Superelements Modelling in Flexible Multibody Dynamics

We present a new implementation of substructuring methods forflexible multibody analysis. In previous developed formulations, wefixed the local axes of the superelement to one node. In thisformulation, the reference frame is floating and close, in some sense,to the body center. The local frame is selected based on the positionsof the interface nodes of the superelement, and completely independentof the order in which the nodes of the superelement are given.Therefore, the superelement itself depends only on the nodes positions,and on the mass and stiffness properties, thus allowing a very easyinterfacing between the finite element program which computed thesuperelement and the mechanism analysis program.