The principle of virtual work in mechanical and electromechanical systems

SummaryThe principle of virtual work is applied to electromechanical systems as the foundation of a unifying concept for modelling mechatronical systems. After the presentation of an important result in the field of mechanics, the expansion of the principle on electrical networks and electromechanical systems is shown. The use of the principle of virtual work in the domain of electromechanics yields an analogous form to the central equation of mechanics which is valid for holonomic and nonholonomic systems. The electrotechnical part of the system is confined to networks. The derivation of the mathematical model is demonstrated on the example of a simple electromechanical oscillation circuit. In addition, the physical systems are separately treated, taking into account the explicit constraints on the basis of the Lagrangian multiplier method.