Contact modelling in multibody applications

Abstract

Multibody system dynamics (MSD) offers a reliable and easy-to-use tool to analyze the dynamics of complex systems. This approach allows for the description of equations of motion for a dynamic system that consist of interconnected components which may be rigid or deformable. Even though there are a number of applications in multibody dynamics, formulating the contact descriptions still remains challenging.

Approaches such as the penalty method, the complementarity method, and constraint-based methods have been proposed for contact modeling. Contact examples for such applications include rigid granular contact, flexible beam contact, and wheel-rail contact.

This dissertation contributes to contact modelling in multibody systems to develop the methods and gain insight into the contact problem. The kinematics and dynamic equations for rigid and flexible bodies are discussed as well as the kinematics of wheel-rail contact. Beam elements based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF) are implemented to describe large deformations in flexible multibody applications. In addition, the cone complementarity method (CCP) and penalty method are developed for the simulation of rigid and flexible multibody systems. Finally, for the application of wheel-rail contact simulation, two constraint-based formulations are compared and analyzed.