Analysis of joint clearances in multibody systems

A methodology for the study of typical smooth joint clearances in multibody systems is presented. The proposed approach takes advantage of the analytical definition of the material surfaces defining the clearance, resulting in a formulation where the gap does not play a central role, as it happens in standard contact models. The contact forces are formulated in conserving form, such that the balance of total energy during the intermittent contact is exactly established in the discrete time integration scheme. Some numerical applications are presented, showing that the proposed methodology is very stable in long-term simulations with relatively large time step sizes. Therefore, it appears to be promising in terms of efficiency and robustness for the numerical analysis of real joints with clearances.