Nonlinear Coupling Between Control and Dynamic Parameters in Flexible Multibody Dynamics

摘要

This report summarizes the main results obtained in the ARO funded research project performed at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The objectives of this research project were to provide a comprehensive study and to develop new computational methodologies in the area of mechanics, and control of constrained deformable bodies as applied to large scale flexible mechanical systems. In this research project, a new finite element procedure, the absolute nodal coordinate formulation, was developed. This new procedure can be used for the large deformation and rotation analysis of flexible multibody systems. It leads to exact modeling of the rigid body dynamics, and to a constant mass matrix for the finite elements in two- and three-dimensional applications. As a consequence, the vector of Coriolis and centrifugal forces is identically equal to zero. The new formulation captures the effect of the geometric centrifugal stiffness and accounts for the effect of the elastic nonlinearities. Several large deformation multibody problems were examined, and the results obtained using the new procedure were compared with the results obtained using existing finite element formulations. The results obtained in this research project are documented in several publications listed in this report.