisfy both Eqns. (3.1) and
(3.2); (2) Possible displacements du 8 satisfy Eqn. (3.2); and (3) Virtual
displacements 8u8 satisfy

LAr 8u
N
8 8 = 0; r = 1, ··, L <N (3.3)
s==l

Thus the actual displacements are to be found among the possi-

ble displacements. Comparison of Eqns. (3.2) and (3.3) shows that for
catastatic systems, virtual and possible displacements are the same. Re-
call that static equilibrium is possible only in catastatic systems.

Virtual Work. The virtual work done by a force F = (F1 , F2, ··, FN)
in a virtual displacement 8y = (8u1, 8u 2, ··, 8uN) is defined to be the
inner product
N
8W = F · 8y = L F8 8U 8 (3.4)
s==l

Constraint Forces. A force F' = (Ff, ··, FN) that does no virtual
work, i.e. which is such that

(3.5)

is a constraint force. All forces that are not constraint forces are called
given forces. Therefore we may write

L Fs = F 8 + F~ ; S = 1, ··, N (3.6)

where F8 and F: are the s components of the resultant given and con-
straint forces, respectively.
A constraint force is a force that ensures a constraint is satisfied.
In the case of a holonomic constraint, the constraint force is normal to
the constraint surface and its magnitude is such that the particle stays
on the surface. Since this force may be in either direction, technically
speaking the constraint must be regarded as two-sided (Fig. 3-1), but,
in the interests of simplicity, holonomic constraints will continue to be
depicted as one-sided.