Simulation of Wheels in Nonlinear,Flexible Multibody Systems

This paper is concerned with the modeling of wheels within the framework of finite element-based dynamic analysis of nonlinear, flexible multibody systems. The overall approach to the modeling of wheels is broken into four distinct parts: a purely kinematic part describing the configuration of the wheel and contacting plane, a unilateral contact condition giving rise to a contact force, the friction forces associated with rolling and/or sliding, and a model of the deformations in the wheel tire. The formulation of these various aspects of the problem involves a combination of holonomic and non-holonomic constraints enforced via the Lagrange multiplier technique. This work is developed within the framework of energy-preserving and decaying time integration schemes that provide unconditional stability for nonlinear, flexible multibody systems involving wheels. Strategies for dealing with the transitions from rolling to sliding and vice-versa are discussed and are found to be more efficient than the use of a continuous friction law. Numerical examples are presented that demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed approach.