The use of the barrier method for the impact analysis in mechanical systems

摘要

Aim of the paper is to derive approximate equations of motion for mechanical systems subject to inequality constraints, by looking for the statinary value of a suitably modified action integral. The modification consists in adding to the potential eenrgy of the system some terms which become infinite when the system tends to reach the boundary of the admissible region, multiplied by suitable scaar k_i. The efficacy of the proposed technique in approximating the exact path of motion is proven, under suitable assumptions.