THE EFFECT OF FRICTION ON MULTIBODY DYNAMICS

This paper discusses the nature of frictional effects on multibody dynamics and the influence of the effects on the numerical analysis of systems with friction. The joints in a multibody system are modelled as nonideal (friction-affected) constraints, and a general and easy manipulation method of the mathematical modelling of the problem in absolute variables is proposed. The governing equations arising are highly nonlinear differential-algebraic equations (DAEs). Two approaches to the numerical solution of the equations are discussed: using the DAE solvers directly and introducing a symbolic-numerical procedure of converting the DAEs into a smaller set of equations. Some variant formulations of the governing equations concerning the two approaches are demonstrated and discussed. The theoretical considerations are illustrated by a simple example.