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 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.

Thank heavens for Jens Wittenburg, of the University of Karlsruhe in Germany. Anyone who’s been laboring for years over equation after equation will want to give him a great big hug. It is common practice to develop equations for each system separately and to consider the labor necessary for deriving all of these as inevitable. Not so, says the author. Here, he takes it upon himself to describe in detail a formalism which substantially simplifies these tasks.

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.

Large-scale mechanical systems such as automobiles consist of interconnected rigid and deformable components. These multibody systems present complex problems. This introduction to multibody dynamics emphasises flexible body dynamics. It discusses basic kinematics and dynamics, modeling, and newer computational techniques.

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.

Multibody systems are the appropriate models for predicting and evaluating performance of a variety of dynamical systems such as spacecraft, vehicles, mechanisms, robots or biomechanical systems. This book adresses the general problem of analysing the behaviour of such multibody systems by digital simulation. This implies that pre-computer analytical methods for deriving the system equations must be replaced by systematic computer oriented formalisms, which can be translated conveniently into efficient computer codes for - generating the system equations based on simple user data describing the system model - solving those complex equations yielding results ready for design evaluation. Emphasis is on computer based derivation of the system equations thus freeing the user from the time consuming and error-prone task of developing equations of motion for various problems again and again.