Structure of optimized generalized coordinates partitioned vectors for holonomic and non-holonomic systems

The generalized coordinates partitioning is a well-known procedure that can be applied in the framework of a numerical integration of the DAE systems. However, although the procedure proves to be a very useful tool, it is known that an optimization algorithm for the coordinates partitioning is needed to obtain the best performance. In the paper, the optimized partitioning of the generalized coordinates is revisited in the context of a numerical forward dynamics of the holonomic and non-holonomic multibody systems. After a short presentation of the geometric background of the optimized coordinates partitioning, a structure of the optimally partitioned vectors is discussed on the basis of a gradient analysis of the separate constraint sub-manifolds at the configuration and the velocity levels when holonomic and non-holonomic constraints are present in the system. It is shown that, for holonomic systems, the vectors of optimally partitioned coordinates have the same structure for the generalized positions and velocities. On the contrary, in the case of non-holonomic systems, the optimally partitioned coordinates generally differ at the configuration and the velocity levels. The conclusions of the paper are illustrated within the framework of the presented numerical example.     

具有奇异位置的多体系统动力学方程的改进算法

多体系统进行数值仿真时,很多选择了微分代数混合方程作为多体系统动力学数学模型.本文在现有的约束稳定化理论基础上,提出了针对具有奇异位置的多体系统动力学方程的改进算法.算法通过修正速度违约和控制稳定项,讨论了具有奇异位置的微分代数混合方程的数值仿真问题并给出了稳定项中相关系数的建议值,从而有效克服了求解混合方程时因为构型奇异给计算造成的困难.算例分别采用改进算法与ADAMS软件进行仿真,计算结果的比较表明了改进算法的有效性.本文给出的基于能量守恒的能量差曲线也证明了改进算法的有效性.     

Pulse control of flexible multibody systems

An active pulse control method is developed to reduce the vibrations of multibody systems resulting from impact loadings. The pulse, which is a function of system generalized coordinates and velocities, is determined analytically using energy and momentum balance equations of the impacting bodies. Elastic components in the multibody system are discretized using the finite element method. The system equations of motions and nonlinear algebraic constraint equations describing mechanical joints between different components are written in the Lagrangian formulation using a finite set of coupled reference position and local elastic generalized coordinates. A set of independent differential equations are identified by the generalized coordinate partitioning of the constraint Jacobian matrix. These equations are written in the state space formulation and integrated forward in time using a direct numerical integration method. Dependent coordinates are then determined using the constraint kinematic relations. Points in time at which impact occurs are monitored by an impact predictor function, which controls the integration algorithms and forces for the solution of the momentum relation, to define the jump discontinuities in the composite velocity vector as well as the system reaction forces. The effectiveness of the active pulse control in reducing the vibration of flexible multibody aircraft during the touchdown impact is investigated and numerical results are presented.     

On the constraints violation in forward dynamics of multibody systems

It is known that the dynamic equations of motion for constrained mechanical multibody systems are frequently formulated using the Newton–Euler’s approach, which is augmented with the acceleration constraint equations. This formulation results in the establishment of a mixed set of partial differential and algebraic equations, which are solved in order to predict the dynamic behavior of general multibody systems. The classical solution of the equations of motion is highly prone to constraints violation because the position and velocity constraint equations are not fulfilled. In this work, a general and comprehensive methodology to eliminate the constraints violation at the position and velocity levels is offered. The basic idea of the described approach is to add corrective terms to the position and velocity vectors with the intent to satisfy the corresponding kinematic constraint equations. These corrective terms are evaluated as a function of the Moore–Penrose generalized inverse of the Jacobian matrix and of the kinematic constraint equations. The described methodology is embedded in the standard method to solve the equations of motion based on the technique of Lagrange multipliers. Finally, the effectiveness of the described methodology is demonstrated through the dynamic modeling and simulation of different planar and spatial multibody systems. The outcomes in terms of constraints violation at the position and velocity levels, conservation of the total energy and computational efficiency are analyzed and compared with those obtained with the standard Lagrange multipliers method, the Baumgarte stabilization method, the augmented Lagrangian formulation, the index-1 augmented Lagrangian, and the coordinate partitioning method.     

Cluster computing of mechanisms dynamics using recursive formulation

This paper presents the O(n) recursive algorithm for forward dynamics of closed loop kinematic chains adapted to parallel computations on a cluster of workstations. The Newton–Euler equations of motion are formulated in terms of relative coordinates. Closed loop kinematic chains are transformed into open loop chains by cut joint technique. Cut joint constraint and Lagrange multipliers are introduced to complete the equations of motion. Constraint stabilization is performed using the Baumgarte stabilization technique with application to multibody systems with large number of degrees of freedom. Numerical simulations are carried out to study the influence of the degrees of freedom of the multibody system on computational efficiency of the algorithm using the Message Passing Interface (MPI). We also consider the ways of minimization of communication overhead which has significant impact on efficiency in case of cluster computing.     

Methods for constraint violation suppression in the numerical simulation of constrained multibody systems – A comparative study

Multibody systems are frequently modeled as constrained systems, and the arising governing equations incorporate the closing constraint equations at the acceleration level. One consequence of accumulation of integration truncation errors is the phenomenon of violation of the lower-order constraint equations by the numerical solutions to the governing equations. The constraint drift usually tends to increase in time and may spoil reliability of the simulation results. In this paper a comparative study of three methods for constraint violation suppression is presented: the popular Baumgarte’s constraint violation stabilization method, a projective scheme for constraint violation elimination, and a novel scheme patterned after that proposed recently by Braun and Goldfarb [D.J. Braun, M. Goldfarb, Eliminating constraint drift in the numerical simulation of constrained dynamical systems, Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Engrg., 198 (2009) 3151–3160]. The methods are confronted with respect to simplicity in applications, numerical effectiveness and influence on accuracy of the constraint-consistent motion.     

Subsystem synthesis method with approximate function approach for a real-time multibody vehicle model

This paper presents the subsystem synthesis method with approximate function approach for a real-time multibody vehicle dynamics model. In the subsystem synthesis method, equations of motion for the car body of a vehicle and the equations of motion for suspension subsystems are formed separately for efficient computation. Joint coordinates are used to construct suspension subsystem equations of motion. Since these joint coordinates must satisfy the loop closure constraint equations that represent suspension linkage kinematics, they are not all independent. Using the generalized coordinate partitioning method, suspension subsystem equations of motion can be represented only in terms of independent generalized coordinates. To represent dependent coordinates as a function of independent coordinates in the generalized coordinate partitioning method, expensive numerical approaches, such as the Newton–Raphson method, must be applied. For real-time computation of the multibody vehicle model, an approximate function approach is proposed to express the dependent coordinates as polynomial functions of the independent coordinates within the framework of the subsystem synthesis method. Different orders of candidate polynomial functions are investigated for solution accuracy. Efficiency of the proposed method has been studied theoretically by counting arithmetic operators. By measuring actual CPU times of the simulations with a quarter car and a full car model, efficiency of the proposed method has also been investigated.     

Rank-one LMI approach to simultaneous stabilization of linear systems

Following a polynomial approach to control design, the simultaneous stabilization by a controller of given fixed order of a family of SISO linear systems is interpreted as an NP-hard BMI feasibility problem. Upon formulating this BMI problem as an LMI problem with an additional non-convex rank constraint, two simultaneous stabilization methods are then proposed. The first method is a heuristic algorithm performing rank minimization by potential reduction. The second method hinges upon necessary conditions and sufficient conditions for simultaneous stabilization derived from geometric properties of the intersection of a set of ellipsoids. Both methods are then illustrated by numerical examples.     

基于祖冲之类方法的多体动力学方程保能量保约束积分

针对一类多体动力学问题导出的微分-代数方程,提出一种保能量、保约束的算法.该算法基于祖冲之类方法和欧拉中点保辛差分,利用祖冲之类方法保证在时间格点上精确满足约束方程,避免约束违约问题;并进一步证明该算法在时间格点上可以精确保能量.数值算例进一步验证该算法的可靠性.     

基于祖冲之类方法的多体动力学方程保能量保约束积分

针对一类多体动力学问题导出的微分 代数方程,提出一种保能量、保约束的算法.该算法基于祖冲之类方法和欧拉中点保辛差分,利用祖冲之类方法保证在时间格点上精确满足约束方程,避免约束违约问题;并进一步证明该算法在时间格点上可以精确保能量.数值算例进一步验证该算法的可靠性.     

Stabilization Methods for the Integration of DAE in the Presence of Redundant Constraints

The use of multibody formulations based on Cartesian or naturalcoordinates lead to sets of differential-algebraic equations that haveto be solved. The difficulty in providing compatible initial positionsand velocities for a general spatial multibody model and the finiteprecision of such data result in initial errors that must be correctedduring the forward dynamic solution of the system equations of motion.As the position and velocity constraint equations are not explicitlyinvolved in the solution procedure, any integration error leads to theviolation of these equations in the long run. Another problem that isvery often impossible to avoid is the presence of redundant constraints.Even with no initial redundancy it is possible for some systems toachieve singular configurations in which kinematic constraints becometemporarily redundant. In this work several procedures to stabilize thesolution of the equations of motion and to handle redundant constraintsare revisited. The Baumgarte stabilization, augmented Lagrangian andcoordinate partitioning methods are discussed in terms of theirefficiency and computational costs. The LU factorization with fullpivoting of the Jacobian matrix directs the choice of the set ofindependent coordinates, required by the coordinate partitioning method.Even when no particular stabilization method is used, a Newton–Raphsoniterative procedure is still required in the initial time step tocorrect the initial positions and velocities, thus requiring theselection of the independent coordinates. However, this initialselection does not guarantee that during the motion of the system otherconstraints do not become redundant. Two procedures based on the singlevalue decomposition and Gram–Schmidt orthogonalization are revisited forthe purpose. The advantages and drawbacks of the different procedures,used separately or in conjunction with each other and theircomputational costs are finally discussed.     

An Efficient Dynamic Formulation for Multibody Systems

The objective of this article is to present an efficient extension ofRosenthal's order-n algorithm to multibody systems containing closedloops. The equations of motion are created by using relative coordinatesand partial velocity theory. Closed topological loops are handled by cutjoint technique. The set of constraint equations of cut joints isadjoined to the system's equation of motion by using Lagrangemultipliers. This results in the equation of motion as adifferential-algebraic equation (DAE) rather than an ordinarydifferential equation. This DAE is then solved by applying the extendedRosenthal's order-n algorithm proposed in this article. While solvingDAE, violation of the kinematic constraint equations of cut joints iscorrected by coordinate projection method. Some numerical simulationsare carried out to demonstrate efficiency of the proposed method.     

Comparing double-step and penalty-based semirecursive formulations for hydraulically actuated multibody systems in a monolithic approach

The simulation of mechanical systems often requires modeling of systems of other physical nature, such as hydraulics. In such systems, the numerical stiffness introduced by the hydraulics can become a significant aspect to consider in the modeling, as it can negatively effect to the computational efficiency. The hydraulic system can be described by using the lumped fluid theory. In this approach, a pressure can be integrated from a differential equation in which effective bulk modulus is divided by a volume size. This representation can lead to numerical stiffness as a consequence of which time integration of a hydraulically driven system becomes cumbersome. In this regard, the used multibody formulation plays an important role, as there are many different procedures for the constraint enforcement and different sets of coordinates to choose from. This paper introduces the double-step semirecursive approach and compares it with a penalty-based semirecursive approach in case of coupled multibody and hydraulic dynamics within the monolithic framework. To this end, hydraulically actuated four-bar and quick-return mechanisms are analyzed as case studies. The two approaches are compared in terms of the work cycle, energy balance, constraint violation, and numerical efficiency of the mechanisms. It is concluded that the penalty-based semirecursive approach has a number of advantages compared with the double-step semirecursive approach, which is in accordance with the literature.

     

Initial condition correction in multibody dynamics

A simple procedure is presented to correct initial conditions for the coordinates and velocities prior to performing a kinematic or forward dynamic analysis of multibody systems. Such corrections are crucial since slight amount of constraint violations at the start of any numerical integration of equations of motion can lead to erroneous results. The correction process is based on the well-known method of minimizing the sum-of-squares of adjustments in the coordinates or velocities. The process provides a solution that is closest to the estimated values. It should be a simple task to implement this methodology as a preprocessing step for any kinematic or forward dynamic analysis program regardless of the formulation. Commemorative Contribution.     

逆向工程中约束驱动数据点云曲面特征优化

为了获得产品原始设计意图,提高重构模型的整体质量,提出一种实用的逆向工程中约束驱动数据点云曲面特征优化方法,其中包括约束分解和有效的数值求解.在约束分解部分,通过设计结构矩阵分割算法消除几何约束系统中曲面特征间的耦合约束,提出了基于多尺度特征的凝聚算法来实现几何约束系统的简化和分解;在数值求解部分,基于罚函数法建立了约束优化的数学模型,采用BFGS法进行了数值求解.对优化后的逼近误差与约束满足误差进行分析的结果表明,采用文中方法可以低数量级的逼近误差的放大,实现约束满足误差的减小,获得一种全局优化的结果.     

不确定广义系统的时滞依赖鲁棒镇定

研究不确定广义系统的时滞依赖鲁棒镇定问题。利用Lyapunov泛函方法,得到一个线性矩阵不等式(LMIs)形式的时滞依赖稳定与镇定判据。新方法考虑一些以前方法中通常忽略的有用的项,引入一些自由权重矩阵,估计Lyapunov泛函导数的上界;再用凸优化算法,进一步给出状态反馈控制器的设计方法。最后通过两个仿真示例表明了新方法的有效性。     

Modeling and simulation of the nonsmooth planar rigid multibody systems with frictional translational joints

The main purpose of this paper is to present a modeling and simulation method for the rigid multibody system with frictional translational joints. The small clearance between a slider and guide is considered. The geometric constraints of the translational joints are treated as bilateral constraints and the impacts between sliders and guides are neglected when the clearance sizes of the translational joints are very small. The contact situations of the normal forces acting on the sliders are described by inequalities and complementarity conditions, while the frictional contacts are characterized by a set-valued force law of the type of Coulomb’s law for dry friction. The dynamic equations of the multibody systems with normal and tangential contact forces are written on the acceleration-force level using the Lagrange multiplier technique. The problem of the transitions of the contact situation of the normal forces acting on sliders and the transitions of the stick-slip of the sliders in the system is formulated as a horizontal linear complementarity problem (HLCP), which is solved by event-driven method. Baumgarte’s stabilization method is used to decrease the constraint drift. Finally, two typical mechanisms are considered as demonstrative application examples. The numerical results obtained show some dynamical behaviors of the systems with frictional translational joints and constraint stabilization effect.     

A bicycle model for education in multibody dynamics and real-time interactive simulation

This paper describes the use of a bicycle model to teach multibody dynamics. The bicycle motion equations are first obtained as a DAE system written in terms of dependent coordinates that are subject to holonomic and non-holonomic constraints. The equations are obtained using symbolic computation. The DAE system is transformed to an ODE system written in terms of a minimum set of independent coordinates using the generalised coordinates partitioning method. This step is taken using numerical computation. The ODE system is then numerically linearised around the upright position and eigenvalue analysis of the resulting system is performed. The frequencies and modes of the bicycle are obtained as a function of the forward velocity which is used as continuation parameter. The resulting frequencies and modes are compared with experimental results. Finally, the non-linear equations of the bicycle are used to create an interactive real-time simulator using Matlab-Simulink. A series of issues on controlling the bicycle are discussed. The entire paper is focussed on teaching engineering students the practical application of analytical and computational mechanics using a model that being simple is familiar and attractive to them.     

具有未知参数的非线性系统动态优化

针对具有未知参数和不等式路径约束的非线性系统动态优化问题,提出一种新颖有效的数值求解方法.首先,将未知参数视为一个动态优化问题的决策变量;其次,利用多重打靶法将无限维的含未知参数动态优化问题转化为有限维的非线性规划问题,进而在不等式路径约束违反的时间段内,用有限多个内点约束替代原不等式路径约束;然后,用内点法求解转化后的非线性规划问题,在路径约束违反的一定容许度下,经过有限多次步数迭代后得到未知参数值的同时得到控制策略,并在理论上对所提出算法的收敛性进行相应证明;最后,对两个经典的含未知参数非线性系统的动态优化问题进行数值仿真以验证所提出算法的有效性.     

Non-linear dynamics of flexible multibody systems

In this work we set to examine several important issues pertinent to currently very active research area of the finite element modeling of flexible multibody system dynamics. To that end, we first briefly introduce three different model problems in non-linear dynamics of flexible 3D solid, a rigid body and 3D geometrically exact beam, which covers the vast majority of representative models for the particular components of a multibody system. The finite element semi-discretization for these models is presented along with the time-discretization performed by the mid-point scheme. In extending the proposed methodology to modeling of flexible multibody systems, we also present how to build a systematic representation of any kind of joint connecting two multibody components, a typical case of holonomic contraint, as a linear superposition of elementary constraints. We also indicate by a chosen model of rolling contact, an example of non-holonomic constraint, that the latter can also be included within the proposed framework. An important aspect regarding the reduction of computational cost while retaining the consistency of the model is also addressed in terms of systematic use of the rigid component hypothesis, mass lumping and the appropriate application of the explicit-implicit time-integration scheme to the problem on hand. Several numerical simulations dealing with non-linear dynamics of flexible multibody systems undergoing large overall motion are presented to further illustrate the potential of presented methodology. Closing remarks are given to summarize the recent achievements and point out several directions for future research.