Contact Force Models For Multibody Dynamics

This book analyzes several compliant contact force models within the context of multibody dynamics, while also revisiting the main issues associated with fundamental contact mechanics. In particular, it presents various contact force models, from linear to nonlinear, from purely elastic to dissipative, and describes their parameters. Addressing the different numerical methods and algorithms for contact problems in multibody systems, the book describes the gross motion of multibody systems by using a two-dimensional formulation based on the absolute coordinates and employs different contact models to represent contact-impact events. Results for selected planar multibody mechanical systems are presented and utilized to discuss the main assumptions and procedures adopted throughout this work. The material provided here indicates that the prediction of the dynamic behavior of mechanical systems involving contact-impact strongly depends on the choice of contact force model. In short, the book provides a comprehensive resource for the multibody dynamics community and beyond on modeling contact forces and the dynamics of mechanical systems undergoing contact-impact events.

As mechanical systems become more complex so do the mathematical models and simulations used to describe the interactions of their parts. One area of multibody theory that has received a great deal of attention in recent years is the dynamics of multiple contact situations occurring in continuous joints and couplings. Despite the rapid gains in our understanding of what occurs when continuous joints and couplings interact, until now there were no books devoted exclusively to this intriguing phenomenon. Focusing on the concerns of practicing engineers, Multibody Dynamics with Unilateral Contacts presents all theoretical and applied aspects of this subject relevant to a practical understanding of multiple unilateral contact situations in multibody mechanical systems. In Part 1, Professor Pfeiffer and Dr. Glocker provide an exhaustive review of the laws and principles governing the dynamics of unilateral contacts in multibody mechanical and technical systems. Among the topics covered are multibody and contact kinematics, the dynamics of rigid body systems, multiple contact configurations, detachment and stick-slip transitions, frictionless impacts, impacts with friction, and the Corner law of contact dynamics. In Part 2, the authors present numerous applications of the theories presented in Part 1. Each chapter in this part is devoted to a different law, theory, or model, such as discontinuous force laws, classical impact theory, Coulomb's friction law, and mechanical and mathematical models of impacts and friction. In addition, each chapter features several practical examples that allow engineers to observe the concepts described in action. Examples are drawn from a broad array of fields and range from hammering in gears as occurring in a synchronous generator to impacts and friction as observed in a child's woodpecker toy, from a demonstration of classical impact theory using an automobile gear box example, to Coulomb's friction law as applied to a turbine blade damper. Multibody Dynamics with Unilateral Contacts is an indispensable resource for mechanical engineers working on all types of multibody systems and the friction and vibration problems that can occur in them. It is also a valuable reference for researchers studying nonlinear dynamics. The only book devoted entirely to the theory and applications of onE of the most crucial aspects of multibody system design. This is the first book to focus exclusively on the theory and applications of multiple contact situations occurring in continuous joints and couplings in multibody systems. As such, it is a valuable resource for engineers working on mechanical systems with interrelated multiple parts. Multibody Dynamics with Unilateral Contacts * Provides a comprehensive examination of the laws and principles governing the dynamics of unilateral contacts in multibody mechanical and technical systems. * Presents the latest mathematical models and simulation techniques for describing the interactions of joints and couplings in multibody systems. * Describes practical applications for all the concepts covered. * Includes numerous examples drawn from a wide range of fascinating and enlightening real-world demonstrations, including everything from an airplane's landing gear to a child's toy.

This book presents suitable methodologies for the dynamic analysis of multibody mechanical systems with joints. It contains studies and case studies of real and imperfect joints. The book is intended for researchers, engineers, and graduate students in applied and computational mechanics.

This textbook – a result of the author’s many years of research and teaching – brings together diverse concepts of the versatile tool of multibody dynamics, combining the efforts of many researchers in the field of mechanics.

This book describes the development of an integrated approach for generating the path and gait of realistic hexapod robotic systems. It discusses in detail locomation with straight-ahead, crab and turning motion capabilities in varying terrains, like sloping surfaces, staircases, and various user-defined rough terrains. It also presents computer simulations and validation using Virtual Prototyping (VP) tools and real-world experiments. The book also explores improving solutions by applying the developed nonlinear, constrained inverse dynamics model of the system formulated as a coupled dynamical problem based on the Newton–Euler (NE) approach and taking into account realistic environmental conditions. The approach is developed on the basis of rigid multi-body modelling and the concept that there is no change in the configuration of the system in the short time span of collisions.

In this work, outstanding, recent developments in various disciplines, such as structural dynamics, multiphysic mechanics, computational mathematics, control theory, biomechanics, and computer science, are merged together in order to provide academicians and professionals with methods and tools for the virtual prototyping of complex mechanical systems. Each chapter of the work represents an important contribution to multibody dynamics, a discipline that plays a central role in the modelling, analysis, simulation and optimization of mechanical systems in a variety of fields and for a wide range of applications.

Comprehensive, up-to-date and firmly rooted in practical experience, a key publication for all automotive engineers, dynamicists and students.

This book develops the fundamentals of multibody dynamics from the principles of elementary mechanics. It is written in a tutorial style with numerous examples and an emphasis upon computational methods. This book should be accessible to anyone with a basic knowledge of elementary mechanics and analysis. Multibody Dynamics examines the behavior of systems of bodies subjected to forces or constraints. The bodies may be securely or loosely connected, and flexible or rigid. Such generality allows the use of multibody systems to model an increasing number of physical systems ranging from robots, biosystems (human body models), satellite booms, large structures, chains and cables. Until recently, analyses of such systems were virtually intractable. With the availability of high-speed digital computers, however, and with corresponding advances in analysis methods, multibody dynamics analyses are not only feasible, they are also practical, and applicable, to these important physical systems.