The Hydrodynamic Chaplygin Sleigh

Yuri N. Fedorov, Luis C. Garcia-Naranjo

Published 2010-02-19Version 1

We consider the motion of rigid bodies in a potential fluid subject to certain nonholonomic constraints and show that it is described by Euler--Poincar\'e--Suslov equations. In the 2-dimensional case, when the constraint is realized by a blade attached to the body, the system provides a hydrodynamic generalization of the Chaplygin sleigh, whose dynamics are studied in detail. Namely, the equations of motion are integrated explicitly and the asymptotic behavior of the system is determined. It is shown how the presence of the fluid brings new features to such a behavior.