Conservation Laws in Systems With Variable Mass

Abstract

In this paper, a method for obtaining conservation laws of dynamic systems with variable mass is developed. It is based on Noether’s theorem to the existence of conservation laws and D’Alembert’s variational principle. In the general case, a dynamic system with variable mass is purely nonconservative. Noether’s identity for such a case is expanded by the terms that describe the mass variation. If Noether’s identity if satisfied, a conservation law exists. Two groups of systems with variable mass are considered: a nonlinear vibrating machine and a rotor with variable mass. For these systems, conservation laws are obtained using the procedure developed in this paper.