Linearized Flexible Multibody Dynamics Including Geometric Stiffening Effects

Abstract

In multibody system simulation for vehicle dynamics applications, it is often sufficient to consider a set of system equations in which the kinematics are linearized. On the other hand, care must be taken to model the flexibility of the system bodies correctly and to be able to introduce the highly nonlinear force laws appearing in multibody vehicle models into the simulation. A formalism meeting these objectives is presented here. Special care has been taken to incorporate geometric stiffing terms that result from nominal loads on the system. This formalism is the core of the vehicle dynamic simulation code MEDYNA.