Mechanical systems with time-varying topology appear frequently in various applications. In this paper, topology changes that can be modeled by means of bilateral impulsive constraints are analyzed. We present a concept to project kinematic and kinetic quantities to two mutually orthogonal subspaces of the tangent space of the mechanical system. This can be used to obtain decoupled formulations...

This paper presents recent developments of high performance computing and networking techniques in the field of computer-aided multibody analysis and design. The authors describe the main achievements obtained in the development of a tool to aid in the design of new industrial mechanical systems by performing parallel parametric multibody simulations. The parallel software is composed of four m...

Efficient time integration is a key issue in computational multibody dynamics. Implicit time integration methods for stiff systems and constrained systems require the solution of a system of nonlinear equations in each time step. The nonlinear equations are solved iteratively by Newton type methods that are tailored to the structure of the equations of motion in multibody dynamics. In the prese...

One of the main goals of multibody dynamics research is to develop formulations that automatically derive the equations of motions for complex mechanical systems. Equations of motion are formulated systematically and then solved numerically. This paper studies analytic methods for formulating the equation of motions, with emphasis on the graph theoretic modelling approach. The graph theoretic a...

Design optimization of multibody systems is usually established by a direct coupling of multibody system analysis and mathematical programming algorithms. However, a direct coupling is hindered by the transient and computationally complex behavior of many multibody systems. In structural optimization often approximation concepts are used instead to interface numerical analysis and optimization....

This paper presents the multibody dynamics modeling and simulation results of bearing loads in a transmission system used in a wind turbine. First, a theoretical study is briefly reviewed that allows developing an analytical model for the analysis. The model is then studied using MD ADAMS software dedicated to the study of multibody dynamics and motion analysis of moving parts. The aim of the s...

In this paper we attempt to analyze and simulate the windshield wiper mechanisms, using the multibody systems software ADAMS. The design algorithm involves three mechanical models: kinematic model – to performe the positional analysis of the wiper system, inverse dynamic model – to determine the torque applied to the motor crank in order to generate the kinematically-prescribed behavior, and dy...

The paper reviews the roots, the state-of-the-art and perspectives of multibody system dynamics. Some historical remarks show that multibody system dynamics is based on classical mechanics and its engineering applications ranging from mechanisms, gyroscopes, satellites and robots to biomechanics. The state-of-the-art in rigid multibody systems is presented with reference to textbooks and procee...

-The principal objective of this paper is to give elements of the object-oriented architecture of a finite element code dedicated to multibody systems analysis. Emphasis is placed on the adequacy between object-oriented programming and the finite element method used for the treatment of three-dimensional multibody flexible mechanisms with large rotations and large strains. Numerical examples ar...

This paper describes a new spatial operator algebra for the dynamics of general{topology rigid multibody systems. Spatial operators allow a concise and systematic formulation of the dynamical equations of motion of multibody systems and the development of e cient computational algorithms. Equations of motion are developed for progressively more complex systems: serial chains, topological trees,...