Finite rotation and nonlinear beam kinematics

Abstract

Standard means of representing finite rotation in rigid-body kinematics, including orientation angles, Euler parameters, and Rodrigues parameters, are reviewed and compared. General kinematical relations for a beam theory that treats arbitrarily large rotation are then presented. The standard methods of representing finite rotations are applied to these kinematical expressions, and comparison is made among the standard methods and additional methods found in the literature, such as quasi-coordinates and linear combinations of projection angles. The method of Rodrigues parameters is shown to stand out for both its simplicity and generality when applied to beam kinematics, a result that is really missing from the literature.