Computationally Efficient Algorithms for Flexible Multibody Dynamics Simulations
Speaker: Arun Banerjee, Retired Research Scientist
Presentation
Abstract
Spacecraft deploying tethered satellites, antenna booms, solar panels, robots moving in many ground operations, as well as ships deploying cables to underwater vehicles doing sea-floor mine search provide a sweeping array of applications of flexible multibody dynamics. Analysis for design of these applications is a complex subject, that requires mathematical modeling of a system of hinge-connected elastic bodies going through large rigid body motion together with small vibration. While classical analytical methods to derive the motion equations have been in use since the beginning of the Space Age, in the last thirty there has been a revolution in the field, showing the pitfalls of those methods. In particular, it was shown that in terms of labor in deriving the equations of motion, Kane’s method, presented in the mid-sixties, requires the least labor and produces the simplest final equations, simplicity of equations meaning reduced computer time. For flexible bodies, a recursive formulation of the method leads to block-diagonal matrix differential equations. Errors of premature linearization with use of vibration mode coordinates, pervasive in the literature of the seventies, have also been eliminated by incorporating motion-induced geometric stiffness of structures. The speaker was a major player in the unfolding of these ideas, and has written a book on the subject, Flexible Multibody Dynamics, being brought out by John Wiley & Sons. While a serious study of the material requires a short course of twelve lectures, this lecture gives an overview of the developments.
Biography
Arun Banerjee worked at Northrop, Martin-Marietta, and Lockheed before his retirement in 2010. He has given lectures in flexible multibody dynamics at the European Space Agency, and at the International Congresses in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Warsaw (2004) and Adelaide (2008). He holds Ph.D. degrees, from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and the University of Florida, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Calcutta University.