Simon Sailer

Abstract

The tippedisk is a mathematical-mechanical archetype for a peculiar friction-induced instability phenomenon leading to the inversion of an unbalanced spinning disc, being reminiscent of (but different from) the well-known inversion of the tippetop. A reduced model of the tippedisk, in the form of a three-dimensional ordinary differential equation, has been derived recently, followed by a preliminary local stability analysis of stationary spinning solutions. In the current paper, a global analysis of the reduced system is pursued using the framework of singular perturbation theory. It is shown how the presence of friction leads to slow fast dynamics and the creation of a two-dimensional slow manifold. Furthermore, it is revealed that a bifurcation scenario involving a homoclinic bifurcation and a Hopf bifurcation leads to an explanation of the inversion phenomenon. In particular, a closed-form condition for the critical spinning speed for the inversion phenomenon is derived. Hence, the tippedisk forms an excellent mathematical-mechanical problem for the analysis of global bifurcations in singularly perturbed dynamics.

Abstract

The tippedisk is a mechanical-mathematical archetype for friction-induced instability phenomena that exhibits an interesting inversion phenomenon when spun rapidly. The inversion phenomenon of the tippedisk can be modeled by a rigid eccentric disk in permanent contact with a flat support, and the dynamics of the system can therefore be formulated as a set of ordinary differential equations. The qualitative behavior of the nonlinear system can be analyzed, leading to slow fast dynamics. Since even a freely rotating rigid body with six degrees of freedom already leads to highly nonlinear system equations, a general analysis for the full system equations is not feasible. In a first step the full system equations are linearized around the inverted spinning solution with the aim to obtain a local stability analysis. However, it turns out that the linear dynamics of the full system cannot properly describe the qualitative behavior of the tippedisk. Therefore, we simplify the equations of motion of the tippedisk in such a way that the qualitative dynamics are preserved in order to obtain a reduced model that will serve as the basis for a following nonlinear stability analysis. The reduced equations are presented here in full detail and are compared numerically with the full model. Furthermore, using the reduced equations we give approximate closed form results for the critical spinning speed of the tippedisk.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to introduce the tippedisk to the theoretical mechanics community as a new mechanical-mathematical archetype for friction induced instability phenomena. We discuss the modeling and simulation of the tippedisk, which is an inhomogeneous disk showing an inversion phenomenon similar but more complicated than the tippetop. In particular, several models with different levels of abstraction, parameterizations and force laws are introduced. Moreover, the numerical simulations are compared qualitatively with recordings from a high-speed camera. Unlike the tippetop, the tippedisk has no rotational symmetry, which greatly complicates the three-dimensional nonlinear kinematics. The governing differential equations, which are presented here in full detail, describe all relevant physical effects and serve as a starting point for further research.