New and Extended Applications of the Divide-and-Conquer Algorithm for Multibody Dynamics

This work presents a survey of the current and ongoing research by the authors who use the divide-and-conquer algorithm (DCA) to reduce the computational burden associated with various aspects of multibody dynamics. This work provides a brief discussion of various topics that are extensions of previous DCA-based algorithms or novel uses of this algorithm in the multibody dynamics context. These topics include constraint error stabilization, spline-based modeling of flexible bodies, model fidelity transitions for flexible-body systems, and large deformations of flexible bodies. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the "Advances in the Application of the DCA to Multibody System Dynamics" text as the notation used in this work is explained therein and provides a summary of how the DCA has been used previously.