An advisory system for the analysis and design of deformable beam-type multi-body systems

Multi-body systems can be used to model mechanisms, robots and many other mechanical assemblies. When these devices are subjected to high-speed and high accuracy requirements, their elastic behavior will merit thorough investigation. The finite element analysis and design of deformable multi-body systems is a very complex, iterative process requiring a high level of expertise and engineering intuition. This paper presents an advisory system developed to help a designer with the key parameters through the analysis, design, and validation processes. The related knowledge such as to determine the optimum parameters for mesh, time step, type of analysis, type of element, the numerical integration scheme and the corresponding parameters, and the design considerations such as material selection method, and geometric synthesis algorithm are also documented.