Modeling of Mechanical Systems Using Rigid Bodies and Transmission Line Joints

Dynamic simulation of systems, where the differential equations of the system are solved numerically, is a very important tool for analysis of the detailed behavior of a system. The main problem when dealing with large complex systems is that most simulation packages rely on centralized integration algorithms. For large scale systems, however, it is an advantage if the system can be partitioned in such a way that the parts can be evaluated with only a minimum of interaction. Using transmission line models, with distributed parameters, physically motivated pure time delays are introduced in the communication between components. These models can be used to represent both lines in a hydraulic system and springs in mechanical systems. As a result, components and subsystems can be simulated more independently of each other. In this paper it is shown how flexible joints based on transmission line modeling (TLM) with distributed parameters can be used to simplify modeling of large mechanical link systems interconnected with other physical domains. Furthermore, it provides a straightforward formulation for parallel processing.