Kineto-elastodynamic analysis of mechanisms by finite element method

In the present paper a systematic finite element method for kineto-elastodynamic analysis of high speed mechanisms has been presented. Effects of number of divisions have been investigated and it is found that a certain minimum number of divisions of links is necessary to yield accurate results. A new approach for eliminating the singularity in the stiffness matrices of mechanisms has been developed and it has been shown in this paper that this new approach yields improved results with negligible additional effort. Finite element expressions for the coriolis, tangential and normal components of elastic accelerations have been derived for a moving link and a new geometric stiffness matrix has been developed to include the effects of the rigid body pinforces and the distributed axial rigid body inertia forces on the transverse vibrations of the links. The method has been further extended to take into account the nonlinear elastic axial forces. Several examples have been solved.